John Mayer Teaching at Berklee College of Music (Full Berklee Clinic 2008)

this guy can do it all he can play he can write he can sing he's got a charismatic stage presence he's been incredibly generous with this this week please welcome John Mayer how are you my name my name is John Mayer I was a student at Berkeley College music for two semesters I was on the unaccredited John Mayer two semester plan which I created and I sort of want to tell you a little bit about it so that we can all sort of be on the same level so you not staring at what you think you're staring at you can stay and who I really am I went for two semesters in fall of 97 in the spring of 98 and there were two very different semesters the first semester I went I wanted to be a guitar player on to be the best guitar player I could possibly be I wanted to win guitar playing competitions I wanted there to be a crown and I wanted to wear it I want to be the best guitar player the best instrumentalists I just wanted to be the best and it was an interesting semester because I never felt like I connected with anything or anybody because I just wanted to be the best it was an expectation that's so broad it is indefinable and therefore unreachable and I had one too many clinic naps I think I was sitting right around there and I fell asleep or fall asleep during a clinic give her that little five-minute clinic doze off then you rob and there were great players I was falling asleep in the middle of I shouldn't have been falling asleep and I really had the question mark well what am I going to do what does this add up to what is all this information adding up to and I went home for the Christmas break and questioned everything I looked back at everything I went do I want to be a guitar why is that not clicking in and I just went back to the pop side of things I went back to songs and I had these two or three records that I lived with one of them was Radiohead Ok Computer and I just [Applause] fell fell in love of that record and I fell in love with Ben Ben Folds Five whatever ever amen and I also fell in love with you know that Erykah Badu live record was y'all and I went well this is what I want to do I want to be listenable I want to play music that people want to listen to and it became a mission statement at that point to go back to Berkeley and be the musician at Berkeley because I couldn't win this indefinable race so I said at the end of the day I just want to be seated on my bed and I want three or four people around me at the end of their day after having heard so many notes and taking so many naps in the middle of the play I just want to be listenable and when you are listening oh there is no race there's no first place second place third place you're just listening oh and this is where it takes me in the songwriting the first era of my songwriting began in January or February of my second semester and I can't say that I went to class as much as I should have but there was something happening there was this definition of myself of my identity all the sudden I found this perfect balance with Berkeley here's the information coming in and here's the inspiration going out and this is the title of my clinic I want to call it inspiration information it's not just the title of a great Shuggie Otis - it is the perfect way to delineate how Berkeley is right for you how Berkeley can work because a lot of people asked me all the time should I go thinking about going should I go was it good for you I don't know if you should go asking if you should go to Berkeley if it's right for you is like asking what can I do with a big 18-wheeler semi truck full of lumber you can do a lot of things with it do a lot of things with it what do you want to build man what are you thinking about coming up with and that's what the information is right now you're getting you're just getting inundated the information truck is backing up by your docking bay and your hardest job here because it's also amongst a lot of other people who are trying to say anything you're doing your hardest job is to convert that information into your inspiration and that's something that nobody can tell you how to do and the reason that there's a science to music or a science to art is because you can't communicate to somebody in art to tell them how to be artistic you can't just go blue purple red green jealousy can't do it it doesn't sound like you need to communicate it so what has to happen you have to convert music into a science so that you can transmit it so we give chords names and numbers and chord progressions and we call it the nashville numbers and we have charts so we have ear training we have notation and all these things so that it can go back into your head and you can convert it back into inspiration and that's what you really have to do and that's what I did my second semester and really found a way to make it click very quickly I wrote a song called Victoria I wrote a song called love soon man on the side sucker I wrote a song called comfortable and I wrote it we see what we're facing 7:37 150 massive in my dorm room I wrote it recorded it mixed it all that stuff in the dorm because I finally found an outlet for all that information and it's songwriting so your songwriter you're learning a lot of information you know how to go one I'm singing over my 1/4 I'm singing my four minor uh one all right that's information that's just information you know when you start writing from information it doesn't doesn't work out you have to convert that information in the inspiration I know that when I go to this chord it makes me feel like that and takes me back to that place it's even great that you're in Boston so you get the information at Berkeley in the inspiration on Newbury Street walk all the way down Newbury Street a lot of you guys are writing songs right now that are about other things they're about I want to write a song about knights in shining armor we're going to song about the days of your kings in anymore and that's cool for an exercise but when it comes down to actually writing a song what connects with people is you connecting with yourself so we're in October right now so you're still in the honeymoon period with being a burglary but within the next two weeks I'm excited to find out who on a Sunday night in the middle of the night gets up and goes where the [ __ ] am I it just starts walking just starts walking and when you do that you haven't you may not have done it yet but when you finally go [Music] [Applause] now we're talking about songwriting now we're talking about song right now we're talking about taking the information taking Pat Patterson's lyric writing class who can teach you