Mayer Hawthorne
Encyclopedia
Mayer Hawthorne is an American singer, producer
, songwriter
, arranger
, audio engineer
, DJ
, rapper
and multi-instrumentalist
based in Los Angeles, California
, USA
. The stage name
"Mayer Hawthorne" is a combination of Cohen's real middle name (Mayer) and the name of the street he grew up on in Michigan (Hawthorne Rd). "Mayer Hawthorne and The County" is a name Cohen often uses when performing or recording as Mayer Hawthorne with other artists. In Cohen's words, "The County" is basically anyone who plays an instrument or sings on his album. It’s also his band when he performs live. Cohen also performs and records hip hop
under the stage name
Haircut, sometimes as part of the groups Now On & Athletic Mic League.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor
, Michigan
, Hawthorne moved to Los Angeles
, in 2008, and was eventually signed to Stones Throw Records
by label head Peanut Butter Wolf
. Originally the Mayer Hawthorne tracks were meant to be just side projects for pleasure, but upon hearing them Peanut Butter Wolf insisted they be made into an album. Hawthorne has had no previous vocal training.
Mayer Hawthorne draws influence from the music of Curtis Mayfield
, Isaac Hayes
, Leroy Hutson
, Mike Terry
, Barry White
, Smokey Robinson
and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier
, Brian Holland
, and Edward Holland, Jr.
(known collectively as Holland–Dozier–Holland). Taking umbrage at the notion that his is a purely "throwback" soul sound, however, Hawthorne also cites more contemporary artists, such as J-Dilla, as significant influences.
Hawthorne has performed with major acts such as Bruno Mars
, Amy Winehouse
and Chromeo
.
His debut single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"/"When I Said Goodbye", was released on a red heart-shaped 7" record on Stones Throw Records on November 4, 2008. His second single "Maybe So, Maybe No"/"I Wish It Would Rain" was released on a 12" record on Stones Throw Records on April 19, 2009. His debut album, A Strange Arrangement was released on CD
and LP
on Stones Throw Records on September 8, 2009.
In July 2009, Hawthorne was featured on the cover of the third anniversary issue of Beyond Race Magazine (BRM)
.
The song "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" was chosen as the Starbucks
iTunes
Pick of the Week for October 13, 2009.
The song "When I Said Goodbye", was featured in the Kanye West
/Spike Jonze
short film We Were Once A Fairytale
.
Hawthorne's song, "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'" was featured in the fourth season of Ugly Betty
in its finale episode entitled Hello Goodbye. The song begins in the scene at Betty's good-bye party when Marc asks Troy if he would like to dance.
In 2011 he did guest vocals for the SebastiAn song "Love In Motion" featured on SebastiAn's 2011 album "Total
"
Discussing How Do You Do
Hawthorne says, “I found my own unique sound on this album, which I'm excited about.” The album has a vintage sound, which involves twelve '70s inspired tracks, filled with orchestral pop and funky bass lines -- "I've taken what I can from the classic heroes of soul and updated it with the music I grew up listening to and loving like Public Enemy and Juan Atkins
and Cybotron." Despite Hawthorne's jazz sound, he first found his musical voice in hip-hop and rap from his father, who plays in a band in Detroit, MI.
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, audio engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
and multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
based in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
"Mayer Hawthorne" is a combination of Cohen's real middle name (Mayer) and the name of the street he grew up on in Michigan (Hawthorne Rd). "Mayer Hawthorne and The County" is a name Cohen often uses when performing or recording as Mayer Hawthorne with other artists. In Cohen's words, "The County" is basically anyone who plays an instrument or sings on his album. It’s also his band when he performs live. Cohen also performs and records hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
under the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Haircut, sometimes as part of the groups Now On & Athletic Mic League.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Hawthorne moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, in 2008, and was eventually signed to Stones Throw Records
Stones Throw Records
Stones Throw Records is an independent hip hop record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1996 by DJ/Producer Peanut Butter Wolf in part to release the music he made with Charizma who was killed at the age of 20....
by label head Peanut Butter Wolf
Peanut Butter Wolf
Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf, is a DJ, hip-hop producer and the founder of hip-hop label Stones Throw Records.A native of San Jose, California, He took on the name Peanut Butter Wolf in the late-80s when he realized that a girlfriend’s youngest brother feared the “peanut butter wolf monster”...
