Thirty-year-old producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Mayer Cohen may have only developed his soul alter ego Mayer Hawthorne in the last year, but he’s constructed it from a lifetime of listening.
“I’ve been collecting music since I was a kid,” says the Ann Arbor, Michigan native who culled ‘Hawthorne’ from the street that he grew up on (thus employing the old “porn star name” formula, i.e. your middle name plus your old street name, though Cohen’s dress sense is more “smooth operator” than “swinger”). “My parents bought me 45s before I could even read the labels on them. I’m addicted to digging.”
Cohen wanders the streets of his current home of Los Angeles while chatting with me, downing Mexican food and rattling off an expansive list of soul, funk, reggae, rock and hip-hop favourites. He name checks J Dilla and DJ Premier in one breath, Isaac Hayes, Frank Sinatra, White Zombie and Stereolab in another.
These influences, combined with Cohen’s being taught bass by his father, sent to piano lessons by his mother and learning drums on his own, led to his playing in a variety of bands — as well as DJing and producing hip-hop under the alias Haircut — over the past 15 years.
Until the soul-slinging, doo-wop-crooning Mayer Hawthorne got signed to the Stones Throw label last November, Cohen was fully focused on his hip-hop trio, Now On. The crew was already gaining traction and has just recorded their second CD, Tomorrow Already.
“That was something I was super-proud of and really buzzing on,” Cohen recalls. “This Mayer Hawthorne thing was so secondary, like not even on the map, and then all of a sudden I had to totally switch gears.”
As part of the deal for releasing Mayer Hawthorne’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” and “When I Said Goodbye” as a single — a red, heart-shaped vinyl one no less — Stones Throw head honcho Peanut Butter Wolf requested a full-length to follow.
“But those were the only two Mayer Hawthorne songs I’d ever done and the only two that I ever had any plans to do,” laughs Cohen. “It was really just an experiment on the side, for fun. I wanted to be a hip-hop DJ and producer, but there was just no way I could turn down such a ridiculous opportunity. I had to figure out what this Mayer Hawthorne thing was going to be.”
A Strange Arrangement arrived just 10 months later. Written, produced, sung and almost entirely played by Cohen, the album of heartfelt soul originals, as well as a great cover of The New Holidays’ “Maybe So, Maybe No,” has resulted in comparisons to greats including Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield and The Delfonics. Cohen says that his aim was to come classic, not nostalgic.
“The important thing is to stay creative and to be moving the music forward,” he insists. “Me coming from a DJ and hip-hop background — and also not even being alive in the ’60s, when a lot of that music was being made — I think it was impossible to make a truly retro album. I wanted to give that classic feeling of golden-era Motown, but it was really important to me to also try new things, like combining the vintage soul with crisp, crackin’ hip-hop drums or throwing a Smashing Pumpkins guitar solo in the middle of a reggae-soul song.
“I like the odd little things in music, people like Smokey Robinson who were able to make somewhat strange music that he could still turn into a hit. That’s really impressive.”
Also impressive are Cohen’s new-found vocal skills; he’s only been focusing on his singing for a year, with a falsetto that he developed from trial and error.
“I just took my first vocal lesson last week, and that’s really just to keep my voice in shape so that I don’t lose it on the road.”
Mayer Hawthorne and The County have just kicked off an extensive North American tour, to be followed by a month of European dates. Word is spreading like wildfire, with widespread press coverage and airplay from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Mark Ronson. The day I spoke with Cohen, he’d just agreed to open for John Mayer — at Mayer’s request — this New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas.
“It’s all kind of surprising and amazing,” says Cohen of the attention. “The only thing I can attribute it to is the fun factor.
“Most of my favourite albums, like Snoop [Dogg]’s Doggystyle, are ones that you can pull out to get you in the mood for going out at night. I’m all about the fun and I think it really comes out in the music.”