The debut album from Michael Mayo, Bones, tells a story, in more ways than one. While it takes the listener on a musical journey led by alternative and neo-soul elements, the collection also tells a personal tale. Every track on the album – cut live with Mayo’s band; keyboardist Andrew Freedman, bassist Nick Campbell and drummer Robin Baytas – is testament to part of a journey Mayo has undertaken in his life, with part of the process of creating it seeing him admit to his own bisexuality. Bones plays like a letter he wrote himself, opening up about his thoughts and feelings after spending so many years lying to not only himself, but his family and friends. PopWrapped caught up with Michael to find out more about the album and the advice he’d give to others wanting to come to terms with/accept their own truth.
How does it feel to have your debut album Bones out in the world?
It feels amazing for it to finally be coming out. I felt like it was burning a hole in my computer the last year!
Why did you name the record Bones?
I decided to call it Bones, because each song on the album reflects a different part of my life or my worldview that’s been growing over the course of the past few years since moving to New York.
What did you learn about yourself through creating this record?
I learned how important it is to trust yourself and your artistic choices. You can never know everything, but you can always keep an open mind and learn as you go. I definitely learned a lot on the job as I made this record.
What does your recent single/video for “20/20” mean to you?
So I wrote “20/20” in a hotel room in Gyumri, Armenia. All I had was my laptop and a USB mic, no keyboard or instruments. The song’s main theme is about learning from the past, and being so far from home really clarified that for me. As far as the video goes, it’s my band and I playing the song live together in a cool warehouse. The concept was fairly straightforward, and the band knocked it out of the park from the get go.
For you, this album is about coming to terms with your truth. What advice can you offer those who hope to someday do the same?
I’d say, people visibly living their authentic truth helps other people do the same. There’s always going to be a narrative to convince you not to, but that’s mostly just societal conditioning. And I think taking the time to question and challenge that conditioning is the first step in coming to terms with who you really are and what you really want. Obviously for some people that’s easier said than done, and I think every person needs to gauge for their own whether or not it’s safe for them to do that. But I think the main important point for people to remember, and this one took me a long time to understand, is that you aren’t alone. At any given moment, there’s literally millions of people on this planet who feel the same things you do. So let yourself live, it’s a better life on the other side.
For more information on and to keep up to date with Michael Mayo, give his page a like on Facebook.
