Jason Mraz brings the Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride to Starlight this Sunday

Jason Mraz. // photo credit Shervin Lainez

Two-time Grammy award winner and Songwriters Hall of Fame honoree Jason Mraz is bringing his Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride Tour to the Starlight Theatre on Sunday, July 21 . Touring in support of last year’s dance-pop record of the same name, the musician is criss-crossing the United States playing tunes from both the new record and his seven other studio albums.

Whether it’s classic top 20 hits like “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry),” “I’m Yours,” and “I Won’t Give Up” or newer singles such as “I Feel Like Dancing,” you definitely know at least one of Mraz’s catchy earworms.

Given that Jason Mraz’s music seems almost custom-made for summers outdoors, we felt it only right to hop on the phone with the singer-songwriter to see just how his summer is going and what folks can expect at the show this weekend.

The Pitch: You just got to play with the Boston Pops. What was that like?

Jason Mraz: Oh, it was phenomenal. They’re such a tight orchestra composed of a lot of young people that have a lot of energy to play their highly skillful musical styles towards my guitar and–I think–my primary color, pop music. It was an incredible uplift and incredible privilege. Just a night to remember, that’s for sure.

Was this your first-ever symphonic performance? No, it’s now an ongoing series. It was my third. Fourth? Oh my gosh. My fourth. And we have two more this summer: one in Colorado and one in San Diego, where symphonies kind of originated for me. The San Diego Symphony championed my efforts a few years ago to start doing more symphonic shows. My friends at the San Diego Symphony helped me meet the right people and make my arrangements, so I have to credit the San Diego Symphony for being my champion on this.

Is there something about playing with a symphony that lets you hear the songs that you’ve been playing for so long differently?

Yeah. First, a lot has to do with the volume of musicians. There’s usually 60 extra musicians on stage besides my band and I. I will often have strings or some kind of orchestration on my albums. They’re there to enhance certain parts and certain emotions and so, being able to pull that off live by playing these album parts–but also new arrangements that just help choruses swing and help the emotion of a verse or add melody where there wasn’t melody before–it just continues to enhance the listening experience. If a CD or an album is 2D, an orchestra is really going to help you bring it into three dimensions and it’s a wonderful, wonderful experience.

You’re playing Starlight here in Kansas City this weekend. How do you prepare for playing these energetic sets outside in the midst of heat waves?

Well, whoo, luckily, we avoided the heat. It’s either been the day before or after us, or the night has cooled. We’ve been very fortunate on this summer tour. Now, that’s not to say we haven’t been out there in the past when it’s just dripping and where I look over at my bandmates and they’re all just completely soaked because we put on a high energy show. We dance, we move, we thrash about. Singing is a full-body activity, as well, and it just gets juicy.

We try not to really prepare for the heat–more as we just prepare for the size of the room, when’s the last time we’ve been there, what can we do differently, how can we bring a great show to the Starlight? That’s kind of the things we’re asking ourselves.

Do you consider things like past set lists or how long it’s been since you’ve been to a town when you’re putting together your show for a specific city?

Yeah, I do. I would like to say, “When was the last time I was here? Was it three years ago? What did I do two years ago? What can I do to make sure it’s different?” If people come back and see me multiple times, I don’t want them to see the same show or the same bit or hear the same stories, so it is important to me to know my history at that venue.

Also, I know in some cities, there’s going to be long-time fans. How can I also treat the long-time fans with something that isn’t just new material, but can really reach into the catalog and deliver something that they likely love from the old days? So, I try to mix it up.

I read that you saw your most recent album, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, as a return to your previous work. What were the challenges of getting back to the younger you?

I guess I would say dance music is something that always been something I was a fan of but didn’t know how to make it. I didn’t necessarily want to use computers to make electronic dance music. It took years and years and years for my colleagues and I to really learn how to play it and learn how to play disco and funk and groove and and hypnotic grooves that you could dance to and craft lyrics that are meaningful, that actually–hopefully–are transformative and have some kind of purpose to them.

It took many many years and so, when I got to towards making this record, I had a fork in the road. It’s like, I can either go down this path of really trying to go for these dance songs or I can stay in my comfort zone, which is on the acoustic side, and just keep doing that. When my mom heard my options, because I like to play my music for my parents, my mom says, “Well, I’ve heard you do that before. You’re still doing acoustic; that’s fine, you can always do that.”

