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“Playing drums was totally natural for me,” Mayer said in an interview with Today’s Zaman, describing his feelings while on stage at the age of 3. “It didn’t seem like a big deal back then. However, I do remember it, so it must have made an impact on me. All the people stared, I guess.”

Between ‘0’ and ‘1’

The 47-year-old Mayer is mostly known for his highly dynamic performance in his live music and bringing together jazz, drum and bass, jungle and other influences as well as his ability to play the rhythms of programmed jungle drum ‘n’ bass music on acoustic drums, terming this technique “reverse engineering,” a phrase borrowed from computing.

For Mayer, there are two elements that influence him the most in his music: communication and authentic expression. Mayer says he loves to program and work with computers, but is quick to note that “they are just tools,” adding that electronic tunes should not be primordial elements in music, or music itself. “But drums, I’ve been playing all my life,” he says. “I guess my voice comes out more clearly with this instrument.”

“It does not matter so much ‘how’ you do it but ‘why’,” says Mayer, explaining the rhythm as an element of live music. “Or ‘what’ the rhythm is about. To me rhythm is a communication tool. And since dialogue in communication is more interesting and dynamic than monologue, the live aspect adds valuable assets to this subject.”

“What is important for me is for cybernetic culture to be a binary system,” says Mayer. “It’s all either ‘0’ or ‘1’ or ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There is no ‘maybe’ or ‘1/12.’ This is what separates humans from machines. We have intuition, we can communicate. And with all the incredible benefits computers bring to our lives, we should remember that we invented them so we can enjoy life a bit more while they do the dirty work. But we have since become more machine-like. That was not the idea, I think. And I also have a problem with the fact that once we become like machines, we’ll probably have ‘someone to program’ us. So what I do with playing digital beats is not trying to be a machine, as simply I can’t because I’m not a machine, and I’m not supposed to be one. But the closer I get to the aesthetics of machine music, the more obvious the difference will become to people. I’m just saying, it’s OK to remain human. My music is about exploring the distance between ‘0’ and ‘1’.”

A different approach to recording

Never intending to produce any studio recordings, Mayer finally made some recordings after heavy demand. “Well, I’d have to say that we came a long way since we recorded the first album,” Mayer says, explaining the differences between his recordings and the run-of-the-mill ones.

“The first record is more of a compilation capturing the process of the first couple of years, our musical logbook, if you will. Currently we record quite differently. Back then the music was more style based -- like jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. Now it’s more open and eclectic. The styles cross pollinate. We now mix dub step with glitch beats and stuff like that. The first record was a tedious process that took a very long time. We tried to transform the life experience to a recorded document. This turned out to be very difficult, and it took a long time until we found a formula that did justice to our live shows. Now we record very quickly. Basically, we work on the sound a bit first, then establish some musical ideas, jam around with it and finally consolidate the form and then play it all live. These days we mix it right away and it’s done! … The main difference in our records and live shows is that they sound programmed and electronic, but it’s all played in real time and totally live and therefore adds another emotional dimension that is rather rare in electronic music. We now do it as it was done in the old Motown days.”

Developing Western percussion

Mayer has performed almost everywhere in the world, from the United States to the Far East. “It’s pretty much the same all over the world,” he says, addressing the feedback he receives from his audience. “It seems by now we have a bit of a cult following. What’s interesting, though, is that I have observed that we have a more eclectic and mixed audience than other projects I’ve been involved in. Our audience’s age ranges from 20 to 55. Jazz people, rock people, electronic people and the party crowd -- which is the most fun to play for -- are all there. We love it most when people start to dance and just have a good time.”

Mayer is of the opinion that Western percussion, when compared to percussion in other cultures, needs to be developed and focused more. “I’m aware of many other percussion instruments, and I listen to music from all over the world. But I feel that Western percussion needs more attention now as it is underdeveloped, having only developed over the past 100 to 200 years – this, compared to the thousands of years of Asian and African percussion culture.”

Mayer is also open to any kind of intercultural project with Turkish musicians. “I’m always interested in collaborating with people who share or expand my artistic visions,” he says. “For the foreseeable future I’ll be putting my focus on recording and touring internationally with NERVE,” Mayer explains. “We’re currently re-evaluating new distribution and marketing aspects. We’re building new platforms that allow us to better interact with our fans. I think recording albums and possibly physical releases are things of the past. We will focus more on releasing EPs and singles every couple of months on dedicated platforms, possibly user-based stuff. We’ll see. It’s going to be an adventure.”

Mayer does not limit himself to the standard methods and mechanisms in the music industry. “Our music does not fit the current mold of the common music industry paradigms of the past,” says Mayer, “so we’re creating our own new one. So far it has worked out nicely.”