the information and converting that into inspiration and you can go anywhere from and the truth is I miss you that's that's what listen Pat Patterson and I will tell you that's great you don't need to talk about and the truth is like a knight in shining armor on a white stallion running across the plains and they don't have to but you could because you have the information and this goes for guitar players this goes for singers [Music] [Applause] how many people in this room are songwriters so you'd like okay thanks so I'm going to address this on a songwriting level for a moment before I do I want to tell you the most important piece of information that applies not only to your musical career but your entire life and I've seen it work and I've seen it not work and as a hundred percent true number one thing you have to do before you set out on any other goal or any other course is to define your expectations number one thing on the outset of every single project record tour define your expectations everyone in this room wants to make it but I question how you would recognize making it what is making it well what do you want to be who you in here wants a record deal would it be nice to ever be nice to have a record deal right we want a record deal okay well what does a record deal look like and what is making it look like would you want to sell a million copies two million copies well okay let's say selling two million copies is like selling town 10 million copies 10 years ago so let's say you say to yourself my expectation is that I want to be an artist and I wanted to put records out and I want to sell millions of copies if that's your expectation great then you sort of skip straight to another questionnaire you know okay if you answered yes - do I want to be a pop star do I want to make music for as many people as possible now you have to sort of change your game to fit the expectation you now have to wonder about is your song shorter than four minutes do you get to your core as fast enough these are these are the things you have to absolutely do and you also have to compromise and you also have to play the game you know who in here thinks that the public is mostly done you think the public is mostly done let me tell you something the public is about 300 million times smarter than you public is not dumb for those of you said yes I want to be a pop star and yes I would like to have a record deal yes I'd like to make this happen the first thing you should know is that the public is always smarter than you if you put a song out you go that's it that's it watch it go like whew stand back everybody stand back it's gonna be a hit it's gonna be a hit it's gonna be a hit and it goes like this who is smarter than who your big smart pop song went nowhere the public just told you they're smarter than you on that one cuz you said you had it and they said I don't think so and you didn't have it so they're smarter than you that's what you have to deal with they're smarter and by defining your expectations if you decide that you want to be a pop star that's not a dirty word it just means pop just means popular Frank Sinatra was a pop star Jimi Hendrix was a pop star lots of people pop stars what kind of pop star lots people with jazz musicians what kind of jazz musician can be you can define the genre any way you want so if you said you want to be a pop star then you have to look at your songs there's also people here who are a little dishonest about what they really want to be and I think if you want to be famous if you want to make music for as many people as possible just come out and say it don't say I want to be in D I'm just gonna be an independent artist and really secretly wish that you wanted to be a pop star because from the from them from the very beginning it's disingenuous there's nothing wrong with saying I want to play music for as many people as possible without compromising the things that I have to be as an artist and that's what I've done so many music doesn't come into the studio when I'm making a record but I also know what's going to be a hit or what stands the chance of being a hit and what just does it and it's the level of honesty with yourself that you have to have before you hand your music out to anybody else so that's sort of what I want to say about xpect Asians if you only recognize success as a record deal and a big fat Publishers Clearing House oversized Tiger Woods check and a dinner and then going to the top of the roof and screaming I made it most of you will be stunning failures I'll tell you right up most of you I didn't do it that way but if you define success by putting out your first record and selling 5,000 copies I'm gonna have sushi when you say yeah I got 5,000 couple when I sell 5,000 copies I'm gonna consider there's a success that's the difference between people who walk this earth happy and people who walk the earth constantly unfulfilled because they've never defined the finish line I know artists who sold 2 million records it's not enough because I never said what making it was going to be they just had this feeling like it was their life they were just gonna know it's not gonna work like that it's just not gonna work like that well I consider that my best record is continuum I think it's my best sort of most solid piece of work and it is because I got to a point in my career where I felt like I was about to get pigeonholed and I'll tell you the story and I don't know how many people know this intimately but they want to make I wanted here's where the public is smarter than you I wanted a song called come back to bed I thought it was gonna be huge I thought it could change people's minds about stuff no I'm gonna make you like stuff you don't like because it's good enough I don't know and the song didn't work and I was disheartened and then they said what about daughters you put daughters out now I had thought again public smarter than me my thought but that's just this little song that lives on the record that's like track 8 it's track not as come when you discover three months saying like oh this is here and they said no they've researched it they really want this to go I think it can be a hit and I was like I don't want it to be a hit I would rather not have a hit with this song because this song is going to pay me for as a song and I gave myself sort of a three strikes in your out rule and I thought daughters would have been somewhat of the third strike the worst thing I could have ever thought it was being the artist where they go the record company says look you give us the three we want and you know we want and you can do whatever you want to do I'm sure there's some songs on Nickelback