. Originally the Mayer Hawthorne tracks were meant to be just side projects for pleasure, but upon hearing them Peanut Butter Wolf insisted they be made into an album. Hawthorne has had no previous vocal training.
Mayer Hawthorne draws influence from the music of Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
, Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, Leroy Hutson
Leroy Hutson
Leroy Hutson is an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and instrumentalist, best known as former lead singer of the R&B band, which came to fame vocal group, The Impressions....
, Mike Terry
Mike Terry
Mike Terry is a music producer, recording engineer, and mixer residing in Los Angeles, California. Terry grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Terry eventually moved west in the mid 90's and landed his first jobs at L.A.'s The Village, and Sound City recording studios as an assistant...
, Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
, Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier
Lamont Dozier
Lamont Herbert Dozier is an American songwriter and record producer, born in Detroit, Michigan. Dozier has either co-written or produced several US Billboard #1 hits.-Career:...
, Brian Holland
Brian Holland
Brian Holland is an American songwriter and record producer, best known as a member of Holland–Dozier–Holland. That songwriting and production team that was responsible for much of the Motown sound and numerous hit records by artists such as Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops,...
, and Edward Holland, Jr.
Edward Holland, Jr.
Edward Holland, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter and record producer....
(known collectively as Holland–Dozier–Holland). Taking umbrage at the notion that his is a purely "throwback" soul sound, however, Hawthorne also cites more contemporary artists, such as J-Dilla, as significant influences.
Hawthorne has performed with major acts such as Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez , better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an Filipino-American singer-songwriter and record producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age...
, Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
and Chromeo
Chromeo
Chromeo is an electrofunk duo formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2004.-History:Chromeo is composed of P-Thugg on keyboards, synthesizers, and talk box, and Dave 1 on guitar and lead vocals...
.
His debut single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"/"When I Said Goodbye", was released on a red heart-shaped 7" record on Stones Throw Records on November 4, 2008. His second single "Maybe So, Maybe No"/"I Wish It Would Rain" was released on a 12" record on Stones Throw Records on April 19, 2009. His debut album, A Strange Arrangement was released on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
on Stones Throw Records on September 8, 2009.
In July 2009, Hawthorne was featured on the cover of the third anniversary issue of Beyond Race Magazine (BRM)
Beyond Race
Beyond Race Magazine is a quarterly magazine based in New York primarily centered on independent and emerging artists, covering music, film, and other arts, such as literature, graffiti, tattooing, and visual arts...
.
The song "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" was chosen as the Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
Pick of the Week for October 13, 2009.
The song "When I Said Goodbye", was featured in the Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
/Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
short film We Were Once A Fairytale
We Were Once A Fairytale
We Were Once a Fairytale is a 2009 short film directed by Spike Jonze. It stars hip hop musician Kanye West. This is the second collaboration between Jonze and West, since they co-directed the music video for West's single "Flashing Lights" in 2008....
.
Hawthorne's song, "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'" was featured in the fourth season of Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
in its finale episode entitled Hello Goodbye. The song begins in the scene at Betty's good-bye party when Marc asks Troy if he would like to dance.
In 2011 he did guest vocals for the SebastiAn song "Love In Motion" featured on SebastiAn's 2011 album "Total
Total
-Mathematics:*Total, the summation of a set of numbers* Total function, a type of partial function in mathematics* Total order, a common total relation in mathematics* Total relation, a type of binary relation in mathematics-Business and enterprise:...
