A member of Athletic Mic League and Now On, Ann Arbor native and longtime eclectic DJ/producer Andrew Cohen began recording soul-seeped material as something of a joke, not planning on it to reach beyond his circle of friends and family. Mayer Hawthorne, the pseudonym Cohen used for the songs, eventually took on a life of its own. When a couple Hawthorne songs were played for Peanut Butter Wolf, the Stones Throw label head was baffled; he initially thought he could have been hearing re-edits of obscure late-'60s/early-'70s soul singles, not the work of a multi-instrumentalist who laid everything down himself. Subsequently signed to Stones Throw, Cohen debuted Hawthorne with "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" b/w "When I Said Goodbye," a pair of scratchy and bittersweet tales of heartache, on red, heart-shaped 7" vinyl. The "Maybe So, Maybe No" 12" followed shortly thereafter, which preceded the full-length A Strange Arrangement, released during fall 2009. After a live set (Stones Throw Direct to Disc #1) and a couple single releases, Hawthorne prepared his second album, How Do You Do, for Universal Republic. It was scheduled for release during fall 2011