Jason Mraz says new album Look for the Good lets him be “the motivational speaker I’ve always dreamed I could be”
Interrabang/BMGJason Mraz’s new album Look for the Good is out today, and it’s his first project that’s fully informed by reggae, a genre he’s dabbled in over the years. Jason says making a reggae album was always a “bucket list thing” for him…
By ABC Audio on June 19, 2020
Interrabang/BMGJason Mraz’s new album Look for the Good is out today, and it’s his first project that’s fully informed by reggae, a genre he’s dabbled in over the years. Jason says making a reggae album was always a “bucket list thing” for him, but it’s taken him til now to finally do it.
Jason tells ABC Audio that nearly 20 years ago, he noticed that “whenever we would tap into a reggae genre for a song…the audience would react differently, we as the musicians would kind of communicate differently, and would settle into an all-natural, groovy feeling that it seemed like all walks of life could agree on. So I said, ‘There’s something magic here.'”
The magic finally became reality after reggae producer and musician Michael Goldwasser did a remix of Jason’s 2018 song “Have It All.” The two kept working together, and Look for the Good was the result. Jason says recording the album with a huge 14-piece band allowed him to really focus on the lyrics.
“I actually was able…to put my guitar down and just deliver the message,” Jason says. “And that allows me to kind of step out and be the motivational speaker, or the yoga teacher, that I’ve always dreamed I could be!”
And what is the message of Look for the Good?
“These lyrics are filled with not just positivity, but trying to breathe life into issues that I care about and ways of being that might be able to shift our attitude — at least they shift my attitude — for a more joyful life,” he explains.
“While in this life, while in this human form, in these…’rental cars’ that we’ve been given, the best thing we can do is look for the good to make the most of it.”
By Andrea Dresdale
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