  FRIDAY, MAY 09, 2008 "WHERE THE LIGHT IS" TRAILER POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 08:46 AM FROM NY/NY  SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2008TYFTWD 5 - AS PROMISED! This is harder than I thought, releasing a work in progress like this. Usually these sorts of things never go further than my kitchen or my car, but it seems to me as the walls are down on all things digital and seeing as I've never gone wrong sharing music with people, I consider this an experiment. And a thank you. I consider myself lucky for several reasons, but after walking back into my apartment after a week of writing and recording music, I'm most lucky that I have a craft to hold onto in my life. I can't fathom what it would be like to be in the public eye and not be able to pick up a guitar and remember who I am and what I do for a living. (That's not to knock anybody, silly press rabbits. I'm sure the other way is fun, too.) And to answer the question, the record will come out when it's great. So who knows. See you around and thanks for playing. Be Good To Each Other. John *NOTE - I originally posted a different song but it felt like a cop-out. This one is as unfinished a performance as I can ever post. Even the lyrics aren't set in stone. Have at it! POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 10:51 PM FROM NY/NY SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2008TYFTWD 4 - TOUR DETAILS POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 03:48 PM FROM NY/NY SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008TYFTWD 3 - PICS  THE CHAD - Here's the best way to sum Chad up: There was this story in Wired magazine that he brought to my attention a few months back, about the leader of a team that salvaged boats. This man held an unlimited master's license, which qualified him to pilot ships of any size. I would say the same holds true for Chad, except he holds an unlimited master's license in sound engineering, with an emphasis on my music.  The big rig  The Shaman - Rene' Martinez  Steve's drum kit POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 08:54 PM FROM NY/NY SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008TYFTWD 3 - SIDETRACKED!!!! One thing about Steve Jordan, you never know when you're going to up and record a track. "Roped into Groovin'", Chad calls it. And so it went, not 3 minutes after his entrance, we're putting together a recording. Here we are working out a version of "Crossroads", which you might remember served as the inspiration for a Britney Spears movie. POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 06:57 PM FROM NY/NY SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008TYFTWD 2 - TONE HUNTING It's always fun to use some studio time to build a guitar sound. Even if it's not for the song I'm working on at the moment. Here's a '65 Strat, TS10 Tube Screamer, a Two Rock JM Signature Combo and a TINY Blues Junior amp... Trying to scale down the rig. In fact, the tune I'm working on today is kind of a lesson in economy; I'm recording through an amp I bought to play in my hotel room during my stay in Japan and I fell in love with the simplicity of it... Enjoy... Steve Jordan is on the way in to place drums on the track... (This was shot in a format that iMovie disagrees with, so sorry for it being so out of sync...) POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 03:19 PM FROM NY/NY SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008STANDBY Having wireless issues.... goodies coming soon... JM POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 02:06 PM FROM NY/NY SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008TYFTWD:1 - STUDIO ESSENTIALS Here are a few of the things I never enter the studio without...  The Hoodie Not only is it a simple and effective way to maintain a nice working temperature, it's always a nice thing to put the hoodie up and zone out in front of the mic. It's like a little bedroom you can wear.  The Handheld Recorder Great for logging my lyrical and melodic ideas... I can go for a walk or hide out in a vacant room and work out the tough stuff without the self consciousness of doing it in front of other people.  The USB Drive No more taking home rough mixes on CD... They take too long to burn, and they immediately become digital files as soon as I get them anyway. I leave at the end of the night with two tracks; one with scratch (rough) vocals and one without, so I can sing along into the aforementioned digital recorder. POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 10:52 AM FROM NY/NY FRIDAY, MAY 02, 2008SATURDAY IS TAKE YOUR FANS TO WORK DAY This blog is less for the "general public", whom I generally admire, and more for the FANS, The ones who have literally given me the floor I walk on in my apartment. Tomorrow I'm bringing you into the studio with me. I'll be posting photos and videos and will be giving you at least a 10 second preview of the opening track for the next album, a tune tentatively called "Taking on Water"... I'll also reveal what makes the upcoming tour different from any of the others before it. 'cause, hey... If you can see the frosting I might as well show you the cake... POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 12:03 PM FROM NEW YORK, NY THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2008FROM THE HEART.... I need to write this. I've been traveling alone in Japan for the better part of three weeks now, and It's been so remarkable an experience for me that I can't book a ticket home yet. I haven't spoken very much out loud these days, but I've been thinking to myself in what feels like surround sound. I can see so many things clearly, and feel so connected to myself and the world around me that I need to share the perspective with you. I'm already aware that when I sing, say or write anything, 50 percent of the response will be in support of it and the other 50 will want to discount it. This blog, though, is directed to 100 percent of people reading it. If my blog truly does have any cultural effect, then it should be used for more than just pictures of sneakers and funny youtube videos. (If you don't think my blog has any effect, than you can't by definition be reading this right now and therefore don't have to respond to it in any way. Isn't that tidy?) What I'm about to write isn't about fame or success or celebrity or the media. That's my business. This is about us all. This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it's actually toxic. This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she's awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She'll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she's happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she's done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like " I don't give a f*ck what you think about me. " This is about the person trying out for American Idol, who while going off about how confident they are that they were born ready to sing in front of the world, are trembling so badly they can hardly breathe. This is about me, the guy who walks through a throng of photographers into a restaurant like he's Paul Newman, but who leaves a "reject" pile of clothes in his closet so high that his cleaning lady can't figure out how one man can step into so many pairs of pants in a week. This is about a young guy who maintains a celebrity blog that subsists on tearing other people down but who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man. This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that. I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing. And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right. What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me. Root for others. Give more and expect the same in return, but over time. Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that. And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you. I'm going quiet now. John POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 09:58 AM FROM ... MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2008CLEARING THE AIR ------------------ Monday, March 24, 2008  We Hear.....that John Mayer is so self-obsessed, he Googles himself every morning, and has been known to respond to online rumors just to clear the air. ------------------ This is, quite simply, untrue. -John POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 04:38 AM FROM ... 
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