John Mayer is fairly certain about what his real responsibility is as an artist.
“It is to stay true enough to myself to let it happen on its own, not to get in my own way and think about what people might want to hear,” says the five-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter-guitarist.
His job, he explains, is to shut off the outside world enough to let himself breathe and do what comes naturally, what’s in his blood. “What is not natural is saying, ‘I really want to impress people right now,’ ” adds Mayer. “That’s a terrible place to write from. Every time I’ve ever gotten up out of a chair frustrated and grabbing my hair, it was because I sat down for the wrong reason. I sat down and said, ‘God, I want another song.’ ”
Many of the songs he does have, and more, are showcased in the new “Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles,” a 2CD, DVD and Blu-Ray package Columbia is billing as a special release. It was filmed at the Nokia Theater and directed by Danny Clinch.
It includes three distinct sets: an acoustic performance, a rare set with the John Mayer Trio (Mayer, Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino) as well as a “Continuum” CD set featuring Mayer’s full band. It is the first new release since the heralded “Continuum” album became available in the fall of 2006 and includes each of the elements for which the artist is known: acoustic songwriter, electric guitarist, bluesman and vocalist.
It offers Mayer’s own hits, as well as versions of blues and rock favorites such as Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow,” Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” and Ray Charles’ “I Don’t Need No Doctor.”
The Blu-Ray disc features a picture-in-picture experience with Jordan and Palladino as well as a live downloadable “Belief” backstage performance. Other extras for the Blue-Ray and DVD include a Mulholland Drive acoustic performance.
It seems most appropriate to offer such an extensive live package, because the concert experience remains a special platform of expression for Mayer.
He views concerts almost on a spiritual level, calling them “a very innate act of celebration, human appreciation and group reveling.” His goal on stage, he explains, is to be able to stand in front of thousands of people “as if I am completely in the moment every moment.”
He is singing what he wants to sing based on the emotion of what that day feels like to him, he explains. “That’s what comes out of my mouth and guitar. That impacts people. They know anything can happen,” Mayer says. “I enjoy getting on stage, being handed a guitar that is in tune, taking it off mute, knowing that the very moment I want to play a note I can play it. People are waiting on me and I’m waiting on me, and I have no idea what I’m going to play. That’s the biggest joy in life.”
He prides himself in trying not to succumb to clichés. “I’m not being trite. I’m not being a parody of myself and in finding a new kind of color to adopt for myself, it’s not this or that: it’s singer-songwriter, but it’s also blues guitar player, it’s also comedian,” he says.
It is about responding to the previous night and the night before that, he explains. “I like giving people something they don’t want to miss the next time. It’s a show with little twists and turns and curves. It has me being silly and stupid and compassionate and completely deep.”
Mayer says his music goes through an evolution on stage, especially after he makes a record and plays the songs for a year. “It will have changed but it allows me to grow,” the artist says.
He likens it to a computer “with a whole bunch of upgrade slots.” “With a lot of these songs, the rim of the top of the cup is a lot higher than what I’ve done with the song on the record so that I can keep adding on stage,” he adds. “I can play these songs on stage and look around in between some of my parts. I can breathe, I can think, I can ad-lib. It’s basically building in your own improv.”
Whether on stage or in the recording studio, Mayer has built a comfortable home for himself
“You get in front of a microphone, you’ve got stuff to say,” he says. “It’s not because you want to put another song on the plastic that’s gonna come out in the store; you say it because you have to get it out, and you can’t get it out any other way.”
When he writes a song about a particular subject, he says he is not doing it because he needs to fulfill a requirement for someone but because he himself needs to. “The question is, ‘Is what I love what other people love?’ Maybe someday that’s going to fall out of sync and then come back into sync again,” he theorizes.
He is philosophical about the subject of artistic continuity. “There’s nothing to reinvent, there’s no rethinking, no retooling, no updating,” he explains. “It’s just more; it’s just continued. People always want to see one record as the calling card, and anything that happens after that record is a giant leap or a transition or an experimental phase. No, it’s not. What if you knew nothing? What if it’s just the way it falls? You make a record and you’re not done, so you put another 10 songs out, and I’m not done with that, either.”
Mayer takes the approach that he has a lot of time to explore his creativity. “I don’t need to be the hippest thing in my day,” he says. “Give me an inch, I’ll make the most of it. Give me another inch, I’ll make the most of that.”
He says he still has a lot to prove and hopefully a lot of time in which to prove it. “You don’t like this one? I’ll make another,” he theorizes.
He knows how to stay focused. “I don’t feel like I’ve got to squeeze from the bottom of the tube to get anything out,” he assures. “It’s just a trust in yourself that you don’t really have to worry too much. All I have to do is not lose my head, not lose who I am as a person and live my life.”