Give John Mayer 12 minutes and you might find yourself hooked.
A mere 720 seconds to experience “Life with John Mayer,” his distinctive SiriusXM channel heading toward its third anniversary.
Those 12 minutes, Mayer believes, embody the “psychology” of music listening, or, at its most basic level, how songs and moods are interlinked. It’s a skill that is innate to the seven-time Grammy winner behind 23 Billboard Top 100 songs, including “Waiting on the World to Change,” “Daughters” and “Your Body is a Wonderland.”
He takes his channel seriously, popping into the Los Angeles office of the satellite radio provider every week to curate the programming and never allowing his brain, which “runs like a greyhound,” to rest in between, so invested he is in the playlists.
“If you have a magic 12 minutes in the car where you go, ‘Oh my God, I just heard Madonna’s ‘Cherish’ into (Eric Clapton’s) ‘Layla.’ Who would put that on a radio station? Nobody,” Mayer says, casual in a hoodie as he chats from his California kitchen via video. “You cannot build a channel like this off of metrics. There is no computer in the world that can tell you that when you got a buzz on a Friday night in the back of an Uber, that Kenny Rogers’ ‘The Gambler’ will be the greatest thing you remembered about the weekend. Or (Roger Miller’s) ‘King of the Road.’ I hear a song like that and I go, this may be actually pretty cool to hear because even if you’re on your way to Wendy’s on a lunch break, maybe you’re king of the road that moment. So this is my opportunity to overthink all of this stuff.”
How to listen to 'Life with John Mayer' free
“Life with John Mayer” (on Channel 4) will be available free, no subscription necessary, on SiriusXM car radios from Aug. 21 to Sept. 30.
On Aug. 26, Mayer will play an invite-only concert for listeners at the intimate Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, New York, preceded by a conversation steered by pal – and fellow SiriusXM colleague - Andy Cohen. The interview will air on Cohen’s Radio Andy (Channel 102) at 10 a.m. ET Aug. 28 and the concert can be heard on Mayer’s channel at 8 p.m. ET Aug. 29. Both will also be on the SiriusXM app.
Even though the channel bears his name, Mayer is prudent about programming an appropriate amount of his own music, usually three or four times an hour.
“I think if I was Bruce Springsteen, I wouldn’t be demure. But I know where I should and shouldn’t push. There are times I’d be like, that’s too much me. I know how much me is enough. It took me a lot of years, but I now know,” Mayer says with a smile. “Everything I make is more a product of my mind than it is an extension of the records I make. So the records I make go underneath the umbrella of the mind I want to have.
"The trick is that this channel is brought to you by the mind that made these songs. Not, the guy who made these songs is giving you all the songs he made. Like, the same guy who wrote those songs is using his brain to do something different around music. And that interests me infinitely more than brand extension.”
From Alanis to Bowie, John Mayer wants listeners to feel
Mayer likens the programming of"Life with John Mayer" to a “psychology project” and is always listening to discern what might not be working.
“If it interrupts the psychology of the channel, I’ll take it off,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll take a song off because I go, ‘That’s enough of that one.’ Because I want to continually have people turn the channel on and feel something.”
To that end, you will hear Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in My Pocket” next to David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” And Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” into Gregg Allman’s “I’m No Angel,” complete with astute commentary from Mayer about the reverb used on the song to give it the signature sheen of many late-‘80s hits.
Even though Mayer has a dedicated “new music block” three times a week, he frequently slides fresh tracks (Leon Bridges, "Light the Way,” Laci Kaye Booth, “Pathetic”) into the daily cycle.
He also detours to the interview side of radio hosting with “How’s Life with John Mayer,” a sporadic feature where he has been joined by luminaries such as Harry Styles, Billy Joel, Lainey Wilson and Brandi Carlile.
As much as Mayer finds deep joy in curating his channel, he’s a sharer, too.
The dance soiree “Aux Cord Hero with Diplo” airs at 9 p.m. ET Fridays and midnight Saturdays. “Dinner Party with Don Was,” a sit-in with renowned producer Don Was and his eclectic playlist, airs at 9 p.m. ET Saturdays and 11 p.m. ET Sundays.
Mayer is a self-aware host as well. His recent talk-up to Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” was the admittance that he confused Danny Aiello, who plays the father in the 1986 video, with Capt. Lou Albano, who starred in Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” a few years earlier.
“And now you know I’m in my late 40s,” the 48-year-old quipped.
John Mayer provides Grateful Dead fans a 'hang space'
Along with his solo acclaim, Mayer was a respected member of Dead & Company, the Bob Weir-fronted offshoot of The Grateful Dead, since 2015. He says The Grateful Dead channel is among his favorites, along with Willie Nelson’s Willie’s Roadhouse and Smokey Robinson’s Soul Town for added variety.
After the Weir’s death in January, Mayer launched the Sunday night (9 ET) "Grateful Dead Listening Party With John Mayer," a two-hour “place for a lot of orphans to meet up,” he says of the Deadhead community suddenly without a captain.
“Grateful Dead will be remembered for having been around 60 years. And if I had anything to do with that, great,” Mayer says. “But to some extent, I’m going back to my corner. The bus kind of dropped me off, and I get to be a lover of the music. I was on a beautiful ride, but I couldn’t really see the vehicle because I was in it. So where I used to be on stage, I’m now in the crowd with everybody.”
Mayer also shares insights into songs he played with the band, offering a vantage point held by only a handful of people.
But mostly, he appreciates that the channel is “a resource to give people a hang space. Everything we talked about in terms of building that place that you can visit in your mind. It just made sense to have a place where people can go.”
What does John Mayer think about the end?
Posed with the hypothetical of what song he’d play as the finaleif the channelended, Mayer sinks into an extra layer of contemplativeness.
“I’d probably end with the one I started with, which was ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve,” he says after a few moments of furrowed-brow pondering. “Because I would be thinking, this is going to explain to people that hey, I lost the channel, life is a bittersweet symphony. Because I love this channel. I have won the game, right?”
He pauses.
“Actually, I would do a whole hour of songs about the end. I might do ‘End of the Road’ by Boyz II Men. Or The Beatles’ ‘The End.’ But I still think the last (song) would be the first one because the man likes symmetry.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Mayer explains why algorithms can't replace great radio
