Mike Posner
How can a song all about struggling with the afterglow of fame thrust someone into fame? How can a lyric like, 'I'm just a singer who already blew his shot,' give a singer another shot? I don't know... but it's funny.
If they want to party and do all the things I say brought me sadness in my song, with my song as the soundtrack... so be it.
That's why I make mixtapes. That's why I work with Don Cannon; that's why i work with Big Sean. Even though I don't rap, I got love and acceptance in that community, and that's something that I really take seriously and hold close to my heart.
It took me a long time to stumble upon a sound, and I figured out I wanted to kinda sing rapper's lyrics.
My earliest musical memory is of my older sister playing me Nirvana's 'Nevermind' on headphones in the back of the car on a road trip.
People like me for my songwriting and production, not my singing.
I feel like my best music is still ahead of me, and I can't wait for everyone to hear it.
I love the fact that I don't have a real job!
I grew up making music in my mum's basement, and I used to tell her I was going down there to work, and she'd say, 'That's not work. Go get a real job!' It took me signing a record deal to change her opinion!
I try to listen to as much different music as possible - I've always got music blasting in my ears!
I take a lot of pride in my songs.
Nothing means more to me than making the best music and me getting better as a writer and producer... I want you to know I work really hard. The bar is really high.
I'm a big fan of country music.
I struggled with depression when I was in high school, and I remember thinking that if I got a record deal and got a hit song, that it would solve all those problems for me.
When I went to college, I made my first mixtape, and Sean gave me three verses for it. That was a big reason anyone ever listened to my music. I definitely wouldn't be talking to you now if it wasn't for Big Sean.
My favorite Duke player ever is Steve Wojciechowski. He called me one day congratulating me on my success thus far, and I was like,'I appreciate it, but man, please don't congratulate me. I know when you guys start the season, you're not just trying to be 10-10 or ACC champions, you're trying to win it all.'
If my career was a basketball season, I'm in the pre-season still. I'm not blowing everybody out by 40 - there's so much work to be done, and there's no time to really sit and look back and be proud of what I've done yet, because it's the pre-season still.
I was really lucky to grow up in an extremely diverse neighborhood.
I grew up in a city called Southfield, and it's one of the most diverse cities in the country. Just from the different socio-economic statuses and racial and ethnic groups I was around, I was around all different types of music from the beginning.
If anyone has listened to my stuff over the years, they know I tend not to do the same thing twice.
I looked at myself and realized I had a lot of boundaries up about what I would talk about, what was private for me and what wasn't. I decided to just get rid of them. It was quite liberating.
I didn't really experience any hardship like people tend to think of when they hear the words 'Detroit, Michigan.' I think Big Sean is a much better ambassador for the city.
Detroit is in my music consciously and subconsciously.
I realized that a lot of people in my family had sacrificed for me to have the opportunity to go to a place like Duke. I owed it to them to finish. I graduated with a 3.6.
It's easier to make art for a society at a certain point in time with an understanding of what's going on.
I made a CD in my dorm room and put it on the Internet, and my friends blew it up. Within a few months, I was doing shows across the country without a record deal, without a single, without anything.
I want to headline Bonnaroo. I just want to do it more than anything in the world.
I have my dream job. I get paid to make music.
I stay up too late pretty much every night working on music.
I cared too much about people liking me because I didn't like myself enough.
I didn't give myself enough love, so I was searching for it in other places, and it was a never ending struggle.
I was constantly looking for things outside of myself to make me feel good, and I think now that feeling can come from the inside, and that's why I meditate now twice a day.
It's just about being honest. I listen to a lot of stuff that's out there, some of which I wrote, and I'm like, 'Where is that? Where's the honesty?' So that's what I want to get to in my music now.
I think I was blessed with this talent for a reason. No one told me how to write a song, but I'm just good at it, you know. There are a lot of other things in my life that I'm not so good at, but writing a song is not one of them.
I try to tell the truth in my lyrics; write good melodies and make hard beats. So, basically, I just combine hip-hop with melody. That's how I classify myself.
I just sing over hip-hop beats, you know. That's what I've been doing. That's what I started in '09 in my dorm room.
I did rap when I was a teenager - started rapping when I was nine, and started singing when I was 20. I kinda sing like a rapper would sing.
A lot of people considered my career as an artist largely over. Two albums got shelved. But I've made music since I was a little kid, and for the majority of that time, I wasn't paid for it. So I will always be making it.
From what I understand about Shakespeare - which isn't a lot - there was no copyright law when he was writing. He sampled at will, and it wasn't seen as a bad thing.
Tons of people inspire my music, and now when I do an interview, I'm scared to say who they are.
I'm scared to give gratitude to the people that, if I hadn't heard their stuff, I wouldn't be able to make music.
I'll read on Twitter, 'Do you still do music?' Music is all I do, all day.
Honestly, I don't go to clubs very often.
I've remixed lots of other people's songs, from Adele to Electric Light Orchestra to Beyonce, so when my record label said, 'Why don't you give 'Ibiza' to someone to remix?' I said, 'Sure,' because I like the idea of people reimagining art and making something new out of it.
When you're a writer, your song has to resonate with the person you're writing for in order for them to want to sing it. But if you're an artist, you can sing whatever you want.
Avicii's been a supporter of my music for years, and we've been writing songs together for a long time.
There was a time when being loaded and loved and popular really mattered a lot to me. I'd say that when I was less popular, I learned to be happy without those things.
I always wanted everyone to love me, probably because I didn't love myself enough. But now I realize that when you're an artist, you're making the music that's in your head and in your heart, and not for any other reason.
My smiles don't result from good things, they result in good things.Collection: My Smile