Garfield Mayor

Puff the Magic Dragon and Oasis’s Liam Gallagher may seem like strange bedfellows, but Garfield Mayor has the two disparate icons to thank for where he is today. One listen to Mayor’s hypnotic, atmospheric debut and it all starts to make sense. Mayor is the first artist signed to R Tel, the new label started by two of the music industry’s top creative talents: Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas and EMI Music Publishing executive Evan Lamberg. The pair is dedicated to providing a nurturing safe haven for burgeoning singer/songwriters to develop outside of the glare of a major label spotlight. Mayor, who wrote, arranged and produced all the songs on his debut, weaves pop melodies around trenchant lyrics that are filled with disappointment, such as the tale of a selfish man trying his best but still falling short in his lover’s eyes in the haunting first single “Take & Take” or the flawed anti-hero of “Invisible.” Despondency has seldom sounded so catchy. But just as Mayor’s music threatens to slide into despair, a sense of optimism wrapped in a delicious rhythmic beat permeates the uplifting “Let Love Be Your Energy” and the romantic, sexy “Softly, Softly.” “I get a kick out of blending all sorts of styles, really,” Mayor says. “I thought there has to be some way all these different types of music can exist in the same song. Whether you blend in a bit of jazz, a bit of rock or country, you can create new things from these sources. I always had an eye toward that.” His vocal layering and intricate chord changes bring forth images of David Gray, Seal and Robbie Williams meshed with the homespun naiveté of Daniel Bedingfield. And now, he finally gets to share the album, six years in the making, with the world at large and make a connection. “I just want people to love the music,” he says. “Lyrically, it’s telling people that everyone goes through these tough times and you’re not the only one. There are other people going through similar experiences. I want to make people feel a little less alone.”