Herb Sundays 113: Mayer Hawthorne
The Ann Arbor-raised LA crooner keeps it mellow + the lost ICP Herb + SV4 on 'gimmicks' and stuff
Herb Sundays 113: Mayer Hawthorne (Apple, Spotify)
Art by Michael Cina. Photo by Janell Shirtcliff
“Sundays are for Jazz. (Real Jazz NOT Smooth Jazz).
Maybe I'm getting old but this is the only shit I listen to at home.”
- Mayer Hawthrone for Herb Sundays
Quick Housekeeping:
I spoke with
for his ace Last Donut Of The Night newsletter, which publishes excellent music interviews weekly (next week is John Carpenter), and more. We got into Herb, Ghostly (and Ghostly After Dark), and just a lot of things.
A lot of my resting mindspace is spent thinking about how people live and how they create. One of my favorite thought loops is the idea of personas or “gimmicks” as a way to approach creativity. I’m always interested in how people do this effectively and what potential effects it might have on their psyche.
The adage “just be yourself” is helpful in some contexts but not most. I’ve spent a decent amount of time on the topic in Herb, and I think writing “in character” has a ton of value, with
(Herb 77) as a prime example. It’s easier to settle into sometimes than tapping into your momentous feelings. On the musical front, I explored this a little with meeting Dave 1 from Chromeo (Herb 29) where I tried to tease it out of him, but he was sorta like “that’s just who I am.”:“When the weather was ok, we agreed to meet up for an outdoor lunch in midtown. I was sort of nervous. Could this guy be who he claimed to be or was he doing a bit? It was sort of incongruous, a former French professor who wears Mac Tonight shades, black leather, and a Cheshire Cat grin. No one I knew was this consistent over decades with their look or style. Moreover, is anyone this nice or smiley? To be clear, I love a persona. As someone who grew up with pro-wrestling and “gangsta” rap, I am a believer that the showperson is doing us, the fans, a service when they work “kayfabe” or the staged, fantastic commitment to the beautiful untruths of (wrestling) entertainment. Björk, George Clinton, and Bob Dylan all employ kayfabe and many of my visual artists do, it’s what holds it all together.”
One dude who has kept his schtick straight is Mayer Hawthorne (born Andrew Cohen), who decamped from his Hip-Hop duties as DJ Haircut for Ann Arbor’s Athletic Mic League when he debuted on Stones Throw back in 2008 with a heart-shaped single “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” (the same silhouette that fellow blue-eyed crooner Bobby Caldwell employed). Peanut Butter Wolf has always had a keen eye for the goofy but solid and even his own alter ego and also loves an alias (Quasimoto / Madlib, etc.), so the story is that he heard young Cohen’s goof soul tracks and knew they were the best ones.
As a once-fellow Ann Arborite, I always appreciated the Hawthorne beat, an inverted soul hologram, alongside the stagecraft of A2’s Andrew WK, who came from Wolf Eyes camp, there was a lot of serious goofing going on, high-minded even, and the only credible cauldron Inzane Johnny (and Ghostly After Dark) could have emerged from. I’ll admit I’m not a Hawthorne historian, but I’ve always had a sense of respect for the work. On a sleepless night this week, I pulled up YouTube on my TV and scrolled through his archives: Hundreds of interviews over the years, including his pandemic-driven Wine & Vinyl series, where he shows off his good taste in records, and that’s not even the music itself, all of which is very well made. The dude has been working his ass off and never dropped the look.
His Herb rap sheet is strong: He was on the Girls (2012-2017) soundtrack, production credits with Freddie Gibbs and Doja Cat, and supposedly, his photo hangs on the wall at Detroit’s Lafayette Coney Island.
Self-Titled Mag, run by the great
interviewed him about the origin story ages ago:When did you become Mayer Hawthorne?
Well, Mayer Hawthorne is my porn-star name–my middle name and the street that I grew up on in Michigan–and it was just a name to give to my soul project that I was doing for fun at the time. I didn’t take it very seriously. I never expected those songs to be released to the public or heard. I would just play ’em for my family and friends.You’ve done a bunch of hip-hop stuff in the past. Why did your first full-length as a solo artist end up being a soul record?
Soul was never my plan. I wanted to make hip-hop music. But Peanut Butter Wolf heard some of my soul demos, and he flipped out. He asked me if I would record an album of it for Stones Throw. I never even had any plans to record a full album, but it was a great opportunity to work with one of my favorite labels, so I figured what the hell.
