US singer-songwriter Jason Mraz started gigging in San Diego coffee shops, but the Net has propelled him far beyond southern California
WHEN I speak to Jason Mraz over the telephone, he has just come offstage at a concert in Hawaii. He had a few days off before the show and did some exploring, and certainly enjoyed the location.
Mraz (the surname is Czech for “frost”) was due for a holiday at home in California at the end of last year. But he picks up the tour to promote his latest album, Yes!, at the beginning of next month in the UK, before travelling back to the US and then coming to Joburg a few weeks later and Cape Town at the beginning of March.
A keen surfer, he has never been to Cape Town, though he did visit Joburg once as a tourist, “five or six years ago”. Mraz is very health-conscious, careful about his vegan diet (home is an avocado pear farm) and a committed social activist who talks about anything from legalising cannabis to food labelling on his online journal.
The 37-year-old Grammy winner is better known though for well-crafted alternative rock songs that evoke lazy summer days and feature rhythms ranging from reggae-tinged to Brazilian-lite. Think coffeehouse blues without a depressing tone and you are not far off.
While his second album (Mr A-Z) hit the Top 5 of the Billboard charts in 2005, it is his third album – We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008) – which got him noticed on a global platform, thanks to the internet, and I’m Yours which dominated various Billboard charts and YouTube back in 2009.
Since then his albums have gone multi-platinum in numerous countries and he has toured pretty much the world.
While he acknowledges the internet started his music career, it still surprises Mraz when audiences in faraway places know his work. He travels a lot, more than he prefers “but I’m just happy to be of service to the music,” he insists.
Mraz doesn’t just pay the idea lip service, he is quite serious about philanthropy, which he describes as a way to connect with people through music: “There are many different levels of music as a form of service. It gives people jobs – there are a lot of people we employ and that’s another reason to travel.
“Then, I’ve had the fortune to have my music earn a fortune and it gives me the power to support organisations and raise awareness.”
Founded in 2011, the Jason Mraz Foundation supports charities which cover subjects such as human equality, education and environmental preservation. On the education side he is also keen on Live Art, an inclusive programme which presents children with a series of arts classes which culminate in a public performance. That programme is hosted by a performance arts school in Richmond, Virginia (he grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia) but he also works with schools in San Diego to reintroduce the arts back into the afterschool curriculum, to make learning fun.
His love/hate relationship with travelling also allows him to practise another hobby, photography. A keen photographer and nature lover who is “very into sunsets”, one of the most faraway, out there places he has ever been to is Antarctica in 2012 on that cruise organised by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project: “It was a wonderful place to stretch out as a photographer.”
Californian pop rock quartet Raining Jane have been touring with him, and will accompany him to South Africa.They will perform many of the songs from Yes!, which is his fifth studio album. His first acoustic album, Yes! was co-written with the all-girl group, who co-wrote A Beautiful Mess, the last track on We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. That is, all tracks except for the cover of the Boyz II Men’s It’s Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.
They will also acknowledge songs from his extensive catalogue, and yes, having the women around has changed not only his performance style on stage.
“I have tried to adapt to every band that I’ve played with, for every album there’s a different sound. Because they’re a unit they work in a very refined manner and it makes it easier, and it’s also inspiring. Their work ethic has certainly rubbed off on me.
“They don’t operate like four different people having to get to know each other, they’re already so synchronised. Also, they have a very specific sound, so some of my older songs can now run through the filter of Raining Jane’s unique sound.”
Even when his lyrics take a walk on the dark side, Mraz’s songs tend towards a positive tone and deliberately so: “I like to stay light and have fun so when I write a song it often refers to a melancholy and I want to re-awaken to love and light and persuade myself to feel the effects of positivity”.
• Jason Mraz plays the Teatro at Montecasino, Joburg, on February 26 and 27 and the Grand Arena at GrandWest, Cape Town, on March 1.