Ahead of his show at the Mann Center on Aug. 9, Jason Mraz sat down with Metro to chat more about what to expect from his new album and tour, the ‘Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride.’
What went into your latest studio album?
It was made in tandem with some of my best homies, Raining Jane. The five of us have been writing songs for 15 years, and we made an album called ‘Yes’, in 2014. We loved the experience so much that we wanted to make another album one day—and so this is that album. I’m striving to still have new experiences in music and new experiences in songwriting, and when I look down at my set list, I wanna still create songs that are missing from [there]. And a big thing that was missing from our set list that we recognized last summer was dance numbers.
Another thing that I think is recurring throughout my songwriting career— I’m either writing songs to cheer myself on, or try to stoke the fires of love, or remember to take deep breaths. Those are my three sort of main topics in songwriting, and I think also what this album continues to be. And then making it honestly was so much of just being in the flow, because we knew we were gonna make this album after last summer’s tour, but we didn’t know where, or how or what.
And that led you to reunite with producer Martin Terefe on this album— how was it working with him again and how were you able to reconnect?
He called us out of the blue and asked how we were doing, and [I said] funny you should ask, we’re about to make a record, do you want to come listen? Next thing you know, we’re all creating together. I’ve worked with Martin for 20 years and even though we only made one album together, we’ve recorded lots of songs and we’ve written lots of songs together. So, we already have this playful professional bromance.
What’s also nice about Martin is he’s not the kind of producer that wants to edit out all your mistakes and align the drums and tune the vocals. There are plenty of producers that do that. They make these very perfect-sounding productions by either doing lots and lots of takes, or using computers to fix the errors. Martin’s not like that. If we solo out some parts of the songs, you’ll hear weird rubs where these instruments shouldn’t go together, or these rhythms don’t overlap well…But something about that creates more of a humanness to the machine.
The sounds end up becoming pretty quirky or sometimes even dirty or lo-fi, or just not what you’d expect for certain moments. And I think that’s very refreshing, what he’s allowed to happen in a recording.
I wanted to ask about the name of the album, because I know it’s a lyric on it—was that an easy decision?
No, in fact, I was actually nervous about that lyric in the song. I would sing that line in ‘Disco Sun’ and sometimes just keep my eyes closed or cringe a little. Most lines are born in the moment when you’re writing that verse, I don’t have premeditated lines that I save for certain moments, they just appear as I’m getting into the process. So that line made me a little nervous until the album was finished. And as I’m coming through the album looking for a lyric that might describe [it], I get to that line and it makes so much sense to me.
Suddenly what was potentially my least favorite line suddenly becomes my favorite line in the whole project, because I feel it sums up the ride through life that we’re on. Rather than just say remember to be grateful or open your eyes, it’s remembering that it’s a miracle that we’re here at all and to enjoy it.
Do any songs stand out to you from this tour in particular?
That opening track of the album (‘Getting Started’) is also the opening track of the show and it’s just so exciting to feel like we’re just getting started. And surprisingly ‘Disco Sun.’ I wasn’t anticipating playing it on the road, but it was requested so many times over and over and people kept telling me that it’s one of their favorites on the album— probably because it’s so different. It’s not a typical formulaic type of song, it has a little bit of mystery inside of it and herbology. So I think people like to sing about the natural world because that’s something we’re all connected to, but it seldom appears in a pop song.
Obviously ‘I Feel Like Dancing,’ people go nuts and dance their booties off on that, that feels so wonderful. We’re about halfway through the tour and now we’re looking at [new songs.] We still haven’t played ‘Lovesick Romeo’, and people are asking for that one and we haven’t played ‘Irony of Loneliness’ yet just because a concert is really a celebration and a coming together, and it’s the opposite of being alone. But we are playing most of the album.
And overall, what would you tell people to expect from the Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride tour?
It’s a different experience.I have my Superband which does contain some members from [my previous] ‘Look for the Good‘ run, there are some musicians that are from that reggae album. It also includes Raining Jane, who are my core collaborators on this new album. It’s a bit of a circus up there, so in that way we are clowns, and we’re there to entertain and jest and hopefully lighten the attitudes and hearts of anyone who’s not yet light or lit.
There’s lots of dancing, and thematically, I’m singing songs and telling stories that are meant to cheer the audience member on for their life journey to rekindle the fires of love and to take deep breaths. It’s a musical yoga class if you will, and it’s taking you from your head into your heart if you’re not already there. Hopefully [you’re] being transformed or just entertained for two hours.
Catch Jason Mraz at the TD Pavilion at the Mann on Aug. 9.
