Mario became a household name after his ballad ‘Let Me Love You’ hit the number one spot on charts throughout the world. As he gears up to release his third album simply titled Go, he appears to have been more at home on TV and movies sets as of late. Starring opposite Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers and allowing MTV to video a documentary about his relationship with his Mother, a reformed heroin addict, he is back behind the mic again with a new chapter in his recording career. Giving his thoughts on age, albums and just how serious his fans are in South Africa, Mario talks exclusively to femealefirst.co.uk.

New album, why did you release in South Africa first?
Hmmm good question. You know what, because we had so many different album release dates, it was in high demand.
You obviously have a huge fan base down there?
Yeah and I am going back down there in December. People really wanted the album down there and it was in high demand. A lot of artists don’t seem to go down to South Africa, I mean some do, but I was like let’s tour down there.The first time I went there was with an R&B/Hip-Hop tour which was with Pharrell, Snoop and Sean Paul and it was crazy. We were doing 100,000 seats. I enjoyed performing more there than I would in the states.

They knew records off albums that I didn’t even release. I guess in the US it is saturated with so much music, where as over there they have to wait for music and when they finally get it, they hold onto it and really cherish it. So I am going back there and to Europe next month.

Turning Point, your last album showed a more mature approach; I am intrigued to know what sort of approach you are taking with this one?

I think it is just natural growth. Musically, sonically, lyrically, it shows a lot of growth. This album shows a lot of what I am experiencing right now.

It is crazy because on the last project there were a lot of things that I didn’t talk about because the people around me thought it might have been a little bit too immature. But on this album I am going all out. This record is all me.

There are a lot of personal experiences in there. All the songs on the album show a different concept. No song is the same as the other and I think that is what makes it special.

Do you find nowadays that a lot of artists duplicate the same concept throughout their album?

I don’t like to buy albums that have double concepts, where they talk about the same thing I just heard in another song. That is the thing with R&B that’s crazy; in Hip-Hop you can talk about anything, you can take any concept and people will still buy it. With R&B there are certain things that we just don’t talk about. You know with this record I decided to take a different path. It is not just about love and about love lost.

Do you think that that is a big conception that people have with R&B, that that is what people think they have to sing about?

It is like that. Even though we do create music, with different concepts it might never come out. So yeah I do think that is a big misconception with R&B, you know you don’t necessarily have to talk about those.

Your sales have been impressive with all your albums, but there is an obvious improvement with each album. So many people think you need to come out of the gate and sell millions. DO you think the more ‘gradual’ approach is more appropriate?

I mean I think with me it has just happened naturally, as my albums have grown. But today, the way record sales are today, the new platinum is 700,000. Nobody is selling 5 million records anymore and that is to do with the web and also people are not making great albums anymore. People are making one or two singles and they want to rush their albums out.

Does the internet and illegal downloading bother you?

I mean it is a gift and a curse, as sometimes it can hurt your sales but then I want my fans to hear a record. So I will have someone leak a record for me, just to get feedback to what they really like. So it is a gift and a curse, but you just have to find a way to make it work for you.

How proactive are you with myspace and communicating with your fans?

I am pretty proactive, better now than I have been in the past. You know as time moves on I definitely become more intrigued by it.

I think we all have our little addiction to networking sites.

[Laughs] Exactly as sometimes it can get a little much, sitting in my hotel room and I look up at the clock and three hours have past. It is a whole other world. You know it is a great platform to interact with your fans and of course you can’t hit everyone up, but it does help.

Again it is a gift and a curse. One way I would rather people went to the stores and bought the album, but hey what you gonna do?

You were very young when you started recording. Do you think that has worked to your advantage?

Another gift and a curse to be honest. On one hand, you have fans that grow with you and you have to experience, but you have to grow up fast.

The opportunity is the gift and what it brings to you but the curse is the fact of losing your childhood and not being able to be a teenager. But at the same time, there are a lot of countries that don’t have the opportunities that we have in America.

Do you think that you were taken advantage of, by your former manager, because of your age?

Absolutely. There was certain ways I was taken advantage of yet there were certain ways that he helped me out too. But I personally feel that I would rather have that happen than it not happen and learn from it.

Now you recently had a very private aspect of anyone’s life aired in a documentary on MTV, how heart wrenching was it to do that?

For me watching it back, it was very emotional and you don’t see those things every day. For everyone who watched the documentary I think everyone had their own relation to it and what it brought. It was definitely heart wrenching like you said, But when I think about it I am just happy for my Mother to be well and be able to make decisions without the drugs being her first choice.

When the idea came about, was it something you really had to give a lot of thought to? Or did you feel it was something you just had to do?

No I did have to think hard over it. Very hard and so far no regrets.

Making this, did you hope others got something out of it?

I just wanted it to clear up any misconceptions of my Mother and of me. My Mother is a very smart woman who is very capable and does a lot of things. I think a lot of people thought she was a strung out addict and I am pleased that it did clear up any misconceptions of her as I do talk about her a lot. She is a very crucial part of my career and why I do what I do, she was very instrumental in me starting out when I was younger.

I didn’t do this because she was just my Mother; I did this because people talk about her and ask me questions about her in interviews. Any misconceptions I hope are no cleared up and of course I hope it helps lots of people. You know 87% of households in American have some sort of substance abuse.

Did you even doubt that showing this side of your reality could go wrong, or were you very specific about what could be shown?

I don’t think there is ever unless you are in control of every single thing, nothing is going to come out exactly how you expect it to, but for the most part there was a great understanding of what I wanted to do. My mother was very instrumental in helping me decide that and my management was very involved in helping me make the decisions of how things were going to go.

Why Go for an album title?

Go is the record we were hoping to release as the first single, but it got leaked. Which really sucked, here we are on that internet stuff again. I kept the title as it is still an incredible song and the song stands for what the album is. It is a statement as is the album.

What producers have you got on the album?

The ones that made the album are Pharrell, Powlow tha Don, Timbaland, Akon, Colli Park and Ne Yo wrote some stuff for the album and also Knightwritaz.

That’s your writing clique isn’t it?

Yeah that’s me Sterling Sims off Def Jam, Marshia Ambrosius from Floetry and Warren Fleder. Well we have producers and writers and we are looking at artists right now. But I am forming my own company on the side and Knightwritaz will be doing a lot of the production for the label.

How did you all come together?

The chemistry was just there and we came together with something that was different on the album compared to the usual R&B stuff.

Melanie Cornish