Crooner Bruno Mars covers the holiday issue of Paper magazine, opening about the risks he took with his new album 'Unorthodox Jukebox,' where he addresses the "darker, more aggressive" sound of the album.

Mars, wearing a brown fedora, brown sweater and a flannel shirt, averts his gaze on the cover. It's an effectively strategy, since it makes us even more curious about what's going inside his brain and what he spills about in the inside feature.

He reveals that his hard-partying life factors into the music, but it's not frivolous or about bad behavior. It's the life of a pop star, an occupational "hazard" if that's even the right word. "You're going out every night. You're drinking every night, being young ... looking for love in all the wrong places," he said. That certainly makes for a rich pool of inspiration.

It also grabs some headlines. Mars did speak about his 2010 arrest for cocaine possession, saying,
"I know once you put it on record, it's on record -- forever ... it's weird because it's easier for me to sit down and write a song than actually talk about it."

Mars also shared that the new songs "might be darker, a little more aggressive. I'm saying some things that are probably going to open a lot of those doors." While he built his name and reputation on neo doo-wop songs, he is a little tougher and harder this time.

He also showed his sense of humor, saying that when he agreed to both host and be the musical guest on 'SNL' earlier this fall, he was prepared to flop. "I signed up to go down in flames," he admitted. "It's like if you don't do this, you wasn't made for this s--- if you can't take on something like that. So it was kind of a challenge. It was like, 'F--- it, let's go.'"

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