Mike Posner, the producer/singer wunderkind who just finished his last class at Duke University, with a major in business and sociology, a semester early and with a GPA of 3.5. Posner will walk with the rest of his class for graduation in May 2010. But then the 22-year-old – who first emerged on his dorm-born mixtape “A Matter of Time,” released in March on iTunesU, and who's set to drop his first album this summer on J Records – lets out a fraternal, mischievous smile. It's the smile of a college kid who knows he's on the verge of something huge. “I feel like I've earned certain things now.”

Posner's got an early start, and he's determined to keep his star shining for his next twenty-two years. With as able a command of the microphone as of the keyboard and the studio controls, he's starting to sound less like the student and more like the maestro. And when he's on stage, piecing together beats and chords while leading the audience in thumping singalongs, he already looks like the maestro too.

Posner's not stopping there. “I'm doing something nobody else can do or has done yet, and I'm blessed to be signed to a label and be finishing school,” he says, his hushed voice tinged with a sense of wonder and a preternatural honesty. “A lot of people in my position would think I've worked within this box, and I have to recreate what I've already done. But I'm already so much better than I was when I made my mixtape.” He promises: “The album is going to be nuts.”

Silence surrounded Hurts at the start. There was no screaming house-party shows, no twittering, no posturing or hyperbole. They’ve spent the last year moving regularly from suburb to suburb, spending time in Broughton, Rusholme and Bellevue, as well as Berlin. A mystery surrounds them both. Though today, they seem relaxed and happy to discuss their pasts.