"
Discussing How Do You Do
How Do You Do (Mayer Hawthorne album)
- Musicians :* Joseph Abrams – Bass* Hubert Alexander – Piano, Piano * Rebecca Bowman – Finger Snaps* Jamall Bufford – Finger Snaps* Kenza Chaouai – Handclapping* Dennis Coffey – Guitar* A...
Hawthorne says, “I found my own unique sound on this album, which I'm excited about.” The album has a vintage sound, which involves twelve '70s inspired tracks, filled with orchestral pop and funky bass lines -- "I've taken what I can from the classic heroes of soul and updated it with the music I grew up listening to and loving like Public Enemy and Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
and Cybotron." Despite Hawthorne's jazz sound, he first found his musical voice in hip-hop and rap from his father, who plays in a band in Detroit, MI.
Singles
- "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"/"When I Said Goodbye" 7" single (November 4, 2008, Stones Throw RecordsStones Throw RecordsStones Throw Records is an independent hip hop record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1996 by DJ/Producer Peanut Butter Wolf in part to release the music he made with Charizma who was killed at the age of 20....
, STH7028) - "The Ills"/"The Ills (instrumental)" 7" single (2009, Stones Throw Records, STH7035)
- "Maybe So, Maybe No"/"I Wish It Would Rain" 12" single (April 19, 2009, Stones Throw Records, STH2212)
- "No Strings" 10" single (April, 2011, Stones Throw Records, STH2265)
- "A Long Time" Digital single (May, 2011, Universal Republic)
- "The Walk" (August, 2011, Universal Republic) (US Rock Songs #45)
- "Thin Moon" (2011, Stones Throw Records)
Albums
- A Strange Arrangement CD/LP (September 8, 2009, Stones Throw RecordsStones Throw RecordsStones Throw Records is an independent hip hop record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1996 by DJ/Producer Peanut Butter Wolf in part to release the music he made with Charizma who was killed at the age of 20....
, STH2219-Deluxe, STH2230-Standard) - Mayer Hawthorne & The County Direct To Disc 2LP (2011, Stones Throw Records, STH2273)
- How Do You DoHow Do You Do (Mayer Hawthorne album)- Musicians :* Joseph Abrams – Bass* Hubert Alexander – Piano, Piano * Rebecca Bowman – Finger Snaps* Jamall Bufford – Finger Snaps* Kenza Chaouai – Handclapping* Dennis Coffey – Guitar* A...
(October 11, 2011, Universal RepublicUniversal RepublicUniversal Republic Records is a record label, owned by Universal Music Group. It is based on the now-defunct Republic Records label founded by brothers Monte and Avery Lipman...
)
Other
- A Few Tracks CD (promo)
- Impressions - The Covers EP (It is available for free download) http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2011/05/mayer-hawthorne-impressions-covers-ep
Guest Appearances
- "All Your Goodies Are Gone" (Dennis CoffeyDennis CoffeyDennis Coffey is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings.-Biography:Coffey learned to play guitar at the age of thirteen, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula town of Copper City...
single) - "Swimsuits" (The Cool KidsThe Cool KidsThe Cool Kids is an American hip hop group. Consisting of rappers Antoine "Sir Michael Rocks" Reed and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll , the group is based in Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan...
Single from When Fish Ride Bicycles
External links
- Liveagl.com
- Mayer Hawthorne on Stones Throw RecordsStones Throw RecordsStones Throw Records is an independent hip hop record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1996 by DJ/Producer Peanut Butter Wolf in part to release the music he made with Charizma who was killed at the age of 20....
- Mayer Hawthorne on Beyond Race Magazine (BRM)Beyond RaceBeyond Race Magazine is a quarterly magazine based in New York primarily centered on independent and emerging artists, covering music, film, and other arts, such as literature, graffiti, tattooing, and visual arts...
- Mayer Hawthorne aka Haircut on A-Side Worldwide
- Mayer Hawthorne Fan Group SoulRnB.com