Crooner Mateo Rocks L.A., Explains ‘Warped’ ‘Say It’s So’

With a handful of mixtapes under his belt, singer Mateo is anxious for fans to hear his forthcoming EP, 'Love & Stadiums 2,' due out by 2011's end. The Cleveland native previewed a few new tracks at The Roxy in Hollywood, Calif. Thursday night (Oct. 20).

Headlining for a packed crowd, following a performance by opener Dawn Richard, of Danity Kane fame, Mateo debuted his new single, 'Say It's So,' which features background vocals form Alicia Keys.

Although the multi-Grammy winner was not on hand, the crooner vocally held his own, belting out the track behind a live band. "The song is about [when] you go through a break-up and a relationship and you hope that that person is hurting as bad as you are," he tells The BoomBox. "Its kind of warped in a way but it's the truth. You want the person to be hurt just like you and I'm really saying I know this don't sound right, but I hope you're hurt like me. Then I know that you feel something or that our relationship meant something."

For the second installment of his 'Love & Stadiums' series, the singer will include music from his previous mixtape on the EP, alongside new songs. "It's similar to the mixtape in terms of how big the record sounds," he reveals. "I think that what we did was take it even further than where we wanted to take it. The whole idea of 'Love & Stadiums' the mixtape, [was] we were trying to define the sound of music through love songs. Also it's really just kind of big sounding drums, music that fills an area or a stadium. I feel like in urban music we don't really have that euphoric scream out music. Sometimes I wish we had some of that big sounding music, like Coldplay."