She goes, “But maybe you should try pop before it’s too late,” and kind of encouraged me, looking at my years, now being 47, thinking, “Alright, she’s right. If I really want to go out there and strut my stuff”–I mean, obviously, there’s no age limit to having a great time. Like, I once opened for the Rolling Stones and they proved that to me and I definitely wanted to give this a shot. Where I was, I just felt brand new.

I think that’s a good thing–to experience in life over and over again. It’s a sense of renewal and having a new purpose and a new project and a new passion. It’s a reason to get up in the morning versus just doing the same old thing.

Along those lines of not just doing the same old thing, your first performance on Dancing with the Stars was to your own song. Is it vindicating to know that “This is definitely a dance song if I can do a cha-cha to it?

Totally. Totally. I wasn’t aware that I could cha-cha to that song when I wrote it. I don’t even really know what the cha-cha was at the time, but it was an enormous vindication. I loved it so much. I felt like that was such a tremendous opportunity–to perform my own music on what’s possibly one of the world’s biggest stages for dance. In fact, they even let me do the song twice during the season. So that was that was a perk.

You’re out on the road, touring this most recent album. How are folks responding to hearing these songs in a live setting?

Oh, we’re having a great time. People are loving it. People are dancing. People are singing. Luckily, I feel like it worked. I’m not coming at you with something that’s totally unfamiliar. Even if you haven’t heard the record yet, the sound isn’t super unfamiliar, it blends in with the rest of the catalog, and I always try to weave the songs together in a way that helps us tell stories throughout the night and helps us recognize our own humanity or our own hearts, so it’s not just a random jukebox of songs. The show really has meaning, and it gives me a great feeling. People are loving it.

Is there a story that you find yourself telling more often than not?

I sometimes think of myself as a little yoga teacher. I did do some yoga teacher training. I have my 200-hour yoga teacher certificates. Not to say that’s enough to start a yoga school or anything, but I feel that part of my duty as a front man–communicating with an audience, doing some crowd work to make sure everyone’s feeling okay, feeling good in their hearts and their bodies.

I like to lead them on a transformational journey from the potentially uncomfortable experience of shuffling into a venue sitting amongst strangers, hundreds of them. And loosening up, feeling okay to sing out loud. If it’s your favorite song, feeling okay to sway side-to-side or step left and right, and have some dance moves going on with you and your friends, and presenting the gratitude, or awareness that you’re out tonight with your spouse, your friends, your mother, your siblings, your children–presenting that so that the whole experience is really about the audience.

It’s not so much about me. We’re gonna play our show no matter what. The audience has made the effort to drive to the venue, to park, to shuttle in, to get in their seats, and be among strangers. So, how can I, as a yoga teacher, turn it into a celebration, turn it into a grateful experience that, by the end of it, everyone is dancing and shuffling out in a kind way, high-fiving each other that they all were in this experience together and then go back to your car, go back to your life, and feel really good about having left the house that night. That’s my job, right? To make the whole experience feel grateful. Like it was a good choice.

Like making choices, when you select or approve opening acts for your shows, is part of the experience making sure that those openers bring the same level of energy?

Yes. However, we just played with a band called Ripe. They were out with us for the first 10 days, and they had enormous energy. They were also a super band of horns and dance vibes, and they were a bit of a jukebox where they could cover all kinds of things. It was wonderful. The crowd really warmed up and danced to them, but I also love opening acts that are completely different from my show.

That way, you also get a night of variety. At Starlight, we’re going to have the Molly Miller Trio. Molly is actually a part of our band. She’s our lead guitar player, and she has her own original jazz-infused music that is quite beautiful. It’s my favorite music, and that’s another reason why I would put her on as an opener. Then, I get to enjoy her music night after night and turn the audience onto what I like.

It’s a different show than what we will put on only half an hour later. So, I do pick the openers, but sometimes I like them to be the same, and sometimes I think it’s important that they’re also very different from me. It’s fun selecting in that process, but it’s also sometimes very challenging to find that.

Jason Mraz & the Superband plays Starlight Theater on Sunday, July 21, with the Molly Miller Trio. Details on that show here.