Bruno Mars

1985–2003: Early life and musical beginnings

Peter Gene Hernandez was born on October 8, 1985, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Peter Hernandez and Bernadette San Pedro Bayot. He was raised in the Waikīkī neighborhood of Honolulu. His father, originally from Brooklyn, New York, is of Puerto Rican and Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with ancestral roots in Hungary and Ukraine. His mother emigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii and was of Filipino ancestry. Hernandez's parents met while performing in a show—his mother as a hula dancer and his father as a percussionist. At the age of two, he was nicknamed "Bruno" by his father, who thought he resembled professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.

Influences

Mars was raised on his father's 1950s doo-wop collection ("simple four-chord songs that got straight to the point") and on Little Richard, Frankie Lymon, Little Anthony, and Jerry Lee Lewis. As a child he impersonated Elvis Presley, affecting Mars's musical evolution: I'm a big fan of 1950s Elvis when he would go on stage and scare people because he was a force and girls would go nuts! You can say the same thing for Prince or The Police. It's just guys who know that people are here to see a show, so I watch those guys and I love studying them because I'm a fan. Mars also impersonated Michael Jackson (another inspiration), and hip-hop songs by The Neptunes and Timbaland which were played on the radio influenced him.

Musical style and themes

Mars's music has been noted for a variety of styles, musical genres, and influences including pop, R&B, funk, and soul. He also includes other elements such as disco, reggae, and rock in his work. His debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, is primarily a pop, reggae pop and R&B record. Many of Mars's songs on the album have "feel-good", carefree, optimistic sentiments. Darker subjects in his songs, however, address failed relationships, pain and loneliness. Mars's subsequent release, Unorthodox Jukebox (like his debut album) is influenced by disco, funk, rock, reggae and soul, and balladry. His second album differs from the first lyrically, addressing traditional notions of romance, male chauvinism and sexuality; the explicit content in...

It Will Rain

"It Will Rain" is a song by American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars. It was released on September 27, 2011 by Atlantic Records as the lead single and theme song from the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.

Mars composed the song with his production team the Smeezingtons. It was partially written during the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour in the United States and finished after the singer watched an early version of the movie which inspired him.

Background

Bruno Mars started writing the song while he was on the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour, "I was just writing to write. I had my guitar with me on tour when I was in the States. I never finished it", he explained. Afterwards he got a call to provide something to the soundtrack, the singer saw some scenes of "Breaking Dawn" and thought to himself "that song I started might be perfect for this". He admitted to have the tune halfway done before visualizing an early cut of the film and, inspired by its characters, put together the finishing touches. In an interview with Billboard, he went on detail "I just had this melody in my head and basically laid it down after I saw the film." He had to watch "most of the movie" to feel "the vibe", as well as...

Production and release

"It Will Rain" was written and produced by Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine, whom are collectively known as the Smeezingtons. Engineering for "It Will Rain" took place at the Levcon Studios, while the mixing was done at Larrabee Sound Studios, both in Los Angeles, California. Along with the song's composition, Levine also engineered the track. Phredley Brown did the arrangement of the strings, Oscar Hidalgo played the bass, Andrew Duckles was responsible for the viola, Charlie Bisharat played the violin with Josefina Vergara, and Suzie Katayama conducted the orchestra. The mixing team included Manny Marroquin, Chris Galland and Erik Madrid, the latter two served as assistants. It was mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Marcussen Mastering...

Composition and lyrical interpretation

"It Will Rain" is a pop and pop-soul ballad. Its instrumentation is reminiscent of "Wild Horses" (1971) by The Rolling Stones and Mars's "Grenade" (2010). The song's main structure is backed by piano, percussion that resembles an 80's drum track, backup vocals, a "digital echo" on Mars's voice and "sweeping strings". It starts with a piano chord in a menacing, dissonant crescendo with "solemn chord progression" and "haunting backup vocals". Suddenly, the a "light simple piano riff" starts, accompanied by a chorus.

Reception

"It Will Rain" received generally mixed reviews. Billboard gave the song a 4 out of 5 stars, denoting that the song explores "the darker insecurities first seen in..."Grenade"". Billboard compared the song's piano riff to the ones used by the artist himself, while the percussion and chord progression was reminiscent of "OneRepublic's oeuvre more than Mars' sunny hits". The review concluded with positive feedback for the singer's "pitch-perfect vocals and his knack for warbling about women troubles, the man once again delivers."

Locked out of Heaven

"Locked Out of Heaven" is a song by American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars from his second studio album, Unorthodox Jukebox (2012). It was released as the lead single from the album on October 1, 2012.

The song was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine. It was produced by the former three, under their alias, the Smeezingtons along with Mark Ronson, Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie.

Background and production

After the 2010 debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, Bruno Mars revealed he wanted to create something unexpected with its follow-up. "This is me going into the studio and recording and writing whatever I want," Mars said confidently. "This album represents my freedom." It all started backstage, after a show, during a jamming session in a "greenroom", while singing the phrase "Locked Out of Heaven". According to Philip Lawrence, the track developed a meaning as they started to write it, "when you’re with someone who's showing you a new way to love." The Smeezingtons went to New York to work with Jeff Bhasker, Emile Haynie and Mark Ronson and during a jamming session with drums, bass, and guitar, Mars created the riff of the song. He started...

Release

According to Ronson, Mars wanted "Locked Out of Heaven" to be the lead single, which he considered a "brave" choice. Aaron Bay-Schuck, Mars's A&R representative at the time, found the track's production to be cutting edge, although it wasn't an instant favorite. However, he perceived that "it was something special" but had no idea how to classify it. Bay-Schuck felt the song needed time to grow as "the more you hear it, the more of an earworm it becomes", leading the promotional department to make sure that program directors weren't afraid of playing a track that "sounded different from what was on the radio".

Composition and influences

The sheet music for "Locked Out of Heaven" shows the key of D minor, with the vocals ranging from the low note of A3 to the high note of C5. Levine said that some parts of the song are assembled from vocals, not instruments; Mars said they needed "a dep-dep-dep-dep sound". Mars's voice was recorded, chopped up and processed to sound like an instrument. The song's composition relies mainly on a "guitar-worthy groove guitar, a soaring sing-along chorus and sexual innuendo galore". It finds Mars singing a confession of a relationship that is so good that he repeats to his love "Your sex takes me to paradise", a verse inspired by Halle Berry; "You make me feel like I've been locked out of heaven for too long/ Can I just stay here, spend the...

Critical reception

The song received generally positive reviews from music critics. Robert Copsey of Digital Spy was positive, giving the song a rating of 5 out of 5 stars, praising the "80s-styled funk beats and wildly infectious percussion", the "singalong chorus may be a hasty reminder that his strength lies in fist-clenching". He also wrote that considered the song "one of the most interesting musical evolutions of 2012." Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone gave the song 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that "The song is about unbridled passion, but as usual with Mars, the aesthetic is tidy and impeccable, pop songcraft polished to a high-gloss gleam: jittery Police-esque rock-reggae verses that erupt, amid thunder-boom synths, into a steamrolling four-on-the-floor...