NEW YORK — John Mayer never relied on multicoloured lighting, confetti and pyrotechnics to help him during his live shows, like some of his peers.

But the singer-songwriter-guitarist wanted to step up his game, and he said watching Drake perform live encouraged him to beef up his stage production and take more risks during his concerts.

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Mayer will launch the second leg of his Search for Everything World Tour on Tuesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The new live shows have been a departure for the Grammy winner, who now performs with a colourful and futuristic LED wall and floor.

“I wanted to have a really big show. I want to be competitive. I want to be in the world where people are creating bigger and better shows,” Mayer said. “I think there’s a healthy competition involved in it. I went and saw Drake’s show and ... real artists say: ‘Wow!’ And then they go: ‘[Expletive].’ Right? Because you see something that wows you and as an artist yourself you go: ‘I want a little of that.’ ”

The 39-year-old recently wrapped a tour with Dead & Company, his supergroup with Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir. His summer tour wraps Sept. 3 in Noblesville, Indiana.

But Mayer isn’t only playing big arenas: He announced this week that he will join the Dive Bar Tour with Bud Light for a show in Los Angeles on July 26.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Mayer talked about stepping it up with his live shows, attending Grateful Dead University and enjoying new albums by DJ Khaled and Calvin Harris.

Q: The production level for your new live shows has really changed. What’s that process been like?

A: We have an LED wall and a LED floor. In a way it’s really minimal … but from there you can go anywhere you want to go. It can be abstract. It can be superminimalist. It can also be super-real. … I even want to go further with it. … I have an idea maybe next year to do like a 2.0 version of it where it really goes down deep into my dream, but that’s a lot more trucks and buses. I’d go broke from that tour but it would be incredible. It would almost be Broadway-like.

I want to be modern day and I want to play by modern-day rules and excite people, but I also want to do it the way I would do it. Everything that I’ve ever picked up that was a technology in some way or another, I’ve always found, I think, my own voice with it. And so I’m doing the big, bad L.E.D. show, but in a way that tells a story about me.

Q: Your album The Search for Everything was released in April and it’s been four years since your last release. Why so long?

A: Well, when I turned 30 (in 2008), I looked at my 30s that were coming up and I said: ‘I want to make as much as I can in my 30s.’ The Search for Everything would have come out, and I haven’t done the math on this, it would have come out in 2015, but then this beautiful opportunity of Dead & Company showed up at my doorstep. And I’ve never pressed pause on a solo career before, but I knew that this was worth pressing pause for. And that’s been really interesting because the [new] songs are really powerful, but I’m also two years removed from the emotion of it, so it’s a very interesting thing to go out on tour with songs that have been gestating for three years.

Q: What have you learned from performing in Dead & Company?

A: It seemed to me almost like taking a break to go back to school, right? It was like: ‘Take a break from this solo thing and go back to the university.’ And I’m getting my degree from Grateful Dead University. That’s all I ever wanted was musical experience that equated to becoming a better musician. … It’s a little boring to be a solo act for like 50 years. For me personally, I’m way too fidgety.

Q: Who else would you like to collaborate with?

A: My next collaboration, I think, is going to be more on the producer side than on the artist side. I’m very interested in and intrigued by the idea of working with certain producers.

I also like the idea of the ensemble record; I see where that’s going. The (DJ) Khaled record, the Calvin Harris record — that’s like a life hack that’s taking place before our eyes. And it’s a thoughtful, artistic response to the industry going the way it’s going, which is like supergroups. So I see that working, too, like, John Mayer Presents … — where I’m a little less the singer and the upfront guy, and more the guy making tracks and saying: ‘I really can hear this voice here.’

Q: What can we expect for your Dive Bar Tour show?

A: You’re going to get that small club, intimate ... high energy, sort of bluesier side of me.

Q: Do you remember playing in bars early in your career?

A: I came up in coffeehouses and listening rooms. Later on, I would play more sort of dive bar-like venues. But I got my start in these, either in open-mic nights, or a coffee shop where basically it’s you against the giant coffee grinder. And in the middle of your song the coffee grinder can be going. And I remember playing gigs where there was nobody there and the only applause would come from behind the bar. It would come from the employees. … But getting on a stage, even if there’s nobody there, puts you in the mindset of performing and teaches you how to perform.