Be it swooning to his breakout hit, "Just the Way You Are," or humming his recent single, "Locked Out of Heaven," the singer can arguably pen a catchy track.
"You know how hard it is to write a big song?" he tells GQ. "That shit is hard, man. It's so hard to do. Might be one of the hardest things to ever do. I don't ever want to come out with something safe and get away with 'It sounds good!' It's got to be more than sounding good."
In his cover story with the magazine, Bruno elaborates on the songs that have withstood the test of time for him. In fact, he considers them more than just "tracks."
"The music I like are events," he continues. "F--king 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is my favorite song-that song's an event. And that's what I want to do. I'm sure that shocked the world, that song. 'Billie Jean' shocked the world. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' Those songs are events. That guy put everything he got into that, and he meant it."
And the feeling of completing a "big" song?
"It's that unexplainable high," he says. "Why I keep doing it. That feeling that you keep on chasing and chasing. Because it's nothing, man. It's taking the air and turning it into something. That's the feeling."
It's no surprise that Bruno's musical influences harken back to when he was just a kid. By now, the story of his childhood performances at his father's variety shows are part of the singer's journey to worldwide fame.
"It was like turning into Batman," he explains. "I'd go to school and kids are calling me Peter and we're playing baseball and kickball and shit, and then, 'All right, guys, I've got to go!' you put on a sequined jumpsuit, and all of a sudden you're Bruno, the world's youngest Elvis impersonator!"
After nearly a lifetime in the entertainment world, Bruno didn't have an immediate equation to the secret of a good song.
"... Hypnotize me in the very first three seconds, wake my ear plate up, give me something that I haven't felt before ... and then punch me in the f--king face," Bruno says.
Read GQ's full interview with Bruno Mars here.
Watch "Bruno Mars Returns with a New Album"
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