My interest in Hawthrone is along the spectrum of artists in costume, either physically or spiritually. Can a trick be a treat? Can you give more by sharing less?Indeed, Kayfabe and the theatrics of pro wrestling are on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days, sort of like how Brutalism struck in the ‘10s. It’s probably because most everything has become a calculated act from TikTok CEO MINDSET con men to politics of all stripes to the fauxreal of Reality TV; even the audience is in on it. If you aren’t doing a bit are you even interesting?
We admire the real unreal because it has the ability to turn up the volume with some degree of safety; if it were true lunacy, it would risk falling apart entirely. In music, having a persona is nearly a prereq, either as a steady character or the idea that each album cycle is a form of reinvention, and a new personality to explore.
While most readers of Herb will probably feign disinterest in this cosplay in defense of the authentic article, I’d challenge y’all to search your top 10 and not find a heavyweight play actor. Rap and Country, which trade in authenticity as a means of survival, are amongst the most egregious in terms of character creation; I’ve often thought the most indelible MCs are the best actors. Tupac was a thespian, obviously Drake too, and even Ice Cube as a writer (who, like Ice T would become an actor), understood the appeal of the invented charismatic heel. Say hi to the bad guy.
The hyperreal tells more truths about us than the real. In terms of place, it’s J.G. Ballard’s love of the cement car parks in the manufactured village of Shepperton or Dave Hickey’s passion for Las Vegas. I like Lana Del Rey because she’s Lizzy Grant, not in spite of it. I like the shapes we contort ourselves into for greatness. I like MF Doom as an id response to the horror of life. While it made him more of a cartoon to some, it also made him immortal. I Iike Bob Dylan as an idea, both earnest and faux, and that Ralph Lauren is as much a man as he is a living moodboard, a taste proxy, a collective yearning. To do it well is exceedingly hard.
Michigan has borne successful gimmick artists (a compliment) in spades: Madonna, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Jack White, the star of this Herb, Mayer Hawthorne, etc. I’ve always chalked it up to a race toimagination, a sort of need to sublimate oneself into a greater form. The religious or art historical word to employ is transubstantiation, where one turns something banal into the divine, a definition of Warhol’s gift to the culture.
In terms of great gimmicks, My middle school brain still marvels at the gold foil of Insane Clown Posse’s Ringmaster (1994) CD, alone with no text, which sits in my brain next to Unknown Pleasures (1979) and adopted Michigander Plastikman’s Musik (also 1994) of great wordless sleeves.
ICP is a testament to it’s not what you say but how you say it, it is music that doesn’t need to be listened to to be understood, that is how strong the gimmick runs.
In 2011, the FBI did the best thing they could ever do for a band (reminiscent of the crackdown on Rap and Metal in the ‘80s and again in the early ‘90s) and labeled their Juggalo fanbase a gang, which has kept their engine running well into their 4th decade. In their documentary, a fan remarks they are “the last real subculture” using the definition that the mainstream has to hate you to truly be a subculture. I think W. David Marx (Herb 53) would agree with this in general, not that it is the last, but that it holds up to the conventional definition where “risk” was necessary to truly adopt a subculture. With the popularization of Marvel fandom and all geek enterprises, subculture now is mostly fey stuff; Juggalo culture is one of the last train stops for respectability. Gen Z might differ.
The violence of the lyrics is supposedly cathartic ("the Clowns did it for me," one female fan says about the murderous lyrics ), and the familial aspect of the fanbase is referred to as almost a reaction to personal trauma and abuse. Before you assume I’m goofing, I’m not. I don’t listen to ICP, etc but can admire the fan service, the camaraderie, etc. but I will leave it there, there are no more worms under rocks I want to find by looking further. I thought it would be interesting to ask one of the ICP gents to give a list so I DM’d. I wouldn’t say I hit it off with them, but here it is, if useful…
Music picks from Violent J (Joseph Frank Bruce) for Herb Sundays:
Honestly there's just so much music I call my favorites. But yeah these are all common on my playlist:
Michael Jackson Off The Wall - Perfect feel good album
Pearl Jam First 5 albums
Nirvana Never Mind
NWA Straight Outta Compton
Esham Judgment Day Night & Day albums
The Doors Essentials Greatest Hits Beach Boys Essentials Greatest Hits Pet Sounds, Smile Alanis Morissette, jagged Little pill Alice N Chains Whole Catalog Weezer Essentials
Greatest Hits Bee Gees Essentials Greatest Hits Smashing Pumpkins Essentials Greatest Hits Prince The Hits Vol 1 & 2 (Anything from Prince is killer tho) Sponge Essentials Greatest Hits Ice Cube Death Certificate West Side Connection Bow Down
Todays artist don't focus on albums as much anymore they just drop a series of singles for the most part these are some of my absolute favorites
Post Malone
Rae Sremmurd
Rick Ross
Lil Wayne
-Violent J (Joseph Frank Bruce)