“I’m not the first artist this has happened to,” Posner says, citing Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA as one example. It seems quite likely that a new generation, misinterpreting the lyrics, will take the song as their cue to go to the white island and neck some pills. As an artist, what’s more beautiful than getting joy out of your sorrow?” “When I look at it from a more poetic point of view, I wrote this sad song with a chorus that explicitly says ‘All I know are sad songs,’ and there’s a percentage of people hearing it who are having these positive happy experiences to it. Now Posner’s acoustic song about the dark side of the club scene, with lyrics alluding to depression, has turned into a pulsating smash beloved by raving partygoers worldwide. Next thing I know, people are telling me the track is No 1 in Norway. “I believe in the ethos of the remix, like Andy Warhol making a painting of a Campbell’s soup label.” The obscure Norwegian production duo SeeB wound up getting their hands on I Took A Pill in Ibiza and when he first heard the song he “thought it was great. “I said of course because I came into the game doing remixes,” Posner says referring to his past reworkings of songs by artists as varied as Beyoncé and Electric Light Orchestra. At one point two A&R men from Posner’s label Island Records had an idea to remix some tracks. The Truth came out quietly last June, essentially unnoticed by all but a collection of diehard Posner fans who have stuck with him despite his lengthy absence from the limelight. “I send music to him all the time to get feedback, and if I remember correctly, after he listened said to me, ‘All of your old songs are really great but these are the best ones you’ve ever written.’” “I showed Avicii the song after I first wrote it,” he says of his superstar DJ friend who is name-dropped in the hit’s opening verse. One of those tracks was the original version of I Took a Pill in Ibiza, its lyrics a raw look at stardom (“You don’t wanna be high like me / Never really knowing why like me / You don’t ever wanna step off that rollercoaster and be all alone.”) Its production was also starkly different, simply featuring his voice (which was turned up for maximum effect) and a strumming guitar. Posner crafted a four-song acoustic EP bluntly titled The Truth, a very personal collection of tracks centered on the downside of fame and the lessons he’s learned along the way. “But now I realize that when you’re an artist you’re making the music that’s in your head and in your heart, and not for any other reason.” “I always wanted everyone to love me, probably because I didn’t love myself enough,” Posner says. He also changed his musical style to a more stripped-down sound, a gamble considering that acoustic tracks were the last thing he was publicly known for. Suffering the ill effects of too much hedonism, Posner decided to sober up.
After scrapping his second album, he turned his attention to production and co-writing, concocting hits for the likes of Justin Bieber (Boyfriend) and Maroon 5 (Sugar). Posner had a hard time dealing with the success of Cooler Than Me. Hits, says Posner, “don’t happen every year for me, so it’s exciting. The island’s tourism chief, desperate to rid the island of its raucous reputation, invited Posner to go and explore the museums, beaches and restaurants instead – though in fact the song has a strong anti-drugs message. His song I Took a Pill in Ibiza, remixed by Norwegian duo SeeB, has been No 1 in four countries, including the UK, made the top 10 in the US – and annoyed the Ibizan authorities into the bargain. Posner is of course referring to his current position at the top of the global charts once again. So now that I guess those things are happening again, it just feels less heavy.” “I’d say that when I was less popular, I learned to be happy without those things. “There was a time when being loaded and loved and popular really mattered a lot to me,” he tells the Guardian on a Friday afternoon from his home in Los Angeles. A fter Mike Posner had an inescapable smash in 2010 with his debut single Cooler Than Me, the 28-year-old Michigan native endured a period of soul-searching, dealing with depression and enduring the shelving of his second album.
0 kommentar(er)
