John Mayer Squared

Enthusiasm is contagious. That’s why songwriters with genuine passion for their craft can’t help but attract an audience.

"The very nature of standing in front of a microphone with a guitar that’s in tune, the millions of songs that could happen at that moment—I love that! The best feeling I will ever have in my life is just walking, just being, the night that I finish a song."

Ladies and gentlemen…John Mayer.

No, he is not a stowaway from the Dave Matthews Band. He’s the new kid in ‘Potential Superstardom’ town. The smoky swagger in his voice is only an added bonus to the warm stage presence and formidable music force that John Mayer has established through the years since his debut album Inside Wants Out, which proves him to be very deserving of his next album Room For Squares.

John Mayer started his musical journey as a kid, listening to pop radio while growing up in Connecticut. He discovered the blues at 13, when a neighbor gave him a Stevie Vaughan Ray tape. He easily adapted to his melodic and fell in love with it. That’s when he decided to pick up a guitar and begin to live and experience music. At 19, he enrolled at Berkley College of Music in Boston but realized a few months after that he was more interested in playing music than studying it. "It was a great learning experience, but I’m not referring to the classes," he laughs.

Within two years, John was already performing at local blues bars, stunning audiences with his ability to play with such skill at such a young age. But being the free spirit he was, he realized that the world of guitar virtuosity wasn’t really for him. He claims, "There’s this really distracting glory in wanting to be the best guitar player because all that really is, is copying somebody. Seeing who can play ‘Sky is Crying’ better than the next guy."

Mayer says that he just wants something that people would be able to appreciate listening to and play tunes that other people may be able to play…but far from the way he plays them. (You can’t fault the guy for wanting to be original.) It’s more than a given than the music industry is this vast playground where everyone is struggling for a piece of the limelight. But this guy has worked really hard to fulfill his dreams and has dedicated himself entirely to his love for music. He has touched on all fields of music, focusing on enhancing his songwriting skills after getting really good at being a solo guitarist.

Off to the South he went when a friend from Atlanta convinced him to move. It proved to be a really great opportunity for him because he easily became a regular at an Atlanta songwriter’s nightspot called Eddie’s Attic. This didn’t just gain him gigs but lots of interesting connections. A year after that, he released Inside Wants Out, an album consisting mostly of solo acoustic renditions of his energetic, earnest songs, as well as several tracks recorded with a full band. The local press and the Atlanta Journal Constitution instantly saw the makings of a star. They described him as "sophisticated, accessible folk rock sounds dominated by striking acoustic guitar playing, video-ready looks and a sizeable grass-roots following born in clubs across the South".

His popularity kept him jumping from one window of opportunity to another until he met producer John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, Ben Folds Five) who gave him the ultimate break…his new album Room For Squares.

Evolving from being just a solo acoustic guitarist, Mayer is really excited about Room For Squares which is a full-band electric effort. Recording this album has allowed him space to grow as an artist, able to experiment with new things. "I have been labeled an acoustic musician and that was only because I didn’t have a band, and I refused to have a bad band." Mayer explains, "People won’t really understand what Inside Wants Out was until this next record comes out. I think we’re making a good record that’s gonna be a fulfillment of what the songs were supposed to be in the first place."

It’s the dedication to his songs and that hunger to fulfill his real passion for music that inspires Mayer to keep writing, "When you hear a great song, you trace it back to who the singer is," he says. "When you can offer people that piece of you, that’s what keeps them listening to you."