Philip Lawrence: Don't forget your true self while chasing success

‘There’s nothing wrong with success and chasing your dreams, but don’t forget to bring your true self with you.’

June 11, 2026 By Dave Roberts

MBW’s World’s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe’s biggest hits. This time out we meet Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars’ key creative partner for more than 15 years. World’s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA – the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.

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Philip Lawrence was one of the leading players in the creative team behind  24K Magic , the Bruno Mars album that won seven Grammys at the 2018 ceremony.

He had co-written every track, and was one third of Shampoo Press & Curl (along with Mars and Christopher Brody Brown), the production team that shaped the record. This success continued a golden partnership between Lawrence and Mars that, as far as the public is concerned, started with the game-changing  Doo-Wops & Hooligans  in 2010.

So, January 28, 2018 at Madison Square Garden was an undoubted career high point. But, on a personal level, not so much. Instead, if not actually a low point, it was definitely a turning point.

Lawrence recalls: “I wasn’t happy at that time. I think that God, or a higher power, or a spiritual entity, whatever you want to call it, gives you signals, and talks to you when you need to hear it most.

“You see, I had a vision of what success was going to be ever since I was a kid. I was on that mission, striving for that success – and then I was finally achieving it at the highest level, beyond anything I would have imagined…

“But I had never considered the other side of it, the human side. You see someone holding as many Grammys as they can carry, and you don’t think, I wonder what happens when they go home?

“And for me, at that time, I was having an existential crisis. My personal life was a shambles, because I had forgotten myself. I had focused almost all my energy on the goal, the dream, the drive. My success had become my identity. That was where I found my value and that was how I was going to be accepted.

“But eventually I realized that I’d had it backwards. I had this double life of being on the road as a rock star, and then trying to come home and be a husband and a dad. That’s not a sustainable life, as it turns out.

“So, eight years ago, I went into rehab and I got sober. That process taught me what life is really about. There’s nothing wrong with success and chasing your dreams, but don’t forget to bring your true self with you.”

The first four of those years were spent largely outside the orbit of Planet Mars, with Lawrence prioritizing his family and his sobriety.

In 2022, however, he reconnected with the artist who, by then, he’d known, worked with, jammed with and partied with for 15 years.

He rejoined Mars’ touring band, they started writing together again, had one of the biggest hits of their career with  APT ., on which Bruno duetted with Blackpink’s ROSÉ, and then set about writing album number four,  The Romantic.

It was the first Bruno Mars record for 10 years – and was introduced to the world by lead single,  I Just Might , which topped the charts at the start of 2026. The album followed at the end of February and also reached the summit. This time around, Lawrence is enjoying his success on every level.

He grew up surrounded by music. His father was a DJ, filling the house with crates of vinyl including everything from Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway to Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton.

“Not only that”, he recalls, “but my mom was a choir director. All my family sang, all the time. Even the dog sang.”

He only lasted one year at college in Tennessee  – “all I did in school was skip class and form singing groups”. From there he went to Orlando and ended up as a theme-park performer at Disney.

In this case, however, “theme park performer” is not a euphemism for a schmuck in a Goofy suit. Lawrence was good, successful and right out front. “Yeah, I was a Swiss army knife for them, and I became their first vocal ambassador, which allowed me to travel the world performing.

“I also opened the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom, which was a big deal at the time. I had some incredible experiences.”

It wasn’t, however, what he truly wanted to do – and certainly didn’t match up with that vision of success he’d had as a kid.

He says: “For me it was always about safety or adventure; comfort or discomfort. With Disney, I had a house, I had medical insurance. So that was the first big decision where I left the comfort of a paycheck to try and make something happen in LA.

He went there with two young writers and producers that he’d met in Orlando, Shaun Fisher and Kareem Mills. It wasn’t an entirely speculative relocation, however. They had Steven Seagal on their side. Yep, that Steven Seagal.

“We had the opportunity to write songs for his movies, and he wanted us to be closer to where things were happening. For six months, Steven put us up in this three-bedroom penthouse in Santa Monica. I thought this is what LA is all about, right? People take care of you! Right up until Steven said he wasn’t cutting any more checks and we had to figure things out on our own from now on.

> “That’s when reality smacked me in the face. It was sobering, it was scary, and it was hard.”

“That’s when reality smacked me in the face. It was sobering, it was scary, and it was hard. I was just trying to survive and keep the lights on from that point. My biggest goal became not giving up and moving back to Orlando.”

Lawrence moved to the valley and “toughed it out, taking odd jobs, hustling”. He would play shows anywhere that would let him, but often to half-empty rooms. “I was very much on the outskirts of the business and getting a taste of what life was like in LA… when Steven Seagal isn’t putting you up in his spare apartment!”

“Eventually, Anthony Hamilton’s manager hired me to sing backing vocals for him, and that kept me afloat for a couple of years.

