The deep psychedelic dub track was composed last year as Mayer cited Perry as being the sole production influence on his entire upcoming album Beginner's Mind. "Upsetter’s" solid foundation is another drum loop sent to him by Colin Jalbert. Mayer then dubbed it out and added heavy bass lines to create a spacious & psychedelic dub reggae track plentiful with space echoes, ringing guitar chords, hypnotic vamps, & soulful filtered guitar leads floating on top.
On Perry's influence on the track and Mayer's career at large, he pens the following:
"Not only is Lee Scratch Perry (aka The Upsetter) a huge influence on me musically, to me, he represented total freedom in action. Unrestricted, wide open, wild, & sometimes scary freedom. He didn’t follow any rules, in music or in life. In fact, he showed the world that true creativity, & artistic pursuits in general, have no rules or boundaries, & can be completely original.
As a kid, when I was first discovering Reggae music, I watched a Bob Marley documentary, & the footage that stuck with me the most was of Scratch & his band The Upsetters in his small, seemingly rag tag, studio in Jamaica. He was so animated & free in his body. Seeing him dancing around his own Black Arc Studio so wildly, twisting knobs like a mad man, speaking gibberish, & smoking herb, all in what seemed like fast forward or sped up film… but he was the only one moving that fast & it blew my mind. His whole energy. I loved him immediately. I loved his influence on some of my all time favorite music & musicians immediately.
As of now, his music, & a lot of the albums he produced are still some of my daily go-to, good vibe setting, albums. So in recording & producing my first album, the only game plan going into it I really had was that, no matter the style of the track was, I wanted the whole album to be “dubbed out” like Scratch would have done. I was so sad to learn of his passing & so grateful to be influenced by such a spirited & groundbreaking human being!"
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