Singer-songwriter Mayer Hawthorne first gained notable attention with the release of his acclaimed debut A Strange Arrangement in 2009. After three more albums established him as one of neo-soul’s most quietly consistent artists, the Detroit native branched out. He’s joined forces with 14KT in a new group called Jaded, Incorporated. At the “JBL Presents: Motion, Sound & Light Exhibition” in Manhattan, New York, he spoke to rolling out about the new project and the history behind his new sound and Jaded Incorporated’s first release, The Big Knock.
“This is what we used to listen to in the club and on the radio — we called this ‘ghettotech,'” Hawthorne explains. “Me and my homie 14KT, we love this music, we grew up with this s— and we love this s—. But it didn’t get very far outside of Detroit and Chicago.”
“So in order to make it more accessible to the average listener, we took new wave music that everybody knows — like A-Ha and Gary Neuman and the Cure — the melodies of it and the poppiness of it and we meshed it together with the Detroit and Chicago ghetto-house s—,” he continues. “We really love the post-punk, new wave s—. But that music doesn’t bang. So we wanted to take that s— and make it bang.”
Hawthorne admits that working with a collaborator has been a truly freeing experience.
“This is a completely different thing from Mayer Hawthorne,” he says. “I’m half of this group. Which is cool — for me to be a part of a group again after being a solo artist for so long.”
“It’s really fun for me because i have a bounce board — somebody else who has the same passion that I can bounce ideas off of. Two heads are always better than one. We’ve known each other for so long that we can read each other’s minds. So this record was super fun for me to do.”
The duo has done remixes for artists like The Weeknd; and he enjoys injecting other artists’ songs with Jaded, Inc.’s brand of “beat wave.”
“It’s super-unique and it’s weird and it’s jolting when people first hear it, but the more you listen to it, the more you get it,” Hawthorne says. “It’s out there. But I like keeping people on their toes. For me, this is art. As an artist, I need this. It’s what keeps me going.”