records it Nickelback loves somewhere in the back there nine ten eleven I'm sure have you got an imagine got imagine there's there's ones on the setlist when they get up to it they're like I can't wait to play this one thank God I was able to write those other three that I know they needed and I don't mind making but okay so I say please I get on the phone with Don honor at the time was I think sort of just the head of Allmusic can't do it Donnie you realize if I do this I'm gonna be sensitive singer/songwriter guy for the rest of my life and I'm too young I'm too young to be anything but a guy who can put out whatever he wants it's it fine fine you know I get it I get it we won't put it out if you don't want him to live it out and it made it out I don't know how it leads but how upset can I be because of one song a year that year for four daughters but something else was at stake which was my identity so one came out and it was a hit and it was another sort of feeling like wow you don't know who I am now now you think I'm even more that because when you put a song on a record it can be anything when you put it on the radio you're saying something about it you're saying this is my racehorse it's what I want you to think of me as they came out it was a hit and it was a funny moment because while it's a hit it's going number one I'm still going who did this so after that I said look I need to erase I need to stop I need to find a different pursuit musically so I can shake it all up and when I tell you about defining your expectations I define my expectation very well on this I said I arted a trio John Mayer trio with Steve Jorah and Pino Palladino I [Applause] the more famous to me than anyone I've ever met in my life those guys when I'm sitting at a table with them I look around I got this anybody realized he was sitting at this table you and I went on it's war and I played in the Blues trio and I did my best I don't think it was the greatest in the world but I did my best and I went into a project and I didn't think it was gonna sell millions of copies and it didn't and a lot of the tension that came out that year between myself and the record company is that they couldn't understand that I didn't want to make a record I didn't think I made a record that was made for four million people that it's okay it's a sliding scale your expectations let's just do this because it feels right and it felt very right and it's because of that tour and because of that exploration that I was able to come back in the studio and learn fully how to take the guitar playing side and the writing side and put it together the best I've done it so far and this is the song sort of I'm gonna play it like they're here behind me so think of it like they're here but they're on mute [Music] Connor is aware that's a friendly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] everything you learn is just raw information what you should start doing is seeing yourself as a separate being from anyone else in this room you each and every one of you now I want to go home and put it incorporate it after your name in your head you are now a being and incorporate corporated you are now going to take information and go oh I could use that for this and don't show your cards to anybody else some guy comes along these sounds like thinks he sounds better than maybe you do maybe you don't but work on your thing and then you can figure out what makes you you artistically and then you can access information when I go into the studio when I sit in with an artist I'm accessing information I'm not access it's like a library I go I'm going to take this out and there's sort of like being a DJ but not by way of just playing everything and that's what I wish people could do more I don't know if you can do a real-time I don't know maybe this is just the time you get everything and you worry about sort of figuring it out later but I think it'd be an interesting idea to look at the information learn it and then immediately start figuring out how you use it or how you don't use it you know a drummer is over playing guitar players on the play singers what we're saying and songwriters over right so it's a matter of how you begin to shape anybody have a jam and I Jam too much and they run out of ideas and they get that itchy feeling on the way home like I just gave up too much like they just somehow sort of empty I played everything and I saw the end of my only musical existence I'm a dirty I was just ended up in the rough golf court I don't know that's that is just a misappropriation of what you know you've just all the sudden got in the bottom of the trick bag and there was a hole in it you just do it we chat we jammed on for an hour I was in an ensemble class the great Dennis Montgomery the third was in an ensemble class yesterday and the song that we were playing on was a great song it's on and on by Erykah Badu you know see look women are like I know this it's two chords they're both sort of the one just a one chord the whole time right now here I come into the step I'm like hotshot hotstepper I come in this video I played a living body of you and I put on the guitar and they're playing this song all right here we go John take it and I'm going like guitar playing one away what happened to my guitar playing and then something came back to me and I said dude you're just playing over a one what can you play over that and I just want you to also stay awake to that one look at the chord arrangement how am I supposed to solo for 30 seconds or a minute or 90 seconds over a 1 I got nothing for that nothing nobody has anything for that it's all gonna sound weird it should screwed up from the get-go it's only play another one so that's where I want to take you into playing [Applause] to sort of keep it all coherent this is a song that when I wrote it I knew two things I knew that I thought it was pretty good I thought it was great I thought it was great and I also knew there was never a chance that it could ever make it on the radio or be a hit would die on the radio and I have songs that I know that was well on while I'm writing I go you're gonna be a quarterback for this record sometimes I go you're just gonna be the kicker you just you just come out for the field god [Music] [Applause] [Music] no I'm not come back I know the world is black away [Music] try to keep an open mind I just can't sleep on this [Music] stop this train [Music] laughing I can't say in the speed and/or I can't honestly won't someone stop this train [Music] don't say don't wanna see my tears one generation is like boy laughs I don't know boom our staff has [Music] I can't take those speeds [Music] Asli was someone