Entertainment

Jason Mraz on growing coffee, donating LP cash to charity and the 'buffoon' in the White House

Jason Mraz combines his long-standing love of reggae music with social activism on his latest album, Look For The Good. Alex Green finds out more

Jason Mraz, whose latest album is Look For The Good
Jason Mraz, whose latest album is Look For The Good Jason Mraz, whose latest album is Look For The Good

On June 19 – or Juneteenth as it is called in the US – Jason Mraz announced on Twitter that he was donating all his earnings from his latest album to six social justice charities, including Black Lives Matter.

The two-time Grammy winner’s reggae-themed record, Look For The Good, was released the same day.

Outside of the US, the significance of Juneteenth might not be clear. Also known as Freedom Day, it celebrates the emancipation of African-Americans enslaved there. The poignancy of this year’s date was increased by the death of George Floyd and subsequent global anti-racism protests.

Speaking from his ranch in Oceanside, California, Mraz is at pains to explain the rationale behind his decision.

“I felt like there was something missing about this record,” he says in his distinctive high register. “We are singing about all these ideas. Freedom and joy. That you should look for the good. But who am I being? Am I just someone who is singing ‘Go look for this, go find it, maybe somebody else will do some good’.

“I need to sing about this but I also need to have some action. And unfortunately, the death of George Floyd changed the hearts and minds of many, many Americans, white and black. A call to action came to everybody and I saw an opportunity.

“I don’t want to capitalise on this moment by putting out an album and just making money off that moment. I needed to instead use this opportunity to demonstrate how easy it is to divert a revenue stream to help someone else.”

It has been 20 years since Mraz, now 43, started out playing coffee houses in San Diego, 18 since his debut album Waiting For My Rocket To Come, and 12 since I’m Yours, his most recognisable and well-loved single.

“It feels like eight years,” he sighs. “And in some ways that’s really cool but in other ways it’s scary because it reminds me that time is always running, and eventually time is running out.”

In the intervening years, the sprightly songwriter – whose music incorporates folk, jazz and soul – has bought an avocado farm in southern California and planted coffee trees.

Jason Mraz is donating the proceeds of Look For The Good to charity
Jason Mraz is donating the proceeds of Look For The Good to charity Jason Mraz is donating the proceeds of Look For The Good to charity

We speak on a harvest day and Mraz is “deep inside a coffee tree looking for ripe cherries”. For the uninitiated, cherries are the red or purple fruit that encase the pit that eventually becomes your fresh brew.

Being immersed in the cycle of nature has prompted Mraz to ask questions of his own life.

“I do what I love and there’s no time for anything else,” he explains. “I rarely sit down and watch a movie at the end of the day. The end of the day for me is: ‘Now I’ll go to the studio and make a song.’

“I just fill my time with my joy and then I figure out later: ‘How can I transform this joy into some kind of income to sustain more joy?’”

The signal drops briefly as Mraz makes his way across his property.

“My career started out as ‘I love to sing and play guitar and that’s all I want to do’. So how can I do that and earn a paycheck? I started to do that out in public and clubs – and it worked. I apply the same technique to everything.

“I love growing fruit and food but it’s a very expensive hobby and it takes a lot of energy and input.

“So how can I transform this love of growing fruit and even coffee? Then I have to sell that fruit. I have to turn it into a business. That is my method. Do what you love and figure it out later.”

The title of Mraz’s seventh album emerged from his love of the phrase, and it peppers our conversation. Look For The Good also fulfilled his years-long dream of producing an entire album of reggae music.

Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish and Jamaican-born reggae icon Sister Carol make guest appearances, while reggae producer Michael Goldwasser manned the mixing desk at Mraz’s home studio on the ranch, amusingly dubbed “The Mranch”.

“The idea came from years and years of curiosity. We were playing live and noticing that whenever we played our songs reggae in the live setting, it worked. Everybody can get on board with it. It’s a simple, hypnotic and deep pocket.

“I thought, ‘Well this is really amazing – I would love to do more of this’. But every time I tried to do it by myself it just sounded like I was trying to do reggae. I knew I needed real reggae partners. I needed true reggae musicians. I needed a reggae producer. Basically, I needed true inspiration.”

Inspiration came in the form of Goldwasser who, after remixing one of Mraz’s tracks, suggested they record a whole album together. The finished work was influenced heavily by the roots music of Dennis Brown, Althea & Donna, John Holt, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

In September last year, Mraz began shopping the completed album around various record companies.

Recalling his elevator pitch, he jokes: “We’ve got this collection of songs and they are actually quite good, and you can dance to every song, and 2020 is going to suck – so we would like to put out some positive music.”

Mraz wanted to put out “positive vibrations” to help people get through these “dark times”. And this was before coronavirus shuttered the globe and the race for the White House began in earnest.

Mraz is less than thrilled by Donald Trump’s impending showdown with Joe Biden.

“Man, I wish I could tell you the outlook looks good, like we are going to experience a change,” he says of his home country, deflated. “But there is so much resistance and two-sided bickering that I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“I do know – if I look for the good in this – that America is getting an education. We are finally learning just how unjust and unequal we have been. I don’t know if it is enough to transform us in a matter of months, which is what is required to change the election.

“I hope so because I personally don’t think we can afford another four years with the same buffoon behind the desk.”

:: Look For The Good is out now on BMG.