Indie implies uniqueness and deviation from the norm. In the world of music, the term can be used to describe any musical acts who try their darndest to distance themselves from the likes of Miley Cyrus and the J Bros. This American indie artist from California undeniably falls into this category.

For instance, his first single, ‘Just Ain't Gonna Work Out / When I Said Goodbye,’ was released in heart-shaped 7-inch vinyl. I tell you, Demi Lovato would never think of pulling that kind of stunt off. Well, maybe she would, but the heart would be fuchsia and drawn on a CD. CD = Pop. Records? Well, it doesn’t get more indie than that.

Mayer Hawthorne isn’t just indie, he’s new vintage. Everything old is new again, as they say, and Mayer is the soul genre’s musical proof of that. In fact, when the Detroit-born artist submitted his demo to Peanut Butter Wolf, the head of the Stone’s Throw music label, Peanut Butter assumed that Hawthorne’s songs were revivals of old ones. After verifying that they weren’t, Peanut Butter took another double-take as Hawthorne introduced himself face-to-face. Why?

Well, Mayer Hawthorne is a singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose current body of work has had critics and fellow musicians comparing him to the likes of Lamont Dozier, Barry White, Smokey Robinson, and Isaac Hayes. Hawthorne also moonlights as a rapper under the screen name DJ Haircut.

Also, Wolf was probably expecting to sign someone who looks like John Legend or a Fresh-Prince-of-Belair-era Will Smith in a beret. Lo and behold, Stone Throw Record’s best-selling retro vintage bet is a tall, scrawny, bespectacled white boy.

Now, that’s American Indie..

Rating: 4/5

- Bia Fernandez

Links:
http://www.stonesthrow.com/mayerhawthorne
www.myspace.com/mayerhawthorne