I try to make sure that I make music that can stand the test of time.

I love doing things that people don't expect.

I've always made sure that I tour with bands that people aren't expecting me to tour with.

I grew up in the '80s and '90s listening to Public Enemy and Mobb Deep and the Smashing Pumpkins. I don't even know what it was like in the '60s - I wasn't alive then - so the Mayer Hawthorne sound is taking what I can learn from the classics, and blending it with my hip-hop DJ and producer background and punk-rock bands that I played in as a kid.

James Brown is the perfect example of flashy but classy. Classy doesn't have to mean boring. His gear was flamboyant but without being so over the top. The cape was probably the biggest part of his persona. He looked like Superman.

I try to make sure that I make music that can stand the test of time.

I make soul music for hip-hop heads. It's music I'd want to sample if I were a rapper.