“In the end I left that gig because the call of songwriting got louder and louder. I had started to write almost constantly in my time off, to the point where I knew that’s what I should be doing. And, a little while after that is when I met Bruno.”

And that is also, of course, when everything changed…

That’s obviously a major pivot point in your life, how did it come about?

The creative energy at that time was very beat-driven. It wasn’t really, ‘Hey, let’s craft a song together.’  It was more, ‘Can you write to this beat?’ It was a Frankenstein way of creating.

And then one day I get a call from a buddy of mine, Keith Harris, a great songwriter and the drummer for the Black-Eyed Peas.

He had been working with Bruno, and he had been working with me, and he said ‘I’ve met this kid who’s insanely talented. He just moved here from Hawaii, he got signed to Universal [via Motown], but they don’t know what to do with him; I think they’re going to drop him. I think he just needs somebody else in the room to help him get his ideas out, and I thought of you.’ And thank God he did!

On that day I honestly had $5 to my name, which I spent to get a bus ticket, and traveled two-and-a-half hours to Keith’s studio. And there was Bruno.

Had you heard of him at this stage?

I had not. It was very much in the beginning of his arc.

What were your first impressions?

Quite honestly, he reminded me of a younger version of myself. He was funny, he didn’t take himself too seriously, and he had great energy.

All we did that entire session was laugh. Except it can’t have been, because we ended up writing, producing and recording a song that same day. Neither of us had ever experienced anything like that before.

> “straight away I knew there was something here with this kid I’d known for eight hours or so.”

Neither of us knew sessions could be that much fun and that productive – or that easy! So yeah, straight away I knew there was something here with this kid I’d known for eight hours or so.

I was blown away by his talent. What’s amazing, when I think back on it, and even how it is today, he’s not trying. By which I mean he’s not trying to impress, it’s all just natural and what he’s doing is enjoying himself.

Even in that first session, he was moving from guitar to bass to drums, and he had this incredible voice. He sounded like Stevie Wonder. I’m like, who is this alien?

Did you hit upon a way of working together pretty much straight away? Has that changed much over the years?

I think it’s still pretty much the same. And it’s part of the reason why we named the second album  Unorthodox Jukebox , because that’s how we write, in a very unorthodox, unpredictable, non-formulaic way.

We’re both very much guys who understand the value of the moment, and what it means to really be present and listen to each other. So, a song can start with him on keys, and I’ll sing a melody. Or I could show up with something that I sang freestyle as a voice note in the car and ask him what he thinks. If something sparks, we’ll hear it, and we’ll run with it, because we’re always on and always listening out for each other.

There’s this real trust that we can put our ideas in the same pot, and then we’re gonna both give it the proper seasoning to make it a meal.

Did you have a plan in terms of becoming a partnership? Performing together? Writing together?

Because of Bruno’s immense talent, my immediate thought was, ‘Let’s go get a deal. I don’t know what happened with Universal, but obviously something was up; let’s fix that.’

So it was less about songwriting, and more about, we’ll get you signed, the label will help develop you, we’ll put an album out and life will be grand.

So that’s what we tried. We tried a lot. And it didn’t work; it was no after no. People just didn’t see it. And yes, it was embarrassing at times, it was humbling at times, but it was always informative, because – and this is something else we have in common – we’ve learned not to take things personally.

So, okay, we’re not getting signed, there must be something up with what we’re presenting. We never really doubted ourselves, in terms of talent, but we figured there must be a missing ingredient.

What do you think that was?

I think there was an identity issue. They didn’t know who he was, or who we were. And, in truth, the songs were good, but they weren’t great. You know, Whitney Houston still needs The Greatest Love of All, otherwise she could be an incredible singer the world never discovers.

We learned that no one’s going to hand us anything on a platter, and no one’s going to develop us. We were going to have to do that on our own.

I’m really grateful that we did, because it gave us some years in the studio. And in our downtime from writing, we started a band for fun because we missed being onstage. Little by little, we kept getting better. Eventually I convinced my friend and A&R Aaron Bay-Schuck to come check us out – and down the line, he ended up signing us to Atlantic .

And at this point are you a band? Are you looking to get Bruno signed as a solo artist?

We always saw ourselves as a band. At the same time, I was such a fan of Bruno’s and had so much belief in him as an artist. Everything people see now, I saw early on.

And if my boy is shining, that’s all good with me—because if he wins, we win. That was always the philosophy. There wasn’t some calculated decision to take a backseat; it was just part of the natural evolution of who we became.

Around that time, we were bouncing from producer to producer and realizing that wasn’t the path for us. We needed to become masters of our own destiny and start writing songs on our own.

That’s when we met our third writing partner, Ari Levine, and formed The Smeezingtons. He and his brother Josh had a studio, Levcon, and we worked there every singl

_Originally reported by [Music Business Worldwide](https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/theres-nothing-wrong-with-success-and-chasing-your-dreams-but-dont-forget-to-bring-your-true-self-with-you/)._