  'I steal hotel soaps and shampoos and conditioners,' singer Jason Mraz says when asked about the title for his platinum-selling third album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. 'I know that one of these days I won't be on tour and and that way I won't have a soap shortage.' |
TORONTO – Last month, Jason Mraz notched the longest run of any song in Billboard's Hot 100 history. But he maintains that his chart-topping wedding staple, "I'm Yours," isn't necessarily a love song.
"I wrote it between me and the spiritual world that I know nothing about. That's who I wrote it for," he admitted on a sun-drenched patio at the Molson Amphitheatre.
"It's about my relationship with wherever ideas come from. I have yet to become a devotee of any religion because all of it is good. So to me, that song is meant to be given away and wherever your heart says to give it, you should give it."
The breezy hit, which helped propel Mraz's Grammy-nominated "We Dance. We Dance. We Steal Things" to platinum status, has also played a big part in moving the 32-year-old singer-songwriter from theatre shows to large-scale arenas.
"At first it was a little daunting to think, 'OK, now we're no longer going to be in the clubs and the theatres, and we're going to open up our arms to 10 or 12,000 people a night,'" the blue-eyed crooner said, adjusting his ever-present fedora. "So I started to ask myself, 'How am I going to communicate with the person in the back row and am I even big enough for that?' But the people close to me remind me that I am."
The host of the trek, dubbed the Gratitude Café tour, is a longtime friend of Mraz's and upsizing to the bigger venues means he gets to bring a personal yoga instructor along for the ride.
"Due to the success of the album, I get to bring the comforts of home with me," he chuckled. "I bring my community with me. I have the people I rally with; the people who keep my forward thinking active with me. So, it's surprisingly just more convenient."
He's even reconciled singing the 76-week chart hit when he makes television appearances.
"Sometimes when I've had to do TV, I get really bugged," he conceded. "When my first album ['Waiting for My Rocket to Come'] was out, and all I had was 'The Remedy,' I was confused that these shows only asked me to play that one song.
"But I realize TV is a powerful medium. Even if it's only for a second, it's an opportunity to wake up a million viewers who might be numb. So I dig it nowadays. If it's 'I'm Yours' that I'm going to play on TV for the rest of my life, then great. It's a cool song."
And it's that sense of gratitude that threads its way through his live show, which is based on a San Francisco raw food restaurant that quite literally changed how Mraz interacts with the world.
"There is a real place in the world called Café Gratitude," he said, smiling. "Basically you go there for raw and live food and everything's great and tastes delicious, but there's a certain interaction that happens in this café that doesn't happen in other restaurants.
"The waiters are actually interested in your life; they ask you questions, they get you interacting with people at other tables. And that really moved me. Everyone who comes into this restaurant leaves feeling different.
"So I wanted that to happen at my shows. I want people to feel that they're not stuck in their seats; they're free to dance and interact with other people. And hopefully that can serve as a metaphor that reminds them they’re not stuck in their job, they're free to be whoever they want to be because life is happening now."
Jason Mraz plays Calgary's Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium and Edmonton's Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, October 2nd and 3rd.
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On the Net:
www.jasonmraz.com