start of history [Music] oh so scared of getting old I'm owning an opinion [Music] I've made the numbers came to find a way to say that life has just begun [Music] anatomists he said two and six day you renegotiate stop the string [Music] we'll never stop this train [Music] when it's good it'll feel like it should still around this still safe and sound [Music] Jonathan the window just singing stop this train I can't see speed this thing is I know I can't cuz now I see I never stop this train I'll never stop this train [Music] Oh Isis came home my musics playing home my love laughs we there's information in there inspiration and I could not have written that song if I didn't go to Berklee College of Music that is a fact it brings life to everything in your lead line when you have cords underneath that are interesting you could sing the same thing if the courts aren't right it's not going to come alive and you're not even going to be stimulating your mind as a composer as a singer you know a lot of times you hear a song it doesn't have vocals on it yet and it's sort of like a jump rope going around and you're thinking about how you're gonna get into it how am I gonna sing over it right how am I gonna come in over it that all itself is an art form of how you're gonna change it up a little bit how you're gonna use the juxtaposition of the chords not just go in with the one on the one you know and then it also matters what the music is you're listening to you know you know what I loved what I thought was one of the greatest melodies I've ever heard was [Music] wait and watch and crackers to stop taking no more she practices speech says she opens it don't you know s that as well that's huge huge because it's got the melody and the chordal thing and the lyrics and the phonetics and those are the things that matter you could go you know it's still a good melody so in the assembly line I can't stress enough how when you give for me my guitar playing is sort of the first part of this the steel mill and then it becomes the shape of a car and it comes up here and I go hmm how am I gonna go in over there so I can't stress enough that you have to have compositions that are inherently interesting and I'm working on stuff right now [Music] was it already is round every one of you right now with let me on it I said because it already exists in a very interesting way a very interesting way on the guitar already work in the dead of night no Stefan she's in the eyes [Music] that's how you must construct from [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so it's it's like black jackets like over your cars I don't know and I want to show you one thing on the electric guitar so I do what I want to do is show you for a moment economy I want to show you economy all I did if you break it down alright put it back in a science that's like a crazy what be my nurse us something right and that's like a crazy II minor 7 says something and that's G so call it B minor E minor G a or whatever that crazy thing is I remember it's all color and shape in here now and if you reverse it you go oh I've got a done that I saw this is a great video people waiting out in live and someone said he just like the master of duh duh they're right on the master of done cuz you don't need to know my information you don't need to see me figuring it out you just need to know what the final results is not how I got there so I wanna show you sort of what you can do already with what you know you know so let me get my electric I'm gonna bring someone out in a moment but I just want to do but the right hand the right hand you could go home right now and play the same thing if you look at it horizontally it's very easy you go oh it's just that little figure but start thinking about hitting it on a vertical level hitting it on a depth level so I [Music] haven't done anything I'm just playing in the pentatonic it's all really that's all it is but it's right hand and it's internal timing and you build your timing up it's a fundamental thing instead of going through all the different scales I want everyone to go home and whatever your instrument is just do the simplest thing and just feel it just get a feel [Music] [Music] [Music] now I do so much more listening because I'm not phrasing it because of those dynamics there are really interesting dynamics and this one I want to get to with dynamics for a moment what you're doing right now is you're learning the entire shape of everything all things the shape the entire perimeter of the room if you started shaving it off and choosing what you like you get a you get a dynamics thing so I can go I can I can be late on the four are the two and the four the snare I can go early down turtle turtle turtle turtle dog it's all a fielding it's all a few things [Music] [Music] taesan a blues level so we'll do this in a miner's clean the ear out from the GM go slow blues in Jane a right all right right so so you're gonna stall over it right so let's say you go on the floor it's always cool it started some learning on the floor but you go like this because here's why because you already just went into the higher [Music] you know so I've already gone dynamically I've now shut everything down before that by doing that anything lower than that is now on let down [Music] backwards all of a sudden you've used your trick you've used your and you a sinner you came out like that people would go first notice you go wow that to me she would get a lot of time after that right so here it is again with the pacing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] three times and I've gotten the economy out because I've spun you around I've spun it around and I didn't go to the top all the Sun just because it's so great to hear this man play someone take your time like you've never taken your time and see if anybody walks out because they're bored [Music] [Music] [Music] you have six more courses left if you want that's that's the best our play so that's where that for me lately it's something that I work on Thank You Tom Oh tom because you have a dynamic ceiling all things have a dynamic ceiling and you never want people to see it it's almost like in the spy movies when you put the spray on the lane you never want to show people where your your top is so then you're just working down then you have two more courses look if you ever playing and you go you know like this you're like meeting another one it's all vocabulary I don't want to get into that BB King showing Sue's ass with one note it's nice to do with that more to do with how you put it in a lyrical as Tamil played a lyrical solo that had everybody going talk to me talk to me talk to me talk to me and