John Mayer Wants To Be More Than Cute

08/28/06 6:00pm

by James Simons (CHARTattack)

Like Jonathan Lipnicki before him, John Mayer has rapidly outgrown his initial cuteness. After spending half a decade supporting pretty, light-hearted tunes with witty, light-hearted interviews, the three-time Grammy Award winner says that he now refuses to dish out anymore precious "The human head weighs eight pounds" sound bites.

"I don't have my interview head on," an unapologetic Mayer explains over the phone from Los Angeles. "I don't have my talk-about-me thing going. And that's a good thing.

"When I was a kid, I was a prick and I was doing great interviews, like, 'Give me another.' But if you're trying to become a better person in life, you should probably be a worse and worse interview."

Mayer is still a good interview subject, but he's noticeably more serious and sincere than witty and irreverent, particularly on the topic of his third and latest album, Continuum. Not coincidentally, he views it as his first truly serious record.

"There were songs I fought to the very end to keep off this album. People said, 'Why not? This is great.' And I'd say, 'Because it's too cute.' I have a part of me that's responsible for creating cuteness and I don't really like it as a musical device. It's like I hear my mom talking: 'If you're going to be a musician, why don't you stand up straight and be serious.'"

Despite its serious nature, Continuum isn't a huge departure from Mayer's earlier work. As the artist jokes, "It's not like this is Swahili chants."

If anything, the record's a logical bridge between the blues of 2005's Try! — a live album that the artist recorded as part of the John Mayer Trio — and the typical Mayer tunes you regularly hear wafting out of sorority windows and middle-aged secretaries' stereos.

But the artist is quick to point out that, as his record collection has expanded, so has his sound. Along with the familiar pop and blues inflections, Continuum also sports some smooth, sultry soul stylings. Whereas Mayer's infectious 2002 hit "Your Body Is A Wonderland" was a romantic look at sex, his newest record comes off more like a sexy look at romance.

"Soul music is very sexual," says Mayer. "And it's not just sexuality in terms of sex itself.

"It's also the sexuality of pain. There's a whole different centre of gravity on these tunes."

Mayer has been aiming for this musical centre since his first album.

"It's simple: you stand 50 feet from a target, take a shot thinking you hit the middle or near the middle and then you walk up to see how close you got," he says.

"Then you try again. It's time multiplied by albums. You might say Continuum is not your thing. But this is my first record where my good intention is audible. You hear it and say, 'That's a dude who's trying.'"

Continuum arrives in stores on Sept. 12 and Mayer will help promote it with cameo performances on the Sept. 21 season premiere of the CBS drama, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He'll also appear in the Sept. 28 show, and his on-screen work will include him performing current single "Waiting On The World To Change" and "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room" in a Las Vegas nightclub. The Partridge Family's Danny Bonaduce guest stars as a former rocker who's been murdered.