Mike Posner 'Operation: Wake Up'

[Disco]

I like "I'm Not F**king You" as it is basically cut in the same style as "Love Lockdown." This is so much better though.

[Hurricane Lee]

In that yearbook picture, he looks so much like one of my fraternity brothers LOL. He could have gotten it back then too.

[newpower99]

NewAlbumJustCameOUT ‏@mikeposner 5m5 minutes ago

video for Be As You Are (remix by @thejordanxl) tomorrow! mikeposner.co/BHAtDV5viRH

[Hurricane Lee]

Please be naked again...

[George]

Nice article:

How Mike Posner got his groove back

Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic 12:04 a.m. EDT July 28, 2016



Mike Posner will be the first to tell you: This is his second act.

It’s been six long years — many eons on the pop-music calendar — since “Cooler Than Me” thrust the Detroit-born, Southfield-raised musician onto the map, peaking at No. 6 in the U.S. and hitting the Top 10 in countries around the globe.

Having been signed to a big-label deal while still attending Duke University, Posner suddenly found himself with a frantic, high-profile life. He toured the world, watched his bank account fatten and settled into a home in the Hollywood Hills.

But while his songwriting skills remained in demand — he helped pen hits for artists such as Justin Bieber (“Boyfriend”) and Maroon 5 (“Sugar”) — his solo career stalled. His record labels rejected two albums’ worth of material, and the sensitive, introspective Posner stepped back and forced a reckoning with himself.

Flash forward to 2016: Posner is the year’s biggest comeback story thanks to the monster hit “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” a pensive acoustic number transformed into an infectious confection by the electronic duo SeeB and part of the new album “At Night. Alone.” The success is laden with irony: Posner wrote “Ibiza” as a reflection on his bygone fame.

Now he’s rolling again. On Saturday, he’ll be onstage at the Palace, part of a national tour with Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas, performing with the ace band he calls “five of the best musicians you’re going to hear in your life.”

It’ll be his first hometown show since a 2014 acoustic gig at Detroit’s City Theatre, that stretch when Posner was reworking himself. He was eager to push away from a time when “my self-identity became all tied up in being young, rich, and sort of famous,” as he wrote in one of the soul-baring pieces that have become his stock-in-trade at the essay-sharing site medium.com.

He let his beard grow out, sold his Porsche, bought a recreational vehicle and headed out across the U.S.

“I wanted to see if I could be happy without a lot of stuff,” Posner says. “And what I found out was, yeah, I really could. I was with friends and playing guitar. It was great.”

The figurative 40-days-in-the-wilderness was a psychological turning point, providing reassurance he could proceed without fear.

“I remember with my first album, I was so scared of messing it up, of blowing the opportunity, that I blew it,” he says with a laugh. “I was so scared of not having it, and now I’m not because I know I could just go back in the van and I’d be good. When you know it’s a game, you can have more fun playing it. When things seem serious, you tend to take less risk and have less fun.”

The period also proved creatively fruitful. Posner found himself drawn to the raw honesty of older country music and channeled that spirit into his new work.

Of course, Posner had never truly been forgotten back in his old neck of the woods. His link-ups with Big Sean, in particular, kept his Detroit profile high, including appearances at the rapper’s hometown shows and the 2013 Posner-Sean collaboration, “Top of the World,” with a promotional video featuring Motor City landmarks.

But behind the scenes, he was redefining himself, discarding long-held perceptions about fame and money — whose power, he says, “doesn’t feel as seductive as it once did.”

“I remember a distinct moment: I was spending time with Justin Bieber working on his album as a writer and producer. And after a week or so with him, you see what that actually means,” says Posner. “It’s like, we all grow up thinking it would be so nice to have hundreds of people falling over themselves trying to grab us, telling us we’re great, that they love us. But when you see what that actually means, and the logistics of going from point A to point B … I don’t want to say it’s bad or worse than someone else’s life. But the mystique of it wore off.”

The new Mike Posner is grounded and creatively charged. At each of this summer’s tour stops, he’s reciting a poem written the day of show. The exercise is a self-challenge spurred by “my own insecurity” at keeping pace with his band’s talent, he says.

“I was really trying to impress those guys, so I started writing a new piece every day,” he says. “It’s become a thing where I’m writing a new piece for every show and then not doing it again. And I really like the idea because there’s a value in coming to the show: You’ll see something that’s not going to happen ever again.”

A book of poetry, “Teardrops & Balloons,” was recently completed and will be published this year.

“I wrote a poetry book I guess from age zero to age 28,” he says with a laugh. “So I’ve been writing poems for a long time. I never knew what the hell they were for or wherever they would end up. I would sometimes write something and have the same feeling that I have now when I write a song I’m proud of. I’d think, 'Hey, this is really good,' but I never knew what to do with it.”

Posner says he’s modeling the latest chapter of his career on singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer and her hands-on, no-holds-barred approach with fans. Posner’s Medium essays are part of that, topped with titles such as “Why I Stopped Drinking Alcohol” and “How to Deal with Haters.”

“The first thing I wrote was, ‘What the hell happened to Mike Posner?’,” he says. “I’d read these things all day, like: ‘I used to like Mike Posner. What happened to that guy?’ I could never really answer that on Twitter or Instagram. I needed a longer piece.”

He turned to one of his old high school teachers, Birmingham Groves’ Dan Inloes, to help hammer it into shape.

“It was fun reconnecting with him to make my piece a lot better,” says Posner. “It’s fun having someone in my life like that — not really swept up in the scene, but just caring about the writing.”

