Notion Magazine Interviews Mike Posner

Mike Posner did a phone interview recently with London-based Notion Magazine. Check it out below!

After a series of knock backs and some time out of the limelight, Mike Posner returns with a brand new sound, a fresh look and some very honest, modest words with new EP, ‘The Truth’.

Mike Posner has had a rather bumpy ride through the music industry. He shot to fame with the hit “Cooler Than Me” catapulting him into the limelight. Slickly produced, with vocals similar to Justin Timberlake, the song and the album of the same name, was a global smash it and ensured his name resonated with those in the music industry. However, when his single “Looks Like Sex” from his upcoming second album failed to achieve the same popularity as his debut, his record label RCA didn’t want to fund it. Alas he was “shelved” (his words), and the finished material for the album ‘Sky High’ was put to bed. This was unfortunately repeated for his next album, ‘Pages’. Unsatisfied and and unable to relaunch his career, he left the label, also leaving fans bewildered.

In contrast, Mike had massive success writing and producing for other artists. He penned some of the biggest selling records in the last five years, notably for Justin Bieber with the song “Boyfriend”, for Labrinth’s “Beneath Your Beautiful” and the recent smash hit, “Sugar” performed by Maroon 5. Mike has also chance to rethink his own musical style and has been busy writing more material that he is ready to show his fans. His new tracks, available on the EP ‘The Truth’ are a selection of four songs from his upcoming album. Acoustically-driven, and more singer-songwriter in style, the songs have great melodies, lyrical humour and genuine honesty. He’s learned that the music industry can be a pretty rough place, but now he’s back with a fourth finished album, looking far less Hollywood, with a different sound and a load of new experiences to sing about.

We had a great time talking to Mike Posner about his understanding of the music industry, his personal journey and the story behind his new tunes.

When Notion met Mike Posner

NOTION: Hi Mike, so lovely of you to talk with me today. How are you?
MIKE: Awesome, I’m well, I’m well.

NOTION: Your new EP, ‘The Truth’, is out today, you must be really excited about it?
MIKE: Yeah, nice to share music and not just have it on my laptop. It just feels good, you know I’ve been through a lot of label politics the last five years, I made a lot of music that ended up not being released. So it’s a relief for me to have something out there for my fans to enjoy, and get to connect with them over it.

NOTION: Your blog has been quite honest, hasn’t it? You’ve been quite frank about how you felt about the whole situation…
MIKE: I hate hiding stuff, I find it really tiresome to always… judge whether I can say something or not so I chose to tell it all (laughs).

NOTION: You also talk about the situation with RCA. Are you on good terms?
MIKE: Yeah definitely, I’m grateful for it. I chose to operate under the philosophy that things happen for a reason. If I didn’t go through all…that situation, I wouldn’t be here on the phone talking to you. I needed to fail, to find myself. I needed to fail to think about what really matters to me. I needed to fail at the time to become a better musician. I needed to fail to have the space to write the songs we’re talking about on the phone now. So… I have nothing but love for the people at RCA, I think they’re just doing their jobs… I’m sure I’ll work with them in some capacity, probably as a producer later.

NOTION: A lot of your fans are going to be asking you, when are you going to release the music from ‘Sky High’ and ‘Pages’? Is there are plans to do anything with that material?
MIKE: Well, I really liked it. I really would like for it to come out in some capacity, in some shape or form, so I’m working on it. There’s a business that I need to figure out, you know, before I do because it’s on a label….I want to give it to you guys as much as you want to hear it. I’m working on it now.

NOTION: Brilliant. And your new album, you’re pretty much finished with it, right? What can fans expect?
MIKE: Well, I think that we picked the four songs on ‘The Truth’ EP because they’re a very accurate representation of the process as a whole. But the music – I call it singer-songwriter music – new Americana music, there’s a lot of organic production; live drums, live bass, live guitar, live piano that we cut live. You know in “Buried in Detroit” we had a 30-piece orchestra on that song. It’s a different sound for me. I’m very excited about it, personally. I just like how it came out, very much. I’m very proud of it. And… lyrically, I just want the truth.

NOTION: So the song “I Took a Pill in Ibiza”, that’s a true story?
MIKE: You bet ya!