when it gets to sort of over dynamic too fast and it just cracks and it's just like it's like a personality in somebody you go I gotta take a walk you know and I want to show you how that works on the acoustic because I know a lot of you who are singer songwriters will like I did starting out be playing solo acoustic or gonna do or something so I want to show you something on the acoustic that I think is very important acoustic has a ceiling and it's a very tricky one you play solo acoustic it is the equivalent of being on a television show with closed camera shots it's very close it's very intimate this is the most that you can get out of your couch the guitar that's your ceiling right there you have to work backwards from that you have to reverse engineer so I want to play a song it's going up just out of paranoia and and I want you to see and feel sort of how it's built and gives you the sensation of a full band because of the way the dynamics are laid out and then I'll go into why I think and if you're watching this on youtube and you are a fan you may want to stop now because I don't wanna take a little fun away from you by showing you how I do it but so it's always bugged me to solo on the acoustic guitar I don't like soloing on it I don't like be hearing people bend notes on the increase of the guitar for the simple fact that most the time you just can't bend up to the note and it doesn't sound right to me I know the notes don't sound full so you just have to play by a different rule when you put acoustic guitar so I'm going to play this song for you now [Music] now when I wrote this song I win you're gonna go out there little song you're gonna sell this record [Music] [Applause] [Music] meet on my fridge all misunderstand they say we spend from nothing there there's no way we ever could I would see everything that's going wrong with the world that no silly did we just feel like we don't have the means to pass a bubble [Music] keep on waiting [Music] it's not do we don't care we just know that the fighting fit we keep on waiting with we don't world achieve [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] songs and performances don't always have to be expressions of I'm good I want to show you that I'm good there are certain singers or certain players you can tell that their overall objective is to make sure you know they're good and and this sort of gets into the overplaying thing and it's not like that was the most demure performance I've ever given of a song but people see more about your playing and your spirit and your personality and your performance then you're really smart enough to understand that they do when you're a drummer and you just play [Music] now you might be going like this I know what this is this is just there's all these other things I want to do but to anyone else looking they go that guy's shining through and get that I feel that and you have to give people credit remember they're smarter than you you have to give people credit that they can see the things you're not aware of and when you can do things that don't always Telegraph because what I always say is if you want me to think you're great just write it down on a piece of paper and handed me this please think I'm great I can do that I don't think you're great but I want to feel something and again there's things about you that you're trying too hard to find other things trying to find the newest hottest fastest thing you don't even know what I'm looking at you got to give me some credit that I went this guy's kind of thing I'm like that guy's got a thing believe me I can see into it and everyone else can see into it and if you start thinking about working on that other access of that soul thing that feeling thing and trust that people will see you're good you don't have to play your newest hottest thing for people to see you good I could have gone on guitar so I know exactly where I would it go [Music] okay but then I would have lost it better you know people will see through it people can tell they give him a lot of credit I was just wondering I've had kind of a hard time lately trying to write stuff that is like speaks to people and it is me but it's not really me I'm sure you're trying to write songs that speak to people but they're they're not speaking to people they are but it's more like because I'm saying it but at the same time it's not really me but it's not addressing yourself how old are you 18 18 yeah I think that has to do with a certain you you haven't made the trip inside as I call it truly made the trip inside and that's what Boston is take walks look around get out of the 150 massive Boylston yuichi the building axis of evil' sometimes I got into a I was having the same problem I'm having the same problem now I went in the studio for two days thousands of dollars going to the studio to record a song what I thought was a song and it's just a pretty good idea so I get into a car two hours later the sun's going down it's 55 degrees I can smell wood in the air and I'm on the way up to Boston and I got a Dunkin Donuts and all of a sudden I go wow I got a lot to say and I think it has to do with exploring just getting out and looking around there's a lot you know you're inside at some point your insides gonna go get down here and what you do so here's the thing what's wrong with being able to practice and learn the ability to express and practice on expressing things you don't feel yet because what you're learning is the technique and then when you finally take that information you're learning and put it with the inspiration of them who are my new friends and what happened to my old friends and what it'll happen I promise I promise you you're gonna have your own little like whoa whoa whoa I had it middle of October I was like I get it I'm at Berkeley I know let's send anyone this ultimate look you might hit a little panic thing you might hit an anxiety thing some of you may have already hit the oh I got a walk I got to take a look I got to take a look I gotta take one I gotta sign against that go up that's your inside going get down here which I don't think is a bad thing I think it's terrible at first because you have to sort of make friends with a true as part of the missing in the need not want to say darkness but emptiness and when you finally connect with that you're gonna write six in a row because you're gonna know how to you know how to take that idea God how do I ever do this and that and that why did I get this crappy letter from a friend who says they don't to be a friend anymore why did it you'll know how to express it so I understand the need to want to finish a song and go go into Friday's you know I used to do