Class, Now in Session
“Breakfast is a big deal to me,” says Mayer Hawthorne, in the midst of devouring a doughnut. “It’s the most important meal of the day. Ask your doctor.” Hawthorne, nee Andrew Mayer Cohen, is big on such facts. The 31-year-old Michigan native, who is currently turning the music world on to Motown cool with his soulful 60s-style falsetto, also thinks that wireless internet is going to kill us all. “I read it somewhere," he says in earnest. "I’ll send you the article.”
Another fact: Hawthorne is having a very good 2010. He recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Snoop Dogg is a Twitter buddy, self-proclaimed fan and future collaborator. And just this past Saturday, Kanye West blogged about him. For the second time.
Not bad for a guy who was playing a Culver City mall opening this past October.
“I felt like Tiffany,” he says of the experience, alluding to the '80s mall sensation. But really, he doesn't care where he performs — as long as he's able to get up in front of people.
A "nice Jewish boy" who moved to Culver City from Ann Arbor four years ago, Hawthorne initially came to L.A. to foster a DJ career that had been brewing since high school. But in the style of so many L.A. success stories, luck intervened. He happened to be at a party with Peanut Butter Wolf, the head of indie label Stones Throw Records, one night, and the exec asked for tapes. Hawthorne sent over a handful of originally written songs recorded in his bedroom, using headphone cans as a microphone. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history.
On Friday, Hawthorne will open his second world tour from a stage in Tokyo before making stops in Paris, Amsterdam and the Coachella Music Festival in April.
And he’ll do it all in the "suits and sneakers" he’s fast becoming known for.
While most modern artists look to their stylists for sartorial guidance, Hawthorne’s clothing creativity is inspired by the gazillion record jackets he owns (the guy still is a DJ, after all). Favorite jacket art includes selections from The Dramatics, Eddie Holman and Frank Sinatra.
“They kept it classy for sure," he says. "A lot of the styles I go for are from a period from when I wasn’t even around, so I have to take what I can from that and update it, add my own flavor. Just like the music.”
Like Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy, Hawthorne is big on keeping things classy. He prefers that the members in The Country, his band, wear matching suits during performances, Tempations-style. Despite being color blind, he still goes vintage shopping when he gets the chance.
“But it’s getting harder and harder to find good stuff,” he says. “L.A. is the toughest because everyone is out here looking for vintage.”
One thing that Hawthorne has no trouble locating are the thick eyeglass frames that have become a kind of signature. But unlike the flashy rap stars that have taken an interest in the burgeoning star, Hawthorne prefers to keep his shades simple.
“I never pay anymore than $10,” he says of the glasses he sources in Venice Beach, which he fondly calls "Mecca." “I’m not the guy who’s shelling out $400 for designer whatever.”
But Hawthorne’s style isn’t limited to the retro. As DJ Haircut, the turntable moniker bestowed on him by his father when he was barely old enough to walk, Hawthorne trades the three-piece suits and bow ties for argyle sweaters, jeans and Detroit Tigers baseball caps. And as one-third of hip-hop group Now On, the artist has been known to don an all-white ensemble that might fit in at a P. Diddy party. But the personas are not an act.
“I’m not an actor,” he insists. “It's all me — Andrew Mayer Cohen — and whatever I’m doing may be an exaggerated, extreme side of my personality. But it's me.”
And to know anything about Hawthorne is to know his undying love for all things Detroit, evident in the Michigan plates on his car and his unwillingness to don a pair of purple and yellow sneakers at our photo shoot (“I’m a Piston’s fan,” he insists).
But, like most transplants, he can’t knock the good Cali weather.
“In Detroit you get up and there’s a foot of snow outside or there’s freezing rain and you just want to go back to sleep. I get up here and I’m ready to take on the world.”
Fact duly noted.
L.A.-based stylist Monica Schweiger has been dressing models and celebs for the likes of Women's Wear Daily and New York magazine for years. She specializes in rock stars (she was one of the first to style Lady Gaga) and is a regular contributor to Style Section L.A.