NOTION: Really! What about the song “Not That Simple”. The song tells the story of losing a girl to another guy. Is this a true story as well?
MIKE: It’s a sort of amalgamation of a couple of girls that I’ve known in the past, whose stories got mixed together (laughs). But yes, for the most part true.

NOTION: What has happened to the girls now?
MIKE: They’re just friends of mine. They’re well.

NOTION: Are you finally over them?
MIKE: Yes, I have someone new in my life that is really special.

NOTION: Nice, that’s good to hear. A lot of the lyrics in these four songs from ‘The Truth’ EP, they are very honest. Was it quite difficult to write these?
MIKE: No, not at all actually. I find it… um… I find it liberating. Before, I was kind of making a caricature of myself, and paint myself in my songs where I was so cool. And it just gets tiresome, it’s hard to do, it’s hard to keep up. It’s easier for me to just show all my scars. Werner Herzog said, ‘The poet must not avert his eyes’. So what does that mean? It means that if I’m a real artist, a real poet, that I have to look at the good things, yes, but also the tragic and the dismal and the disgusting things. I have to document them with the same subjectivity that I would the good things.

NOTION: How have your fans reacted to you new material?
MIKE: It seems like they love it, they’re singing all the words at the shows. I’m really glad that they support me as I grow, you know, and change an evolve.

NOTION: I wanted to also talk about you new style. You’ve also documented this on your blog. Do you think this new image goes with your new sound?
MIKE: I wrote a blog about how I don’t wear makeup anymore, I think that’s what you’re referring to a little bit. But, you know, the same way when you change as a man, your music changes as well, and your music reflects that change, my dress changes also. Actually my body changes too. When I was very insecure, I was going to the weight room all the time and trying to make up my insecurities by having really big muscles. It’s funny like, this change is of my soul, of who I am as a person, manifests itself in so many different ways; dress, my actual body, my hair to my music. I guess I worry a lot less about what I put out there and I don’t dress up, I’m not gonna dress up. The stuff I wear on stage, and the photo shoots, is the stuff I wear all the time, now. It’s less stressful (laughing).

NOTION: Are you in a happier place now?
MIKE: Yeah, I mean my emotions are like the weather you know. I have ups and downs like anybody else, but I’m really grateful. Like right now, I’m lying on my back in the sun in California talking to you about myself (laughing). I don’t have too much to complain about!

NOTION: I wanted to quickly ask about your website. You have included some words that some people have said in a section called ‘Hate Mail’.
MIKE: It’s my favourite part!

NOTION: I wondered why you chose to include it there?
MIKE: For me, it’s very cleansing, it’s a way for me to process the hate. And I want to be very… open, that I did not come up with this idea. I got it from one of my idols, Amanda Palmer, after reading her book, ‘The Art of Asking’. You read things about yourself that’s really heartbreaking, it hurts. You know there’s people [sic], myself included, that talk about public figures that we don’t know as if they’re not human. I remember watching a basketball game and saying like, “I fucking hate that guy”, but I wouldn’t say that to his face! It would be a very hurtful thing to him, you know. And I probably would never say it to his face. So we forget that. And I get it because I do it too. But sometimes, I’ll read these things that are really mean and whatever and they hurt my feelings, but when I put them on the website, sort of air it out, it’s a cleansing process for me, it helps me process positive. But I think it’s good for me and my fans to not to be drinking the Kool Aid, there’s some people out there that hate me! You do a lot of concerts that you get showered in so much love, and you meet people after the show, maybe its good to keep my ego in check.

NOTION: What does the future hold for you Mike?
MIKE: If only I knew the answer to that question… haha… Oh man, I have no idea, that’s what’s exciting about life. I really don’t know. Next week, I’m getting in an RV with a couple of my friends and we are playing some Ninja shows across America, which means basically I am taking a road trip and I’m going to tweet out to my fans, I’m going to come to their city and I’m going to play for free, with my acoustic guitar. Who knows what’s going to happen on that trip. We’ll see if I even make it out the other side of that one. I have an album near done on my laptop, [which will] be coming out to ya’ll soon. Other than that, going where the wind blows me, doing the best I can.

Mike Posner is currently touring the US for a series of small, intimate acoustic shows part of his Ninja Tour. Follow the tour’s progress and see his latest news here.

‘The Truth’ EP is out now on Island Records.

• iTunes (UK)
• iTunes (US)

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