Posner’s new record features two renditions of his song “Buried in Detroit” — a dramatic, strings-swept version and an album-closing remix with Big Sean. Posner has been all around the world, he sings, "But I'll be buried in Detroit / Next to my father, and my father’s father too.”

“I was just thinking about the end of my life, whenever that may be, and how my body will go where it began,” he says after a lengthy pause. “All of this stuff I’m doing between my birth and my death are between these two parentheses that are Detroit.”

It was situated at the album’s end for a reason.

“I know this sounds crazy — my managers tell me I’m weird and stuff — but I think a lot about closing tracks. Because, hey, tomorrow’s not promised,” Posner says. “I’ve had friends who passed away. I’m sure you have, too. When I’m putting a record out and I’m picking the track listing, I know this could be the last album I ever make. So the last song could be my last song. I’ve always picked the last song with that in mind.”

[Hurricane Lee]

I want One Hell Of A Song to be released as a single. I think it would actually work in its original version. He's not lying and his vocals actually work well in this context.

[George]

It's the 6 month anniversary of At Night, Alone.:

Meanwhile, he's teaming up with Blackbear and forming a duo called called MANSIONZ. They've recently signed with Island Records:

soundcloud.com/mansionz/stfu

[SHOOTER]

Is ITAOAS a single yet?

[Harx]

I've percieved ITAPII as an essential song about being a one hit wonder by a one hit wonder, but it turns out that he actually had more than one hit before that. "Please don't go" peaked at #16 on Hot 100 and made it to the 2011 year end list. Huh.

[Hurricane Lee]

I LIVE for his shirtless pics. Lord help me, I think I am becoming an otter fan. Meanwhile, BAE texted me Happy Thanksgiving. Hot AND nice.

[George]

Another new track with BlackBear called "Obvious":

soundcloud.com/iamblackbear/obvious-ft-mike-posner

[SHOOTER]

Received his first Grammy nomination for Song of the Year (I Took a Pill in Ibiza) and is the only nominee in the category to be the sole songwriter of the respective track.

[George]

Dec 6, 2016 14:36:14 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

Received his first Grammy nomination for Song of the Year (I Took a Pill in Ibiza) and is the only nominee in the category to be the sole songwriter of the respective track.

Congrats to him!

I didn't realize it was his first nomination, as I thought he'd gotten a nom many years ago for songwriting/producing for another artist's song, or like one of those 'featured guests' noms people get for Album of the Year.

[musicbuff26]

stfu (feat. Spark Master Tape) - Single by mansionz
itun.es/us/nB7Egb

More of this side of Mike, please.

[George]

He performed on Dick Clark's NYE Special, doing "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" and "In the Arms of a Stranger."

Hope the latter becomes his next single if he gets a 3rd one.

[George]

In case he deletes that tweet:



His first poetry book Tear Drops & Balloons... will be released March 17th. Pre-order is available at his website:
www.mikeposner.com

[Hurricane Lee]

I just came. Best male body in music right now.

[Wave.]

I forgot about his cakes.

[George]

Looks like "In the Arms of a Stranger (GREY Remix)" is the 3rd single:

[QAF]

He's a hottie. He looks a little like Eminem to me. Not in a bad way.

[George]

While "In the Arms of a Stranger" is being prepped for Pop radio, his latest two projects have been released:

mansionz was released (digitally-only) on March 24th. It debuts at #67 on the Billboard 200, #13 on Digital Albums, and #23 on Rap Albums. "Rich White Girls" debuts at #7 and "STFU" at #50 on Billboard's Emerging Artists chart. "Wicked" featuring G-Eazy peaked at #7 and moves down to #30.



1. Snoozefest
2. My Beloved
3. Stfu [Feat. Spark Master Tape]
4. Dennis Rodman [feat. Dennis Rodman]
5. i'm thinking about horses
6. nobody knows [feat. Soren Bryce]
7. A Million Miles
8. Wicked [feat. G-Eazy]
9. Rich White Girls
10. Strip Club
11. White Linen [feat. Cyhi The Prynce]
12. Gorgeous
13. The Life Of A Troubadour [feat. Snoozegod as Oliver]

Two music videos have been released:

"Rich White Girls"


"Dennis Rodman"


Meanwhile, his poetry book, Tear Drops and Balloons was released on March 17th.

[RockaByeBaby]

This is so amusing

[George]

I just realized he has a tattoo of Blackbear's name on his chest. I wonder if Blackbear has one of Mike's name?

[Disco]

I wonder if they've fucked? #QuestionsExisting

[Ty]

This post really made me worried about his mental well-being. He seems completely overwhelmed by the stress and grief, if not appears to be suicidal.

He's been exploring so many different stuff in recent years, which made him one among the best of songwriters in his generation. I hope he's getting himself together.

[Hurricane Lee]

Um...it just sounds like someone exploring life and asking meaningful questions to me?

[George]

New remix for "Wicked" coming this Friday. Glad to see there's still some promo for the album. I kinda wish one of the singles would take off, especially now that Blackbear is about to get a crossover hit.

[George]

New album is out:

[SHOOTER]

That makes sense of why it’s billed as “spoken word” on iTunes.

[Disco]

I got an email this morning
It’s from a record label ANR
They want me to do a song with Pitbull
My part is already written
They are sure it will be a big hit

Who makes art this way?
I want to move to the mountains
I want to throw frisbees in places I haven’t been yet
I want to have sex with men and women I haven’t met yet
I want to skydive; I want to sing; I want to hurt people; I want to get hurt by those same people and pretend it all matters before I die

But they want me to do a song with Pitbull
Fuck you

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