that all the time they used to love writing a song and going out to dinner because when you write a song when you create something you get this feeling especially here where you're constantly in an identity crisis because you see everyone else doing what they what you want to do all the sudden your chest goes you go you don't have what I wrote and that is the greatest feeling in the world taking a walk because you know you have a song and you're just gonna come back after dinner and finish that bridge Oh better drug than anything I've ever heard about in my life everyone that is the high of all lives you've created something for free that will give you identity and purpose and the feeling of being awake in every way and it'll happen but in the meantime get the house ready for it okay a great question great question its songwriting is something you can get better at it's always a tricky thing because nothing you've done in the past can truly help what you're doing in the future in terms of the inspiration of writing a song I am at the same level of challenge in writing my next record as I was in my last record it's the same game I promise you we go for the same we try to run the same ball down the field to try to get to a song it you cannot prepare yourself it's not a cumulative experience you can't say well you know I did real good on gravity so I'm gonna just do that again here because if that was the case then once I'd written gravity I would have written 30 more like it and it's not the case and it's not the case for anybody here but what you can do is again inform with information your inspiration so that when that sunroof opens up and you know something's about to happen or you books out books to your time I can tell now I can identify a seismic sort of activity that something's going to come down and when you do find that beautiful 90 minutes of those skies parting and you go oh I'm getting the connection you can be more prepared with the information of how to take that inspiration and make it happen but in terms of inspiration rodeo it can't it will never happen you can't you can't ever ever ever ever have a song that you like by just really wanting a song it will a song rewards truth and true need for expression not the need for another song never works what was it about stop this train that made you think it wouldn't be a radio well thank you it is you okay this is that's another good question you just sort of have to understand what the capacity what the expectation is stop this train is okay maybe they put a put it on the radio but they would have added the hell out of it and I didn't want it edited the soul of that song from the very beginning dictates what it wants to be so you don't have to cut corners on it when you write a song that has a killer chorus you may have to do a little selling out on it not to do a little selling out but on stop this train I went this is beautiful and cinematic and lush and I don't expect most people thinking understanding someone's attention span is not thinking they're done it's working with in somebody's mind frame and I just think after it's after you go from disturbia into it's a lot to ask of Joe Sixpack as you would say it's a lot to ask and I want to be able to do all things and maybe me and on that friends gets people into the record to go wow stop is train I never heard anything that I love then instead of going stop this train and what it wouldn't work and I think if you can understand understand it's basically know your audience 101 is what that is I want to ask you another question who here would never compromise there are four success you would never compromise UI good that's the end you do compromise your art first success when people say you go in that office you'll compromise a theme you're gonna walk out with nothing because really what they mean to say is don't compromise the things you can't live without you can compromise a bunch all right you know what I can take that part of the song out for the radio in it I can do it I can do it fine when somebody says you got to cut stop you gotta kind of first now to stop this train then I go I can't do that that I can't do so compromise is huge you learn how to compromise that which you can give away and defend that which you can't and very often they are back to back in sort of a train co-writing is very difficult because you take on someone else's ego as well if you go into the studio and you go to co-write you get nothing not only are you upset because you didn't have anything but you now feel empathy empathy was upset that you went into the studio with this person and you couldn't give them anything which is why I always say let's just go in the studio if it doesn't work we'll just get Chinese food you watch TV for a half an hour and it'll be done it's very it's very difficult when I'm not the world's best co-writer because I don't have that Nashville legal pad over lunch sort of approach like here's what I was thinking about if that's love calling take a message I don't have that but what I can do is listen to people and a lot of times like in the case of Eric and the case of Alicia you can listen to them as a fan and as a fan here's what I want to hear you say what I did I did a song with Buddy Guy that was I've got dreams to remember by Otis Redding and all I wanted to do is hear buddies sing it as a fan I would here's what I'd like to hear so when you go into writing with someone from me I go here's what I want to hear you do and I think for me the most successful writing project I've had was with Alicia on her last record on the song called lesson learned because and I was telling Lisa for for over a year I want to hear you get beat I want to hear you I want you music to be like a painting I think you could do this avant-garde sort of thing as this concept record it's beautiful and take people to because a lot of the lyrical motif is takes place on the street it takes place you know or it takes place nowhere and it's sort of like don't you've done me wrong listen the last time you're gonna do me wrong I'm out of here which which she hasn't done so bad on that but what I wanted to hear was this sort of Geo's he broke oh and now it's raining just to rub it in you go wow it's raining just to rub it in oh I feel so crazy bad and now all the sudden you're in and I just wanted to bring that element my information to her inspiration you know I know by the time you get to in the bridge kills me oh wow not just to hear her to do that I enjoyed a tasty margarita after that bridge that's really what it's about for me as a co-writer I couldn't write a song Faith Hill would call me can you write a song and I said yeah what are