Mayer of New York

People can’t stand things that are agreeable. If it was hip not to like my music, people would probably defend it a lot more. But what I’m doing is meant to be liked – it really is all-inclusive. There’s nothing about what I do that is underground and people feel threatened by that.”

With his major label debut, Room For Squares, currently ensconced in the Billboard Top 20 and a pair of Grammy nominations safely in his back pocket, you might be forgiven for thinking that New York based singer-songwriter John Mayer was sitting pretty. But despite his rapid rise and huge popularity, particularly with college-going audiences, he has attracted more than his share of detractors. Much of the critical flak he’s received is aimed at his brand of breezily accessible, jazz-inflected melodies and “too clever for their own good” lyrics. Not surprisingly, he vigorously defends his approach.

“It comes out of wanting to be smarter as a musician,” Mayer insists, prior to his recent Irish debut at Whelan’s in Dublin. “I was 21 when I wrote most of those songs – I’m 25 now. And when you’re 21 you have a lot to prove to people. So I threw in as many chords as I could. But it’s tastefully done and you either get it or you think it sucks. And if you think it sucks – that’s fine.”

Mayer’s songs, including the current single, ‘No Such Thing’ and similarly constructed numbers like ‘Why Georgia’ and ‘Your Body Is A Wonderland’, are arguably ‘sophisticated’ and ‘mature’, albeit in a sophomoric way.

“I think I brought the major 7th chord back into fashion,” he laughs. “I’m real sorry about that. Everyone’s doing it now. It’s so sunny and free and there’s no sadness in there at all. I just can’t do it anymore. So, no major 7ths on my next record. I’m going for minor 7ths instead.”

But it’s the singer’s lyrics which have been most frquently cited by Mayer’s critics as evidence of his supposed pretension.

“That’s because I don’t leave much room for interpretation in the lyrics,” he explains. “It’s so specifically stated. I don’t want someone to have their own interpretation of my songs – I want them to have mine. That’s why I write it so distinctly. I want people to say, ‘I know exactly what he’s talking about’.

“The newer songs are a little less clever for clever’s sake, more heartfelt. I’m trying to write songs that make you feel like you’ve been hit in the stomach. I want it to be harder to listen to if you’ve broken up with somebody or if you’re alone.”

Claiming influences from Hall & Oates and Sting to Dave Matthews, Mayer started out plying his trade in the coffee shops and student haunts of Atlanta where he quickly built a following. “Live is where I feel the most comfortable and the most real,” he says “But the first time I stepped up behind a mic I was as nervous as can be and as cocky as can be. And when I stepped offstage I was as sorry as can be. But I’m still learning. There’s some major pitfalls that people who make music fall into – like if the chorus is good let’s write it a hundred times and keep going back to it. But people can rewind and listen to the song a hundred times at home if they want to.”

The Grammy nomination, he says, didn’t come as a complete surprise. “Looking back you think, ‘well I guess I have been working hard’. It would be ridiculous to feel like you deserve a Grammy but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t add value to the esteem of my career.

“It actually feels almost like the nomination is the award itself. You think to yourself ‘is there more after this, how could there be two ceremonies?’ But I’ll be there for it. I’m going to take a cab up to 34th Street and walk into Madison Square Garden on the night and we’ll see what happens.”