Charlie Hunter

In terms of people I listen to. There are definitely records you can pick up where you can hear me ripping off, such as Charlie Hunter. He's one of my favorite musicians and he's a jazz guy. He plays a really innovative guitar, an 8-string, and he plays guitar and bass at the same time and its very, very cool. I'm completely inspired by him.

One of the moments in the song that makes it different than most songs that I've written is that Charlie Hunter wrote the bridge section himself. It was just kind of his sensibility in that song.

RY: What do you look forward to the most about your new album?

JM: This is the first record I've loved making. Not to put down any other processes, but this is the one where I'll go into the studio and not know what I'm doing. I just went in with Charlie Hunter and Steve Jordan on Memorial Day weekend. We all get in a room and find a sound that moves us and just feel that certain vibe from those specific players. One of my favorite tunes that I ever wrote came out in an hour and a half. That's always really scary when you tell somebody that you wrote a tune in an hour and a half, because if it sucks they look at you like maybe you should've spent three hours on it. It's just happening. It's so much fun and I'm discovering things musically, as I play them and record them that I never thought I was going to do. So I get all the fun because I never thought I'd hear myself sing on this melody or that chord change.