27 September 2010
Mike Posner is every record label's dream. At just 22, he has written and produced two mixtapes, generated a substantial internet followingand procured an eclectic celebrity backing including Big Sean, Travis Barker and Kid Cudi. All this while majoring in sociology and business at Michigan’s Duke University.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long before Posner was snapped up by Sony's J Records, who saw him as an all-inclusive package ready for delivery. His debut album 31 Minutes To Takeoff is written, produced and sung by the man himself (he has been doing all three since the age of 13) and despite his access to some of the industry’s biggest hit makers, the album is his first solo effort.
“It was really important for me to make a great album, by myself for the first time and that’s what I did. So I didn’t try to get Jay-Z or Kanye West, not that those aren’t incredible artists that I’m not a huge fan of, but I don’t wanna trick people into liking my music,” says the 22-year-old.
In some ways, Posner is an accidental pop star; he initially pitched his songs to record labels with the intent to sell them, and although he’s happy soaking up the limelight now, he didn’t always feel that way.
“I didn’t know I could sing. It wasn’t until I failed to sell the songs that I really believed in, songs such as Cooler Than Me,” he explains. “I started off shopping that song to labels in America with the intention of another artist singing it and all the labels told me no. It wasn’t because they didn’t like the song it was because there were no artists around at that time that that song really fit with, and that’s why I started singing, there was nobody that could really pull off the lyrics.”
Posner’s unique raspy tone has now become his trademark and everyone from Bruno Mars to producer/songwriter Benny Blanco have stood up to take notice. In fact, it was an email from Blanco that got him the hook up with J Records. Posner’s career has been so fast-tracked that it’s easy to forget that the signing, and consequent sold out shows all happened just after his third year at university.
“I found myself living a double life for a while where I would go to school for four days a week, I would then fly out and do shows all around the states and at the same time I made my second mixtape [One Foot Out The Door],” Posner says. “I really wanted to build a base up from nothing and not just kind of appear out of thin air to people.”
The fan base Posner has now started from a groundswell Internet following, mostly friends of friends who downloaded his tracks free from iTunesU in March of this year. He still maintains his involvement in all aspects of his career and part of his success can be put down to his hands on approach to his social networking sites; “I wouldn’t let anybody touch them,” he says.
With a career in music set in stone, Posner could have easily quit his degree to pursue stardom full-time but his mother had other ideas. “My mother made it very clear to me that I was gonna be returning for my fourth and final year,” laughs Posner, also admitting he felt he owed it to his family to finish, even if the balance between school and music wasn’t exactly 50/50.
“They didn’t really know how to figure out my website until like a month or two into the semester, and I would tell them that I was studying hard and working and then they would go online and see that I was in California and New York and all these different places and they would get mad at me.”
But with a finger in every pie, Posner is actively in charge of his career, controlling everything from production and tour schedules to the making of his music videos.
“You always hear horror stories of people that end up with nothing after they’ve done all this great work, so I don’t wanna be one of those horror stories. I own the reins!”
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