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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Mike Posner
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 3 November 2010
Having made a name for himself with a series of mixtapes while he was still at university, picking up fans including Kanye West and Jay-Z, upon graduation Mike Posner was quickly snapped up by Sony’s RCA division. With a sound mixing pop, dance and hip hop, he is currently at number five in the UK singles chart with ‘Cooler Than Me’, and is set to release his debut album, ’31 Minutes To Takeoff’, on 28 Feb next year. We caught up with Mike to ask the Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started out making beats in my mom’s basement when I was thirteen years old. I was producing hip hop music for other artists for eight years, be it for my friends or for other artists as I got older. In the end I got sick of giving ideas to other people so started singing tracks myself around two years ago.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Real life. I truly believe people can tell the difference between artists singing something that someone wrote for them against their own tracks that mean something to them. Most of my songs are about relationships. Relationships with a few different girls, as well as my own relationship with time. I remember reading history books at school and being terrified of not being in one of them one day.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I really focus on chords and melodies. All my songs are written on the piano. If you sing any of my songs just on the piano they sound awesome. Once we’ve got the chords and the melodies fine-tuned we start producing around what is already a great song.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
There are about a hundred million artists which influence my work, but to name just a few that I really love, I’d have to say Paul Simon, Nas and Luther Vandross
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Prepare to have your mind blown!
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
I plan on having flags in my clouds! I’ve already achieved a big ambition and that was to create a work of art that sounds like nothing else out there, so I just hope that people will listen to it and like it. But admittedly the toughest critic is myself.
MORE>> www.mikeposner.com
