Meet Mayer Hawthorne. Born and raised in the Detroit area, home to some of the rawest hip hop and rock music on earth, one might naturally expect him to bear some of that same roughness, that edge. On the contrary, Mayer Hawthorne (Andrew Mayer Cohen) is a fucking nice guy. Ask anyone who has talked to the guy (or just follow him on Twitter). That's not to say he doesn't rock out, however, as audiences across the country (and right now over in Europe) would surely attest.

We caught up with Mayer as he laced up a pair of brand new silver Jordans, completing his signature suit and kicks outfit. The interview after the break.

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Mayer Hawthorne: I'm going to wear these [Jordans] tonight. Don't know if anybody will even see them, but I don't care. [Pause] I've got a ton of them.

IYS: You've been picking them up along the tour?

MH: This tour is ending in L.A., so I don't have to fly anywhere with any of my shit. So yeah, I'm just buying them up, because I can just roll back to the crib and unload after we're done.

The last show of the tour is actually in San Francisco, but we're playing Coachella afterward.

IYS: Coachella, and Sasquatch right? Any other festivals coming up?

MH: Sasquatch? Didn't know we were playing that one. Cool! I just found out yesterday we're playing Mile High too. Sunset Junction. Bonnaroo. Playing a couple in Australia and New Zealand, probably a few more as well. We just played four or five shows at SXSW.

IYS: Did you play at the Stones Throw showcase [at SXSW]?

MH: No, we had our own show in Houston that night. I was really mad that I didn't make it back in time for that. Didn't make it to that one, but we did get to play with Smokey Robinson.

IYS: How'd you like that?

MH: It was incredible. It's like, well, I can retire now. I could be done now. He's the number one influence. It doesn't get any crazier than that.

I'm for real too. It's like, I did it. I could retire happily now and say that I did it, that I made it.

IYS: And to come so suddenly on your debut album [as Mayer Hawthorne] too.

MH: Well yeah. I've been working hard making music, but I had no idea things would happen like this.

IYS: Before the Mayer Hawthorne album, you were known as DJ Haircut. Any idea where you'll go after this one -- another Mayer Hawthorne release, or back to Haircut, or off-and-on with both?

MH: Man, it's all the same. Just a different name, same guy. I just did a remix for Snoop Dogg and it's very Haircut. It's on the More Malice album that he just released. It's a "Mayer Hawthorne Remix" featuring me on the vocals as well. It was pretty fun.

IYS: Any other remixes in the works?

MH: I just did a cover of James Pants' 'Thin Moon'. That's one of my favorite things I've ever done. That just came out; It's on StonesThrow.com.

Did a cover of Tony Bennett's 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco', that's coming out. We're going to do that one in San Fran for the last show.

We actually - I recorded that song on the tour bus. Just a couple weeks ago.

IYS: So you bring recording equipment with you on tour?

MH: Well, we've got enough to get stuff done. You know, you get a little hiss and bus-rumble in there, but that's part of the magic.

IYS: You've said before how you like to record alone. How does that work on the bus?

MH: I'll just lock everybody out. [Laughter] Or lock myself in the back room and get it done.

I don't know, I'm private when I'm recording. I mean, I've done it in front of people, and I don't have any problem recording in front of people, but I like to do a lot of experimentation and try things a million different ways, and see what works and what doesn't… I just feel like it gets annoying for other people in the room to hear me play the bass line over another hundred times as I try to get it exactly the way I hear it in my head, you know?

I may get halfway through a song and change completely the direction of it all. That's why I like being by myself when I record, to not have anyone around to complain about my experimenting. [Laughter]

IYS: So a good number of the stops on this tour have been selling out -- how does that feel?

MH: Well, Passion Pit is helping a lot with that on this end of the tour, but yeah, it's been great. Every time we sell out a show, I'm always totally shocked. I can't believe that it's working out this well.

IYS: …and then you tweet about it.

MH: [Laughter] Yeah. I tweet about it because I can't believe it! I'm still just - Every day I have to slap myself in the face and realize again that it's real.

Soon as this tour ends, we're kicking one off in Europe. No rest for the wicked. I figure, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

IYS: Better to go hard now than look back later and regret, right?

MH: Amen, brother.

IYS: Your label, Stones Throw, can you tell us how you got lined up with them?

MH: Well, I met Peanut Butter Wolf at a party in L.A. called The Do-Over, which is this awesome party that they do over the summer. It's a few guys from Stones Throw that put the party on, and Wolf just happened to be there. I got introduced to him through a mutual friend, this girl named Noelle Scaggs, of The Rebirth.

IYS: Wolf has said [on the Stones Throw website that you're "the only artist in the history of the label that I’ve signed after hearing only two songs." Were those Mayer Hawthorne tracks, or were they Haircut tracks?

MH: Those were the first two Mayer Hawthorne songs that came out on the heart-shaped record. Those were the first two songs I ever wrote [as Hawthorne], and they were the only two. I never had any plans to record anything more than that.

[The second track] was actually used in a Spike Jonze / Kanye West film. It's cool, man. I loved it. It was super creepy and dark.

It fit me really well, because the album is called A Strange Arrangement. I'm into strange stuff. That song is actually pretty strange -- well, all of the songs are a little strange. It fit.

IYS: Sometimes when I show someone the record, and then later they find out you're white, it's kind of this big deal. It surprises people. You find that sort of thing happening a lot?

MH: All the time. All the time.

IYS: You ever get people who meet you for the first time expecting a black guy?

MH: [Laughter] No, usually it doesn't get that far.

Well, Wolf was kind of like that, actually. When he met me, I think he had forgotten what I looked like. Then, the next time, after he had listened to the songs -- Because he took like a month to get back to me -- and after he had listened to the songs, he set up another meeting with me, and I think he totally forgot what I looked like. I showed up for the meeting and he was really shocked. He was like, "Wait a minute, I think we've got the wrong guy here." That was a trip.

IYS: Before your signing to Stones Throw, were you familiar with their roster?

MH: Yeah, I was familiar.

IYS: I guess if you know Madlib, you know a good chunk of it.

MH: Shit, yeah. 75% of the projects that come out there are actually Madlib under some name or another. My album is actually just all Madlib too. [Laughter] I'm just the face of the project.

But yeah, I knew Stones Throw. I think the first thing from them that I really knew and loved was Quasimoto. The first Quasimoto is still one of my favorite albums of all time. I put it on all the time. That's one of the ones that just never leaves my crate.

IYS: Maybe you can shed some light on this then: I've heard rumor that Madlib is sitting on another couple Quasimoto records that are just waiting around for release.

MH: Well, I can't confirm or deny that allegation, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that he has a ton of those ready to go. He's a machine. I've never seen anything like Madlib. He produces music at a rate beyond anything I've ever seen. It's crazy.