John Mayer in Wellington

John Mayer was in the country as part of his seven-date tour of New Zealand and Australia in April and May. We caught up with John at the Wellington concert who was excited to kick off the tour in Wellington at the TSB Bank Arena on Tuesday 27th April.

Four studio albums, seven Grammy Awards and nearly 13 million album sales in just nine years, the now 32-year-old isn’t just getting older – a worry he cast adrift with the 2006 release of his here-I-am, blown-open, mega-success, Continuum – he’s getting better.

Since his 2001 debut, Room For Squares, and the world-wide radio group hug given to its hit, Your Body Is A Wonderland, as well as the Grammy it brought; to 2003’s Heavier Things and two more Grammys; to his first co-producing turn with Steve Jordan on the four-time Grammy Award winning, hit-harnessed, Continuum, which included Waiting On The World To Change, I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You) and Gravity; to his latest and fourth studio album, his second time producing with Jordan, the November 2009 released, Battle Studies; Mayer’s kind of gravity heads only one way. Up.

He calls Battle Studies a “from-the-gut” confessional and, if it can be said of his album, it is definitely true of his concerts. They’re intimate with the same “efficiency of simplicity” he says marks his new record.

Mayer makes a practical symphony of the screaming upon screaming upon screaming which is universally in-chorus at all his live shows. He speaks with his audience, tells them things about himself, lets them know him.

Fans talked of an ‘afterglow’ having seen him live and they bathe in it for days.

“John makes them feel like he’s singing for just them, to just them, it’s very personal,” says promoter, Chairman of Chugg Entertainment, Michael Chugg.