After his incredible performance at the Superbowl Half Time Show, we thought we'd share this interview from the archives. Just after the release of his number one single Just The Way You Are.
Bruno Mars Interview - 24/09/2010 • Words: Rebecca Jackson
I used to like having this image of
myself as possessing a relatively cool music taste- for years I avoided all
chart music, never steered away from old sixties and obscure ‘indie’, never
watched music tv. Now I’m living in a
shared house I suppose I could blame my all-encompassing knowledge of I-Yaz’s
latest releases or what video Timberland pops up in this week, on my
flatmates. But no, I now love chart
music, so when I got a call to interview Bruno Mars I could hardly say no,
could I? Look at the big hits of the
summer- K’naan’s ‘Waving Flag’, BOB’s ‘Nothin’ On You’ and of course, Travie
McCoy’s ‘Billionaire’- there’s one common link- this guy. And let me just state this now, you must
prepare yourself for some extreme girly gushing. Because I adore Bruno Mars. I will abandon all kind of ‘cool’ image I
ever thought I had, and say that he is awesome.
I may be biased because he sang ‘Something’- one of my all-time
favourite songs- to me down the phone, but he’s got that lovely little smiley
face, a beautiful voice- what’s not to love?
He sounds so excited (‘like a
chipmunk?’ he chuckles), when he answers the phone and as he immediately starts
chatting about all his travelling, being on the road, doing shows and promoting
the album- ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans’- you can tell that music really, really
means something to this guy- who has been singing since he was a child, reared
on 1950s tunes by his parents in Hawaii, a country with roots in all genres of
music.
‘London was awesome!’ he
enthuses, almost as soon as I mention his recent date in the capital- ‘If you
go on Youtube you can find loads of clips from YoYos that fans have uploaded
and stuff. It was really fun- I’ve been
playing with the band for four years and used to play bars and tiny pubs back
in California so it was nice to kind of go back to our roots. I can’t wait to go back to England- there’s a
vibe, kind of in the air.’
And with dates at the moment with
Maroon 5 in America, and then over here next month with Travie McCoy- there
could almost be a danger of Mars being overexposed and losing his credibility,
the next David Guetta perhaps. But this
is a guy who has worked behind the scenes, producing some of the biggest tracks
of the past few months, and is now breaking out on his own onto the music
charts. In fact as I speak to him, his
new tune, ‘Just the Way You Are,’ is riding high at number 1 in the midweek
charts- showing that it’s not just hype and high-profile collaborations that
are carrying Mars, but his own talent, his knowledge of the music industry and
a pure passion for what he does. And he
does take his music very, very seriously.
I ask whether it gets annoying that everyone thinks of him as happy all
the time- ‘Not at all! Happy’s
good! But I do take music
seriously. As much fun as I'm having, I'm very serious about what I'm doing’.
So pretty serious, then... ‘I
wanted to be an artist before a producer,’ Bruno muses. So surely it was annoying that the label
pushed his record after the success of his collaborations? ‘Not at all, it was nice! After the success with BOB, the labels
thought it was a feel-good sound and wanted to sign, I work better under
pressure anyway.’
‘I want people to look at my record like a movie, hear my story and hear the things that I'm about...’
And isn't it refreshing to have a
somewhat traditional singer-songwriter back on the pop scene anyway? Mars works with friends Philip Lawrence and
Ari Levine in song-writing group The Smeezingtons- the brains behind tunes by
Flo-Rida, Sean Kingston and Alexandra Burke- meaning he’s never really alone,
even if he is now releasing stuff as a solo artist.
‘It’s the best part of the gig- getting to
work with my best friends, it’s a win-win situation.’ And they’re definitely
not short of artists to work with... ‘I
was just at the VMAs - everyone was there, Justin Bieber asked to work with
us... we’ll work with anyone who wants to.’
‘I want people to look at my record like a
movie, hear my story and hear the things that I'm about,’ he says as he talks
of album collaborations and the supergroup he composed of Cee-Lo and BOB to
work on ‘The Other Side’- a track documenting the struggle involved in doing
music- the idea of another world, venting about being on the other side. ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans’ is released on the
5th October and Mars insists he can’t quite categorise his own music,
that instead his record reflects himself and his outlook on life.
So by the end of our chat, I've learnt a few nice little facts about him;
One- he didn't get free tickets to the World Cup after working on what
became the official Coca Cola theme-tune- ‘Waving Flag’- ‘I should have demanded
some as part of the contract!’, but he did get to play drums in the video- ‘I'm 2.3 seconds in! Watch it!’, two- his favourite Beatles song is ‘Something’ but
he also loves John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy,’ and three- he has never met Dog the
Bounty Hunter, despite coming from Hawaii (because obviously everyone in Hawaii
knows each other), though some of his friends have. I hang up the phone feeling like I've just
had a twenty minute conversation with a friend, rather than one of the hottest
names not only in the charts but in the production world too, and as I mosey on
with my day, it appears that the happiness that has become Mars’ trademark is
contagious.