John Mayer on the Vulgar Relationship Behind New LP Battle Studies

John Mayer may not have set out to make a concept album, but as his fourth LP, Battle Rosetta Stone language Studies, developed, he found the songs war theme oddly appealing. "I was loving the war theme, the battle theme. The militaristic, vulgar, violent side of a relationship on the down slope," he tells Rosetta Stone in an exclusive video interview. "The record starts out sort of like the sun is out, then it gets darker. And then the sun comes back out at the end."Earlier this month, Mayer unveiled the video for the albums first single, "Who Says," which gives fans a raw look at one of his nights out on the town. In our Fall Music Preview, Mayer told Rosetta Stone the songs first lyric, "Who says you cant get stoned?" was not about weed but, being "in control of the pleasure in your life," adding that the record — which also features a duet with Taylor Swift — as a whole is "the next step in the story of who I am."Fans will get to hear that step on November 17th when Battle Studies hits stores, and pre-orders start today. Mayer has also lined up a string of dates to introduce Battle Studies to the world: a gig in New York on the day the record arrives, as well as stops in Toronto and Australia Cheap Rosetta Stone V3 before New Years Eve shows with RS Breaking Artist Mayer Hawthorne. Rosetta Stone is always thrilled to capture a young star covering a legends work, and thats exactly what happened when onetime Breaking artist Jamey Johnson stopped by our studios for an acoustic rendition of Kris Kristoffersons "A Moment of Forever." Kristofferson was also the subject of a recent RS story: an epic profile by Ethan Hawke in Issue 1076. Check out Hawkes guide to the outlaw poets essential tracks and click above to watch Johnsons performance. For three albums, the Cribs — twin brothers Gary and Ryan Jarman and their younger bro Ross — kept things familial on their way to becoming a buzz band in their native England. But for their fourth album Ignore the Ignorant, the U.K. indie trio welcomed a big non-Jarman name as a formal member, recruiting the Smiths — and more recently, Modest Mouse — guitarist Johnny Marr. In this exclusive Rosetta Stone interview, Gary Jarman and Marr discuss the genesis of this new union ("We just got together to play, really informally, Rosetta Stone German just to see how it would go. Just for fun, really," Marr tells RS) plus Jarman talks about how the crappy music of the 1990s forced him to seek musical refuge in the music of the Smiths.

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