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 "With
any trilogy," says John Mayer, "the third in the series always
blows it open." On his latest CD CONTINUUM the always prolific
singer songwriter guitar slinger meets that challenge head-on.
Mayer's third studio album follows the multi-platinum success of
ROOM FOR SQUARES (2001) and HEAVIER THINGS (2003) and marks his
first turn as producer. It is his most soulful, cohesive
collection yet and he says it's no accident that this project is
where all of his efforts, his potential, and his disparate
influences fully come together. "The night I was recognized for
'Daughters' at the Grammys was the night this record started," he
says. "I knew I had bought the time to really learn everything I
needed to before I started this one. CONTINUUM is not a shot in
the dark, it's not a guesstimation. This is the first endeavor in
my entire life, music or otherwise, that I did not cop out for a
second on." The last few years have seen Mayer maintaining a
frantic pace. In addition to his own writing, recording, and
touring, he has collaborated with icons and contemporaries alike—
Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Herbie Hancock, as well as
Kanye West, the Dixie Chicks, and Alicia Keys. In doing so, Mayer
says his own interests have grown and his perspectives expanded.
Mayer also credits his collaboration with Steve Jordan and Pino
Palladino (collectively known as the John Mayer Trio) and the
intimate-venue tour that produced the 2005 live album TRY! with
helping to recalibrate his musical priorities. "As a songwriter,
the Trio helped me focus on being more raw," he says. "As a guitar
player, it helped me get a lot out of my system. If it wasn't for
the Trio, CONTINUUM would have been less accessible. It let me
settle up with my needs as a musician, and get to a point
somewhere between the Trio record and ROOM FOR SQUARES— and that's
a really good place to be."
While the Trio tour showcased Mayer's blazing fretwork, he
says he learned lessons from those shows about restraint. "When I
made my first record, there was no trust in space because it was
all me, everything was just on those six strings," he says. "With
Steve and Pino, it was all about space, using a whole different
palette. When your tone is good on the guitar you need, like, four
notes. The more concise and right you have it, the less you need
around it." Mayer points to one song in particular as the turning
point for CONTINUUM. "I wrote 'Gravity' last summer, and it
changed everything," he says. "You talk less when you trust that
people understand you. 'Gravity' had to be sparse. And when I
listened to it— for the first time, holding back— then it was a
whole new game. That might be the most important song I ever
wrote." Armed with this outlook, Mayer knew CONTINUUM would tackle
larger ideas than those that defined his previous albums. "A big
challenge was writing about big themes," he says. "I'm not a
better writer in terms of sitting down in front of a pad, but I'm
better in terms of receiving inspiration and converting it into
something 'real' much quicker. I'm just better equipped to deal
with those moments."
 With
the single "Waiting on the World to Change", Mayer
shot for something even more ambitious— something like an attempt
to explain his generation's attitudes about politics. "It's meant
to shed a little light on the inactivity and inaction," he
explains, "because I don't believe that inaction is disinterest, I
think inaction is preservation— nobody wants to get involved in a
big debate in which all the rules and the facts will change so
that they'll lose. So we end up with this other option, which is,
I guess we'll just have to wait for things to get better. Having
announced a co-headlining tour with Sheryl Crow to help launch
CONTINUUM, Mayer is raring to start playing his new material for
an audience. "This record is infinitely playable," he says. "I
built so many corners into these songs I cannot wait to play them
live." Ultimately, CONTINUUM represents maturity, both musically
and thematically, for John Mayer— a concept that he wasn't
comfortable with until now. "A lot of these songs are about coming
to terms with getting older," he says. "My generation was never
told we were going to get older. We thought we were going to hear
our names on 'Romper Room' for the rest of our lives. For a long
time, I was really upset about getting older, worried that things
were just going to level out. "But then I realized that everyone
around me was all getting older at the same time. We're all
fighting it together, and we're always going to be those kids, the
first really emotionally aware generation. When I realized that, I
could relax about it a little bit. And I thought that maybe I can
be the guy to sing about it." UB
Biographical material
courtesy of Sony Records
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