The Grammy-winning singer-songwriters seventh studio album is being released in waves, with the first four-song installment arriving Friday.

My starting point is, I want to leave the Earth as a writer, he explains.

But if ive engendered some kind of trust that you think im onto something, get the next four, and come along with me on every single wave.

Mayer walked us through the genesis of the first four songs.

It got me thinking how, in California, we like going from one hill to another hill.

And the reason I love L.A.

There is a culture here of the lovers getaway, and most of my jealousy as a single man is about not being able to go to the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur or the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara.

Last September, on the day after hed played in the house band at the 2016 Emmy Awards, Mayer arrived at the studio, slightly hungover, to record a guitar part for another track.

There was some really washy reverb on the guitar, and I started playing this line and I just went, Hey, press record, says the singer, who worked on the demos alone with his longtime engineer Chad Franscoviak.

I realized it was going to be the song I didnt have for the record yet, which was looking forward to something discovering somebody, the beginning of the relationship.

Because all these other songs were about being dropped off into the loneliness, and you cant mourn that long.

Mayer says it was one of many instances when he resisted the urge to bust out a guitar solo, and opted for nuance instead.

This was me coming off the idea of, Gimme a solo I gotta show them I can play, he explains.

There are two guitars happening through most of the song, this way your attention splits up the middle and theres just a vibe.

Thats where learning all those Dead songs comes in a bit, because it brought me into the world of ensemble guitars.

I had this idea to get your attention through repetition that almost sounds like a CD skip.

Though, as with other songs in the collection, Moving On was inspired by a breakup, Mayer says that he had started feeling his mood lift by the time he finished writing and recording it.

If Id had to finish this song a year ago, it wouldnt have this ending.

This ending is me coming back to it two years later and going, Ive moved on, so it gets a happy ending.

I was sitting in that room, he says, gesturing to one of the smaller enclaves adjacent to the main studio, just off trying to find something.

And out of nowhere, I start singing, I am not done changing, out on the run changing, I may be old and I may be young, but I am not done changing.

Its 30 seconds long and it was a jingle and I went, Oh shit, how do I make this a song, because it was so rounded off and circular already.

John Mayer New Songs