Mind Reading: New Album, Book, More Projects Complement Mike Posner’s ‘Beautiful Day’

It’s been ten years since Mike Posner wrote “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” the song that earned him a Grammy nomination as it once again drew back the curtain on the growing rift that was his feel between fame and fulfillment.

These days, Posner is on a cross-purpose in the music industry and in life as he focuses on spirituality, health, mental health and happiness. It is, to quote the title of his new song, “A Good Day” for the artist Arista.

The song is full of affirmations that remind listeners to show up, to embrace beauty and pain, to share their love. To adopt Posner’s frequent mantra: Keep going.

“It’s a lot of fun to put music out,” he says. “Sometimes in my work I create music, but I haven’t put it together. I’ll go into my head like, ‘Is it perfect?’ ‘ or I’ll wait too long and I’m happy with a new song. But whenever I get out on the road and share art it’s great.”

The song is a sign of more to come. Posner has an album completed that he plans to release in the new year. When explaining this plan, he remembers the words his friend told him. He said, ‘Mike, you’re pointing at the rainbow when you believe the sun doesn’t always shine.’ I would say it’s the title of this album. ”

But first… he’s writing his first book — a chronicle of his 2019 cross-country trip, a trip inspired by his father Jon Posner, who died of brain cancer three years earlier. That plan was almost ruined by a snake bite that almost killed him but he recovered, returned to the scene, and hit the road again. In 2021, Posner completed another incredible feat — reaching the summit of Mount Everest, which also came with its share of tragedy and endurance.

Sharing his stories, sharing his music, “… I know it’s one of the greatest things I have to do with my time and my energy and my gifts,” he says. .

“My creativity is based in containers. It means, when I have a container to hold the creativity, that’s where the inspiration flows. Now I’m writing a book. That’s my main creative project. I have and time in my schedule, usually four hours a day. When I finish that book, and my deadline is January 1st, inspiration will stop flowing into that container work with album I’ll start having more ideas for songs. And if I start writing a book of poetry, I’ll start having more ideas there.”

Posner says of the book: “It’s been an excavation. “It hasn’t always been fun because some of the things you write are so painful that they happened, you have to go back and write them and put them into practice, especially when they haven’t been processed. On the other hand, the things that were really good, you can repeat them again… but it was difficult at times. ”

Does such a process stifle the spirit when Posner writes new music?

“Indeed. I cry in the studio, I don’t want to talk all the time, but often. With songs, it’s usually not a specific thought but a feeling you go into that maybe different thoughts have caused in your life and often a lot of other people have felt that feeling,” he says.

“So what I end up saying, or using in a song may not be specific to you but the feelings beneath these words are often personal and universal and this is something deeply connected to music. . When you hear a song and it hits. And it’s a deep thing to be a part of.”

Posner has been sharing his music in other non-traditional venues. He recently competed in an ultramarathon in Georgia—after running it. And he did a show for those incarcerated at the California Correctional Institution, a state prison in Tehachapi, inspired by a workshop he completed last year.

“Every time I play I feel like I’m in the right place,” he says. “I like to play shows whether I get paid or not, whether there are two people there and one of them is my mother, or whether it’s 10,000 people.”

He also makes house calls. “Now the thing that I am very proud of is that we do a lot of shows for people who can’t go to concerts. So I do hospice calls for people who are leaving this life. I just show up at people’s homes and play this song and other songs, I do breathing work, mainly I listen more than what I do,” he says.

“I had a hospice worker who made a big difference to me when my father died, so I loved serving. What he just did for me, I want to do for others.”

Reflecting on his current chapter, Posner invokes one word to describe it: Expansion.

“I was always relaxed, and now I do a lot of things that I never did before. I have been called to serve in many different ways. I’m writing this book, which is something I’ve never done before, I’m reorganizing the business to include speaking, which I’m doing more now. I want to build some community in my entire universe. I’ve done parts of these things but never done them officially. I am deeply in love with this amazing woman,” he says.

“Expansion comes with many challenges because sometimes I will meet and feel like, I don’t know how to do this. I need to learn something new to overcome this challenge. That’s all I can say I mean I’m willing to learn new things. Sometimes it’s really uncomfortable and sometimes it’s painful but I always learn from it and it’s a good time.

“I think the big question of this generation is: Am I doing it right? Am I doing my life right? Did I make a bad decision here and could I have done something to improve it? That time is close to death reminded me that no matter how much life is given to me, to share my gifts.”

Mind Reading (formerly Hollywood & Mind) is a recurring feature featuring interviews with musicians, actors, athletes, designers and other cultural influencers who promote conversation and action about mental health, and destroy the stigma.