Richie Mayer Bio
Coming out of the trend-setting early 80’s Chicago PowerPop / New Wave scene that included Pezband, Cheap Trick, Shoes and his own group Loose Lips, singer and songwriter Richie Mayer has proven to be one of the more enduring artists in the genre. The Lips’ 1980 EP “Hung Up On Pop” sounds just as fresh, vibrant and in your face today as it did upon its release, when the single “Kyle” garnered frequent airplay on Chicago station playlists and college radio throughout the Midwest
Slipping into another musical skin, in 1986 Mayer formed the Dark Pop group PushPush and soon recorded the album “World On Fire.” A reaction to the music industry’s slide into big hair, loud clothes and tepid songwriting, Mayer plumbed the moodier side of pop while still penning catchy melodies graced with wry observations on the human condition.
A new direction again presented itself in the early ’90’s when Mayer became a songwriter and producer for BMG Music Publishing in Toronto, Canada. In collaboration with BMG A&R head David Bendeth, the group Love And Sas won Juno Awards (Canadian Grammys) in 1991 and 1992 for R & B Song of the Year with Mayer and Bendeth’s songs and production.
In early 2000 the creative muse beckoned again, this time luring Mayer in a different direction; architecture. Designing and building modern, ecologically sound homes became a passion and Mayer found that composing simple, flowing spaces was much like writing and arranging songs; “If you strip away artifice” Mayer offered, “the truth reveals itself.”
In February of 2020 the scourge of the Covid virus descended upon the world and Mayer retreated into his home studio to write what would unknowingly become this, his latest album, “The Inn of Temporary Happiness,” Seventeen songs of love, loss, surf, sex, and surrender. Reverberating with the Power Pop / Beatlesque melodies that are his forte, Mayer sings all lead as well as background vocals and plays all the instruments including acoustic and electric guitars, bass, mandolin, keyboards, drum pads, percussion and Navajo flute.
Looking through a long lens, it appears that Richie Mayer remains happily, “Hung Up On Pop.” - Michael Freeman