Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez, known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and choreographer. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age and performed in various musical venues in his hometown throughout his childhood. He graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. After being dropped by Motown Records, Mars signed a recording contract with Atlantic in 2009. Mars began...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth8 October 1985
CityHonolulu, HI
CountryUnited States of America
I don't ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, 'It sounds good!' It's got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.
I think I don't take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it's a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.
My demo was terrible, I sounded like a chipmunk. I was so young.
I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.
I know a lot of artists say this, but it's hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There's no tricks.
'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I'd been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.
Every time I try to write a song, when I sit down and think I'm going to write, I really want to write a song, and it never works out. It's always when it hits me unexpectedly on a plane or right before I go to bed, something like that.
I'm hoping that "Nothin' On You", "Billionaire" and "Just The Way You Are" - songs that I produced... I hope that it's a warning for people. I hope it lets them know that I'm a little unorthodox when it comes to genres and styles.
My father's a musician and my mother's a singer. My dad's originally from Brooklyn and he was a Latin percussionist so I've always had instruments around the house. He used to have a show like a 1950s rock and roll show with Little Richard music. They would do doo-wop songs and stuff like that.
I'm a big fan of the young 1950s Elvis when he would just go onstage and control the whole environment.
I've definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it's a little more raw.
Songwriters, you have to work - you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song's going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.
My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.