A Radical Ride

JASON MRAZ DEBUTS AT TANGLEWOOD WITH THE BOSTON POPS 

By Dr. Joshua Sherman

From the pages of our May/June 24 issue.

SHERVIN LAINEZ

JASON MRAZ is a two-time Grammy® winner for songs that include “Make It Mine” and his heartwarming collaboration with Colbie Caillat, “Lucky.” In the weeks leading up to his July 2 performance at Tanglewood, Mraz talked with me about his new album, his early experiences with musical theater, and his multiple avenues of creative expression. 

Sherman: Your new album, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, isn’t only fun to say, it’s also a departure from the sound of your previous albums, as it incorporates more pop elements. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind this shift in your musical style? 

Mraz: There were a lot of contributing factors to the inspiration. The standout one for me was my mom, who said, “I think you need to make a pop album before it's too late.” That really stuck with me. We really focused our attention on creating the kind of music that can get people on a dance floor and feeling fully expressed in their bodies. It led to a world of dance-themed songs—songs about finding yourself, and songs about realizing that you can be anything you want to be and live any dream at any point in your life. 

Sherman: “Love” is a common theme in a lot of your music. Do you think love is magical, mystical, or something else entirely?

Mraz: It’s something else altogether. I think it requires all the words in the album name to describe it; it's really a mystical, magical, rhythmic, and radical ride. Love transcends time. It can be a part of your entire life. It can be from within. It's not necessarily your parental love, the friends you love, or the love you feel in relationships. It's a deeper feeling. It's the feeling of nature, the rhythmical feeling of life and music, the pace of things, the highs and lows, and the emotional journeys that we take in the name of love. Love has been a common theme of mine because I've had a chance to enjoy it and experience it fully, but sometimes it also feels fleeting. You can't control it, but you can certainly breathe it in and out.

Sherman: What makes something “magical” versus “mystical”?

Mraz: “Mystical” is what I don’t know; those things that mystify me. I'm mystified by life. I’m mystified that my heart can beat by itself and that my body can operate without me having to think about it. To me, it exists on a spiritual realm. Being mystified by nature in all of her beauty and cycles that she surprises us with. “Magical” is more like synchronicity, when you think of someone and the phone rings. It's a little more about human interaction—the magic that we can create together. Magic isn’t as deep as mystification, but it's fun and it's whimsical. When you think of something and then you see it, or when you feel like you're in touch with nature, there's a real magic to that.

Sherman: How do you envision your latest album, its themes, and your earlier hits translating into orchestral arrangements for your upcoming Tanglewood performance with the Boston Pops? Do you have some fun tricks up your sleeve in terms of the arrangements?

Mraz: The performance will sound like the album, but we're also going to drop in some solos and some dance breaks and vamping. We've had a chance to do it a couple of times with orchestration, but this will be our first orchestral show this summer with the Boston Pops. The disco strings from the album and the real electricity that an orchestra brings really enhances the show.

We have horns, brilliant percussionists, and great singers in our 12-piece band all on our own, so to add another group of instrumentalists into the mix is incredible for us. We assume it will be incredible for the audience, as well. It's a big, beautiful sound.

Sherman: Over the course of your career, you've experimented with many different genres and arrangement styles. Are there any songs in particular that you're really excited to perform with orchestral backing?

Mraz: A song like “Lucky,” which I wrote on my kitchen table and then emailed to Colbie Caillat, is one of them. It was always just a little acoustic song until we added some drums to it. In the studio, we were able to add some strings. A song like “Lucky” normally lives in the acoustic world until we get into this new realm performing with the Pops. They’ve helped us uplift songs like “Lucky” or “I’m Yours,” which is a great example of a little happy, hippie song. It never had orchestration, and now it will have the addition of brass and orchestral energies. It's really lovely. Most of the show is going to feature the Pops. There might be one or two songs that are acoustic, and I leave those in as a surprise so that the show is not the same every night. Songs like “The Remedy,” which is now more than 20 years old, was an acoustic rock and Hip-Hop song. It never had orchestration until now. I think we’re going to surprise the audience with the set list, because it will have recognizable songs being heard in a new light.

Sherman: Four days after your performance on July 2, Tanglewood is going to be hosting an evening paying tribute to modern Broadway musicals, Broadway Today!: Broadway’s Modern Masters. As someone who got their start as a singer performing in musicals, how do you think your early background in musical theater has shaped your identity as a musician?

Mraz: Musical theater was the portal that I first stepped through. It connected me to the stage and it connected me to song. I always loved sitting on my mom's piano and banging out songs as a little kid. I would try to play the songs I heard from The Muppet Movie by ear or play along with the radio. When I was introduced to musical theater, I realized that I could take all this interest I had in music and put it towards telling stories on stage. It was my first step towards becoming a performance artist. Growing up, we had chorus and drama in our school merged together to give us musical theater performances as early as eighth grade. I knew from seven years old that I was going to be in the entertainment industry and that I was going to be a performer. Musicals gave me that opportunity, and they were my training. When I was 18, I went to New York City to pursue musical theater, and I got a big dose of reality while auditioning. I did well in my small pond, but when I moved to New York, I thought, “Oh, my gosh—I could spend my entire life auditioning before I'm the perfect person for this role, even if I could sing and dance.” I started playing guitar in the park, to my college roommates, and on the sidewalk. I saw that I could capture an audience like that, and I took a step aside from musical theater and started pursuing my own original songs, only to then finally come back to musical theater in the last couple of years. I took a 20-year detour to get back to musical theater, but I also grew up as a fan of it. I always catch a show when I go to New York or when one comes to San Diego, where I live. I try to pop in and see what's current and how people are reimagining the old musicals and delivering us exciting new ones.

Sherman: Do you have a dream role that you would like to play in a Broadway musical?

Mraz: I don't have a dream role. I think the dream role will be when someday I figure out the story that I'm going to write a musical for.

Sherman: Does your creative energy only live in music, or does it express itself in other forms?

Mraz: Over the past few years, I’ve been spending a lot of time farming and gardening. That can be an incredibly creative place. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of trial and error. When you plant seeds that sprout trees, it takes years before you really see what they can become, and you start to understand the importance of placement and landscaping to pull it together. My interest has been in the earth when I'm not in the air, which is where I think music lives. I find that the two pair very well together. I love food, and that ties in with the farm and gardening, as well. I love the craft of coffee. I love baking and pulling things from my garden to use in the kitchen, so that's where my creative love has been over the last few years.

Sherman: Your new album’s opening track, “Getting Started,” is infused with optimistic energy. How do you envision your musical evolution moving forward?

SHERVIN LAINEZ

Mraz: A bluegrass inspirational album that my grandmother inspired is on the horizon. Every time I would make an album, my grandmother would say, “Is it gospel?” I would say, “No, it’s not gospel.” Finally, I just decided to make a gospel album for my grandmother. It’s rooted in southeastern Appalachian bluegrass, and it's a mix of covers and originals. It was originally just for my grandmother, but in the six or seven years since she has passed away, I’ve been sitting on these songs. I think that she would want me to share these because it was her favorite music. That’s what I'm going to be sharing next, probably in a year or two, once it's put together at the right window. I’ve realized there's a time and place for all music.