Mind Reading: New Album, Book, Other Projects Fill Mike Posner’s ‘Beautiful Day’
It's been a decade since Mike Posner wrote "I Took a Pill in Ibiza," a hit that garnered him a Grammy nomination as it also pulled back the curtain on the growing chasm he felt between fame and fulfillment.
These days, Posner is walking with different purpose in the music industry and in life as he centers spirituality, wellness, mental health and joy. It is, to quote the title of his new song, a "Beautiful Day" for the Arista artist.
The song is filled with affirmations reminding listeners to show up, to welcome beauty and pain, to share their love. To embrace a frequent Posner mantra: Keep going.
"It just feels so good to be putting music out," he says. "Sometimes in my career I've created music, but I haven't shared it. I'll get all in my head like, 'Is it perfect?' or I'll wait too long and then I'm kindof over that time and am more excited about a new song. But whenever I get out of my own way and share the art it's awesome."
The song is a harbinger of more to come. Posner has a completed album he's planning to release in the new year. Describing the project, he recalls the words a friend shared with him. "He said, 'Mike you point out the rainbows while acknowledging the sun doesn't always shine.' I would say that's the theme of this album."
But first... he's writing his first book—a chronicle of his 2019 walk across the country, a journey inspired by his father Jon Posner, who died from brain cancer three years earlier. That venture was nearly derailed by a near-fatal snake bite but he recovered, returned to the spot of the incident, and hit the trail again. In 2021, Posner completed another stunning feat—summiting Mount Everest, which also came with its share of peril and perseverance.
Sharing his stories, sharing his music, "... I know that's one of the big things I'm supposed to be doing with my time and my energy and my gifts," he says.
"My creativity is container-based. Meaning, when I have a container to catch the creativity, that's where the inspiration flows. Right now I'm writing a book. That's my main creative project. I have time in my schedule, usually four hours a day. When I finish that book, and my deadline for myself is January 1, the inspiration will stop flowing into that container. When I start working on an album then I'll start having a lot more song ideas. And if I start writing a book of poetry, I'll start having a lot more ideas there."
"It's been an excavation," Posner says of the book. "It's been a not always chill experience because some of the stuff you write is so painful that it happened and you have to go back there and write it and it activates it, especially if it wasn't processed. Conversely, the stuff that was really great, you get to relive that also... but it's been challenging at times."
Is the process similarly soul-baring when Posner pens new music?
"Absolutely. I cry in the studio, I don't want to say all the time, but often. With songs, it's often not a specific memory but it's an emotion you're tapping into that maybe various memories have triggered in your life and usually many other humans have felt that exact emotion," he says.
"So what I end up saying, or using in the song may not be specific to you but the emotion that underlies those lyrics is often very human and very universal and this is the deep connective thing with music. When you hear a song and it hits you. And you're connected to them and that's a really deep, beautiful thing to be a part of."
Posner has also been sharing his music in some untraditional places. He recently performed at an ultramarathon in Georgia—after he completed running it. And he did a show for those incarcerated at California Correctional Institution, a state prison in the city of Tehachapi, inspired by a workshop he completed last year.
"Every time I play I always feel like I'm in the right place," he says. "I like to play shows whether I get paid or not, whether there's two people there and one of them is my mom, or whether it's 10,000 people."
He's also making house calls. "Right now something I'm really proud of is we're doing a lot of shows for people who can't go to concerts. So I'm making hospice house calls for people who are transitioning out of this lifetime. I'm just showing up at people's households and playing this song and other songs and doing breathwork, and mostly just listening more than I'm doing anything," he says.
"I had a hospice social worker who made a huge difference for me when my father was dying and so I would like to serve. What she just did for me, I want to do for others."
Reflecting on his current chapter, Posner summons one word to express it: Expansion.
"I was always comfortable, and I'm now doing a lot of things I've never done before. I'm called to serve in a lot of different ways. I'm writing this book, which is something I've never done before, I'm reorganizing the business to incorporate speaking, which I'm doing more of now. I want to build some kind of community aspect to my whole universe. I've done elements of these things but I've never formally done them. I'm in love with this amazing woman in a way that is just so expansive," he says.
"Expansion comes with a lot of challenges because at times I'll have an encounter and I'm like, I don't know how to do this. I need to learn something new in order to overcome this challenge. All I can say is I am committed to learning the new things. Sometimes it's really uncomfortable, and sometimes it's painful but I always learn from it and it's a fun 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 wrong decision here and could I be doing something to make it better? That moment close to death just reminded me that in however much life I am given, to share my gifts."
Mind Reading (formerly Hollywood & Mind) is a recurring column that features interviews with musicians, actors, athletes, creators and other culture influencers who are elevating conversation and action around mental health, and breaking stigma.
