Every once in a while you write a song, and you’re not quite sure what it means until you grow into it. Some people can’t catch a break, and I can’t seem to catch a struggle. I think it’s probably a worse position for the guy who can’t catch a struggle, because you know when that struggle comes, it’s going to be all the struggles in one. And “Gravity” is just about being smart enough to stave it off hopefully. And yeah, that one feels good to me.
Gravity
Interview with Mihir Joshi
For eMusicPost.com
Excerpted from Interview with Mihir Joshi >
May 2017 Twitter Q&A
Twitter Q&A session
what was the fastest you've ever written a song and the slowest
Fast: Gravity, You’re Gonna Live, Never on the Day… Slow: Assassin, Belief, Still Feel Like Your Man (that bridge was a PUZZLE)
Excerpted from May 2017 Twitter Q&A >
Interview from The Bobby Bones Show
The Bobby Bones Show: Episode #75
BB: What’s the difference? Why do you say “recording?" I just hear a song.
JM: The way it was engineered. It’s gorgeous. It’s the best—"Gravity" is the best record. You know it’s the difference between “song of the year," “record of the year” at the Grammy’s? Like, this is a quite a "record." Listen to how spare it is, if I stop talking. Well now I’m just going to keep going cause I’m so close.
BB: Now you’re going to post it.
JM: This is "Gravity," from Continuum. Check it out.
["Gravity" continues]
BB: When I went to your show in Minneapolis you didn’t play it, I was sad.
And I know you get that at every show cause you can’t play everything.
JM: No well you saw me at the beginning of this tour when I just played whatever I want. And the crowd was adamant that I play "Gravity." And you know, it’s cool to be that artist where, you know, there are things that people identify with you so much that you have to play them. I dig it.
And I’ll play "Gravity" every night for the rest of my life. That’s a song I’ll never get tired of.
BB: Really?
JM: Yeah, no, there’s something about it. It’s simple, but you can insert however you feel. And "Gravity" can be different every day. When you sing to it. It can be emotional gravity, it can be your time spent in space.
BB: Literal Gravity. The movie with George Clooney.
Excerpted from Interview from The Bobby Bones Show >
Instagram live: April 23, 2018
Answering fan questions
What song am I most proud of? Gravity, for its efficiency.
Excerpted from Instagram live: April 23, 2018 >
Radio Intros 2024
LIFE With John Mayer on Sirius XM Radio
Gravity is one of those songs I thought was just neat. I had written it in one night. And when I came home I thought, well, that's a nice one to have in the quiver. It grew overnight in my head and in my heart. And by the second day, I'd listened back for maybe the tenth time and went, "oh." It's like it had blossomed in front of me, as to what it really was. I'm very proud of the song. It's one of those ones that's gonna go with me through the rest of my life, and I'm happy it's in the sidecar going along with me.
Excerpted from Radio Intros 2024 >
I don't know how we got Gravity to sound like gravity, which is to say it's almost devoid of any other sound but the sound you hear. It's almost in this beautiful vacuum, like it's taking place in outer space. I can be effusive about it because, A, I don't know how to do it, so it was done by accident. B, I have no idea how to do it again. It's just good work when you can get it. It's a lovely recording. I'm very proud of the song.
Excerpted from Radio Intros 2024 >
One of the chords in the song [Gravity], when I say "dream of ways to throw it all away," is so interesting because I put the bassline down first, and I played the wrong string on the bass. It wasn't because I had this clever harmonic idea. I just was an idiot, and played the wrong chord on the bass, and I went "that sounds good."
The guitar you hear on this song is the demo. It is the first time I played the guitar on this song. If it wasn't, it would have been way chestier, it would have been way more confident. It would have been like the fourth snowball fight in Groundhog Day. You know, the fake-looking one. What you hear on the song Gravity is my first attempt at playing, and it's the purest I think I've ever sounded on guitar, cause I don't know what I have as I have it.
Excerpted from Radio Intros 2024 >