A Lot Of People Think I Live

My Dad Taught Me To Play Bass. He's A Bass Player; He Still Plays In A Band In Michigan To This Day. He Taught Me To Play Bass When I Was About 6. I Used To Just Go To Band Practice With Him, And Whoever Didn't Show Up For Rehearsal That Day, I Would Take Their Spot.

I Grew Up In The '80s And '90s Listening To Public Enemy And Mobb Deep And The Smashing Pumpkins. I Don't Even Know What It Was Like In The '60s - I Wasn't Alive Then - So The Mayer Hawthorne Sound Is Taking What I Can Learn From The Classics, And Blending It With My Hip-hop Dj And Producer Background And Punk-rock Bands That I Played In As A Kid.

My Dad Calls Me 'mac' A Lot, From 'mike Tyson's Punch Out' - Little Mac Is The Main Character. I Was Obsessed. I Can Still Beat Mike Tyson On 'punch Out.'

James Brown Is The Perfect Example Of Flashy But Classy. Classy Doesn't Have To Mean Boring. His Gear Was Flamboyant But Without Being So Over The Top. The Cape Was Probably The Biggest Part Of His Persona. He Looked Like Superman.

I Grew Up In Ann Arbor, About 25 Miles West Of Detroit. And When You Grow Up In That Area, You Get A Healthy Dose Of Motown Automatically.