you thinking about like what's on your mind what's happening what's what are you thinking about and I didn't end up working because I don't think it was gonna end up being a co-writing situation it was like when you will you wiii make me one and I couldn't do it and I felt really bad and it didn't want to offend her but I couldn't do it because I don't know what's going on in her life I don't know the intimacy you know so I have to know somebody enough sort of take on their mentality and express their mentality in my way so I do have to say that in a conventional sense I'm not a very good co-writer at all I just have to have that affinity for somebody I was just wondering when he knew you wanted to sing your own songs and that you can imagine anybody else singing them and feeling it the way you did I knew I had to sing my own songs when I couldn't imagine anybody else sing and that was a singer by sort of default because I was just starting to write songs put chords together and put lyrics on it and I'm starting to make observations that didn't belong to anybody else and it would have felt dead wrong but so I caught up it's about running changes I was putting records out while I was learning how to say I'm still a major label recording artist putting music out while I'm learning to use an MPC because I want to learn how to sequence just drums because I want to take a J Dilla Pete Rock Detroit sort of drum thing and I want to put tunes on top because so far it's just samples so my new thing that I have to study to get to is to find that sort of you know and how do I find a way that's authentic to go on top of it and put a song on top because so far it's just these whatever those things are what if you could take that bass and that kick you know kick and that happen the way it's late and the way it just goes and put something on top of it and a little lyric chain you know chord changes in lyrics so that's what I'm trying to figure out we are entertainers and we serve a particular purpose for society and that's something I always struggle with is whether I should write political songs whether I should write happy songs or there should just rain something that someone can cry to or laughs to wait about four weeks I'm sorry but oh well I just wanted to especially in this time this critical time what you think your role is as a public I feel like somebody came to me the middle of night and asked me what I wanted to talk about and I sort of spoke in my sleep and now this is what's happened these are great questions that I that I have answers to because I think about it all the time and this gives you a distinct advantage of songwriters is that nobody knows right now how they feel about anything how could you really be expected to write a song about something when nobody knows what's going on or how they feel I think part of that has to do with a cultural climate that is sort of unique but a lot of it has to do with the decades so we're in the eighth year of a decade well you look at 2008 well what's coming in and what's what's going out and what's coming in well you don't know yet but look at 1998 what was going out boy bands were started sort of beginning to fizzle out but there was hot for boy dance then like then like around 2000 2001 BAM Norah Jones me Jack Johnson Coldplay phoom phoom phoom phoom phoom we want to hear things that really address a musical element and an emotional element 1988 who is the hottest bands Motley Crue winger warrant you know I love them all but about 1990 1991 comes Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Mudhoney and Screaming Trees and everybody goes AHA this is who we are for the next day we are really in this moment right now not just politically or culturally musically we are not quite sure what we want to hear but we know we're sick of what's out there now so you have this unbelievable ability you don't normally get to figure out who you're gonna be and how you're gonna change the game because when I came out in 2001 and Dave Matthews Band and David Gray had made it but when I came out in 2001 2002 to 2003 if you were amazed singer/songwriter you were in the bill you were in the door you were getting some so you now have the opportunity that I had 10 years ago to figure out look at what's out there now look at what's happening how do I want to respond to that how do I want to put something out that's going to cleanse people's ears and they go oh yes and I think it's going to come back to some sort of real Supremes or dignity and authenticity and I think it depends on I don't want to say it depends on who wins the election but I think it depends on how people feel about the next four years and I think that people aren't quitting is unhold how to feel how to react so people are a real funny place right now and I think if you could write a song about that imagine attacking that right now putting a song out about I don't know what I feel all I know is I'm not quite scared but I'm not quite excited and I'm just sitting on my hands everybody's just sitting on their hands so how could you be expected to write a song and connect the people when people are sort of disconnected at the moment it's but it's wide open for you you know it's wide open and I think that's exciting I just finished a CD and I'm just getting you know ready to launch I guess like the marketing campaign to get the music out there and what year in Berkeley are you okay yeah so finished it now is started starting an artist when you first started what did you find two very very helpful to market your music to get it out there besides some obvious stuff like MySpace Facebook good songs good songs good songs that's it yeah that's it good song I promise I promise you get on stage and you play a good song like I mean a good song not a song that technically has all its body parts but I mean a tab bang and song a song you will have people waiting outside the door some of them may have business cards some of the majors have bad weeks they just want to talk to you a good song will connect all of the time and that's the difference between somebody coming up to you at Berkeley if you play good melody you play a good seller and a good in Samba and a good cat show and somebody comes up and they're going hey that was great so we get together in placings on what was that thing you were doing you show me that that's all very predatory or taking whether they want to take a little bit and just play with you or take it all and just play what you've got and send you home it's very predatory and something happens when you play a good song for people who aren't musicians and they go they come up to you they go thank you thank you so much my dad just