(January 15, 2016) Writer, model, gym rat, event promoter, and self-professed “raver for life,” Norman Mayers has transitioned at the tender age of 37 as a result of pneumonia on Wednesday, January 13, 2016. An indefatigable staple of the progressive soul/dance/electronica music communities, Mayers co-founded the Strictly Social eclectic soul fusion series in August of 2007 (co-presented with DJ Destroyer aka Aaron Paar of Soul Union) and Nu-Soul Magazine (http://blog.nu-soulmag.com/) in October of 2006, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief, as a way to share the music that he loved with the world.
(January 15, 2016) Writer, model, gym rat, event promoter, and self-professed “raver for life,” Norman Mayers has transitioned at the tender age of 37 as a result of pneumonia on Wednesday, January 13, 2016. An indefatigable staple of the progressive soul/dance/electronica music communities, Mayers co-founded the Strictly Social eclectic soul fusion series in August of 2007 (co-presented with DJ Destroyer aka Aaron Paar of Soul Union) and Nu-Soul Magazine (http://blog.nu-soulmag.com/) in October of 2006, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief, as a way to share the music that he loved with the world.
Having been raised in the Bronx, New York in the ‘80s during hip-hop’s golden era, Mayers was exposed to urban culture at an early age. According to his Nu-Soul biography, a twist of fate found him spending his teen years on the beautiful Caribbean island of Barbados where he was exposed to reggae, soca, dancehall, and calypso. It was here that Mayers' love of art and writing would take hold, earning him a degree in both English Literature and History.
Returning to the States, Mayers would go on to attend International Fine Arts College in Miami, Florida earning him a second degree in Film. Miami in the late 1990s was in the throes of the rave movement and it was in this scene that he discovered both his love for electronic music and his talent for writing about it. Mayers fell in love with drum & bass, breakbeats, and house and found himself writing for a variety of websites and publications such as BPM, Urb, BET/Centric, Lunar Magazine, Jive Magazine and others to give back to the scene.
After a two-year stint in Atlanta, Georgia, Mayers made the move to Los Angeles, where he hit the ground running by writing and contributing for Jointz Magazine, Prefixmag.com, Sphere and Kitori while also becoming Assistant Editor at Black Meetings & Tourism Magazine. It was during this stage that Nu-Soul was birthed. Seen as an outlet to express his love for all the styles of music that had influenced him, Nu-Soul seeks to unify the world of soul with that of electronica/dance.
Mayers worked for several magazines in various capacities and had morphed into a club promoter to spread the Nu-Soul vibe across the globe. His L.A.-based music series included: “Broke As F**k” at Blu Monkey, “Nu-Thursdays” at Little Temple, and perhaps most famously the “Strictly Soul” series, “an evening of eclectic soul fusion for the sophisticated, forward-thinking inhabitants of Los Angeles.”
Starting out in 2007 at Skinny's in North Hollywood and eventually moving to Little Temple in Silverlake, Strictly Social also presented at the legendary Echo in Echo Park. With an energy that combined the experimental openness of electronic music with the raw power of soul music, Strictly Social has consistently brought some the world's most eclectic soulfully inclined artists to Los Angeles. Some past performers have included: Mark de Clive-Lowe, Sy Smith, Anthony David, Lisa Shaw, Lina, Kissey Asplund, Yahzarah, Choklate, Peter Hadar, Zo!, Sonnymoon, Jesse Boykins III, and Thavius Beck, to name but a few. A DJ in his own right, Mayers also worked with resident DJs Destroyer, Monalisa, and Seano, among others, and had a close association to the Soulection camp.
The creative community lost a huge champion with the untimely death of Norman Mayers. He and his contributions to the L.A. community and the world will be deeply missed. May he rest in glory.
*Compiled from various Norman Mayer developed sources by L. Michael Gipson