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.

I just want to make music as long as I can and reach as many people as I can.

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

Drums, bass, guitar, keys, I play a little of each of those.

Nowhere on earth has more soul than Detroit.

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 think that Detroiters are some of the most resilient people in the world.