died or I just had they will open their hearts to you right in front of your and you're still sweating and drinking and Gatorade and they're going my dad had a stroke and I don't even know it but listen that song fake and they'll give you a hug that's a hell of a lot better was that a mixolydian I I do want to answer you cry it really is about the song when someone says should I get a tattoo I'm like is it a good tattoo I don't know how good is the product and whether it comes out on the cell phone or it comes out on some new product that hasn't been made yet by the way I will be introducing the new ipod at the end of this but whether you whether you it doesn't matter you're always people are always going to need a new song you are technology proof while people are taking cardboard boxes with picture frames and paper weights out of their office every six to eight months because their technology changed people no longer have Napster announced Verizon cast or it's a black bear people who write songs are always gonna be safe because they're always gonna need what you have how do you do it like how do you with all that pressure so make great music well I don't think that I don't think the two are related I am technically rich and famous but what I have and what Berkeley's given me and what practice and dedication has given me is that fact that I am NOT rich from being famous and I think that's a huge distinction when you're rich from being famous you are there's you are a slave to that thing that's where you go I love myself some vodka here at Pure Nightclub for the next 20 minutes and I pick up my check you know my my musical experience my musical life has never intersected with this sort of public application of media and press and stuff almost to my surprise there were times when I felt so much heat on me from that other sort of glare that I went people gonna want to come to the show people just must be sick of the pictures of me just walking around my head or hide behind backpacks it's got to be over it's good it's got to be over and I would go on tour and there'd be 25,000 people in Houston and not a single mention of it and I'll also tell you this in terms of media I went through an experience that killed my super-ego murdered it dead stabbed 47 times John Mayer as in John Mayer's concept of John Mayer is dead dead and I miss it because it was fun to be like i'm pretty much the [ __ ] but what was that what was that image what did that feel what did I get out of that I got the sensation of people thinking I was cool but who's to say that even this sensation of people thinking I was cool was real I just meant I went to blogs that people said I like this guy and I set it off ahead people like me or you go to a blog and I go this guy's a douchebag you go oh god I'm gonna do free none of it ever really matters none of it ever really mattered and I have this new saying if it happened on the internet it didn't happen the Internet's just the Internet you don't go somewhere there today hey go here on the Internet your ass is in a chair not going anywhere so what's happened to me in terms of terms of media stuff which never killed the music the music has never been at risk I've never felt it which to again to my surprise you go onstage you walk around because I love your music people who hate you on and I'm like don't tell me I they go I once I had lunch a lot of music I think the best buy and I know how so does that mean that what I think people think about me is always wrong and the answer is yes what you think people think about you is always wrong no matter how long it is it's always hi there a little bit wrong or all the way wrong and all you can do and all I can do now is live right here and right here not what somebody wrote and what comes up in a Google News Alert I'm not slave to comments anymore you know the too many people have comments and by the way most these people have comments if I ever went to their house with some sort of track device on what their IP number wasn't in like the door would open up and I'd be expecting to see something that took like this oh hey 49 so I heard that you said that I was a douchebag only want me to sign that for you yeah we can get a picture any innovation it's not really happening all that happens is the people you meet the friends you have the lovers you have your fans the people who exist in your immediate space you cannot control what happens in the ether none of is real none of it [Applause] all right and I'll play you a new song that is second verse isn't done the second verse isn't good enough and the bridge isn't good enough so it's not done yet but because I've had such an amazing experience here where people have opened up so instantly and deeply in playing songs and they just wrote four days ago and just opening up I feel like this is my giving back to you so here's a song that I'm not quite done with you on the sailboat either slowly floating nowhere lasting memories of where I am and where black ocean showed me a million dollars a pound planetariums were brought back the sky wanted a I said I found a journey we [ __ ] on the where to take me for now no waves and I'm taking on water hard to see I will always be there was a time when all the Sun was high and settled on me put intent behind my back in settle down I used to square up for the man used to size it in my head but in family I'm the man that meets the sky or once a pound a day I said I found the tyranny we should on the wind to take me far from home now take it ha to see a woman's be alone inside this stone whipping in the wind my sailors [Music] [Music] our sailboat slowly flowing on with open Sunday I wash up on someone else's show [Music] [Music] gravity [Music] it's working against me and gravely and when it wants to bring me down I am oh I never what makes this man with love that is how can stay dream of way to throw it all away [Music] it's [ __ ] a kiss me now Grandia bring me down Oh two asses much ain't sweaters girl and care to stay like one after it's montemor call send me to my knees [Music] as much [Music] gonna send me to mommy Oh kick me with a ladder's just keep me where the light is just keep me alive [Music] I lost the one on the lubricant desert [Music] [Applause] [Music] keep me where Lunati no keep me where I'm at it oh oh keep me where the map is here keep you over the land where the land was a lie I'll keep you [Music] the matters [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] thank you you

Channel: Dick Mittens

Views: 143,086

Keywords: John Mayer, Berklee, Gravity, Stop this Train

Id: LRmrMDfWkNo

Length: 86min 51sec (5211 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 14 2018