Mike Posner
I believe in the ethos of the remix, like Andy Warhol making a painting of a Campbell's soup label.
I've only had success when I'm not trying to. It's that weird thing where if you're trying to impress a girl, you're not going to impress her. But if you aren't trying to impress a girl, you'll probably impress her because you're not trying.
It's not the job of the art to accommodate me and make me more money, make me more famous and get me more girls.
I think - for a period of time, I did think art was there to serve me, but it took me a minute to reset.
If a song about blowing your shot becomes popular, that's really funny.
I remember being 24 in Los Angeles. And up until that moment, when my mom would call my cell phone and it would ring, I would be flushed with some sort of excitement that we all have - a little dopamine rush, when my phone rings - and I'd look down, and it would say, 'Mom.' It used to feel like a job to pick that up.
I really look up to Louis C.K. I think he's great. And obviously he's very popular, more popular than me. Years ago, I was thinking, naively, it would be great to be that popular. And then I thought about it and then I realized that, with his money and his level of notoriety, he has all of the same emotions that I do.
When I was a kid, my parents were always like, 'Money doesn't buy happiness.' I thought, 'You just didn't make enough money.' I had to go find it out for myself.
I remember I wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be in the NFL or NBA or something, and I don't think I dreamed of being a benchwarmer. I'm sure I wanted to be the best. But I didn't really ever think I was going to be a famous musician.
I wanted to be the most famous. And it wasn't until I hung out with Justin Bieber that the whole thing got demystified. The mystique of it was gone.
I had an initial wave of popularity that, in time, crashed, and I slowly became less popular and less successful, and I had to figure out who I was without those things.
I thought, 'Oh that's what happens. You put a song out and everyone likes it.' Well, then a funny thing happened: I started putting more songs out, and none of them did the same thing.
Just be yourself and be upfront about your expectations and desires. Don't be ambiguous and play hard to get. It doesn't work. You'll end up in the friend zone.
I think that's what makes my music different from other artists in my lane is that I write every word that's on my album, and every word comes from a real experience or a real feeling that I've either experienced or felt. And I'm very particular about that, and I take a lot of pride in it, so you know if I say something on a song, I mean it.
My songs are all personal.
I was a paperboy first, then I worked at a movie theater. But I was a caddie at a golf club, which I didn't like. The people were so bougie and racist at times.
My favorite color is jungle green. At least, that's what it said on the side of my favorite crayon in first grade. I don't know if it's an official color.
I think it should be socially acceptable for men to like 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt.
My favorite television show is 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.'
I enjoyed a cartoon show called 'Recess' throughout my high school career. The target audience for that show was 8-11 years old.
I was trying to maintain a facade of infallibility, which is exhausting. Like, I used to wear tons of makeup because I had bad skin. I couldn't go out in public without makeup on.
I hated the thought of being just a songwriter.
I realized I could do music for the sake of music, not the other things that come with it. That was a major shift.
I have a very wide spectrum of stuff that I grew up listening to.
Some of my early musical memories are attached to grunge.
When I started picking out music for myself, I was a hip-hop kid. DMX, The Roots, Outkast, people like that.
I've always had an eclectic taste in music. But what I try to do is combine these things in ways that others would never think of, like putting Bun B on an Elton John song.
All my music is autobiographical, and that's the reason why people like my music. They know when I'm saying something on a song, I mean it. It comes from a real place and captures the realness in my life.
I wanted to break into producing, so I would peddle my tracks and beats to labels. I always heard the same thing: They liked the music, but it didn't fit any of the artists on their roster.
I came to realize that if I was going to succeed in the music industry, I was going to have to learn how to perform my songs myself.
I consider myself a lyrics guy.
It's important to me that my songs actually make sense. So often, I turn on the radio, and I have no idea what the people are singing about. It may sound good, but when you listen, they're just saying words that rhyme. It's another song about nothing.
I think of the pop music that I've made in the past and hear on the radio as candy bars. And I was really good at making candy bars.
I wanted to see if I could be happy without a lot of stuff. And what I found out was, yeah, I really could.
I remember with my first album, I was so scared of messing it up, of blowing the opportunity, that I blew it.
When you know it's a game, you can have more fun playing it. When things seem serious, you tend to take less risk and have less fun.
It's like, we all grow up thinking it would be so nice to have hundreds of people falling over themselves trying to grab us, telling us we're great, that they love us.
A lot of my friends who I wrote or produced songs for came back and helped me make 'Pages.' It's better than I ever could have imagined.
A lot of people have trouble putting into words what my music is, and it's because of where I grew up.
I feel super, super grateful that I get to make music.
I know it sounds corny, but I look for a girl that has a beautiful personality on the inside.
I like regular girls.
My focus is to try to appreciate the present moment more and more and more.
What I'm trying to do is maintain some mindfulness about being popular - I wasn't so great at that last time around.
You need to stop looking outside and look inside - and it's such a good feeling. A feeling of love and that everything is going to be OK, and all you have to do is nothing.
In my short career, I tend not to repeat myself. I have no interest in redoing something. Sometimes that makes people angry, and maybe it's not the best thing for me commercially. But it's the best thing for me artistically, and it's the best thing for my heart.
I'm kind of like a rapper trapped in a singer's body.
I grew up a hip-hop kid doing mix-tapes.
It's always hard for an artist from the U.K. to break into the United States. It's especially harder for a rapper because hip-hop is such an American art form.
I co-produced 'Boyfriend' by Justin Bieber and worked on Labrinth's album, so I've been keeping busy.