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worried about for him. But I also thought
it was the coolest thing anyone could
do, and from then on I knew I wanted to
support him and anyone else who was
courageous enough to just be themselves.
How did this influence your growth as an
artist?
Steven, my friend who came out to me
my senior year, was a huge Madonna fan.
So I may know all the words to Bedtime
Stories, Erotica, and a few more of her
albums – and we may have watched
Truth or Dare a thousand times. I thank
him so much for turning me on to all of
that, because it may have influenced me
big time in who I’ve become now that I’m
onstage, and since here I am now, with
a bit of platform and a microphone, it’s
a no-brainer. I should be speaking up for
some of my best friends, my management
team, my employees, and many of my
colleagues. We’re all in this together.
I’ve recently had this feeling that
because we’re this really unique genera-
tion that has harnessed the power of the
Internet, we have this ability to transform
the world during our lifetime so that the
next generation can thrive and have a
head start. That means tearing down
these walls, while at the same time being
equally powerful and responsible in
sustaining the fragility of our environment
which sustains us.
What are your hopes for the future?
By the time my children are born, I know
it’s possible that they can grow up in a
world where they don’t understand that
there were ever any dividers between
people and why we have the issues we
do today. That’s my goal in this life. To
just clean it all up so that by the time my
kids are born and and become adults,
it’ll only be a thing they read about in
history books.
Jason Mraz
Howdoyou feel about thesuccessofyour
track “I’m Yours” providing a “greater
awareness” which appealed to diverse
audiences?
“I love it; it was probably the song that
really opened my eyes and ears to it. That
was the moment when I started to be
more conscious of how and what I was
writing - creating songs that are full of
affirmations, celebrations and optimistic
views.”
Your leadsingle“LoveSomeone”inYes!has
beenusedassoundtrackforafewmarriage
proposals, what are your thoughts?
Anytime someone uses one of my songs
for anything – a ceremony or a sacred
moment – that to me is a high honour. I’m
proud of the song at that point because
I’m trying to write something for humans
– whichever humans want to get on board
and put this in their soundtrack to their
soul’s development or spiritual lives.
You collaborated with Raining Jane to
produce your latest album?
We’ve been working together for about
seven years now and every year we
get together for what we call ‘ladies’
weekend’ where we do anywhere from
five to seven days of writing and recording
– with no agenda – and we each emerge
with songs to use in our own projects,”
he explains. “But about a year ago we
said, ‘Let’s just focus on our songs for a
second and see if there’s a record here.’ So
we did, and when we presented it, both
our management and our label said yes
within 24 hours – that’s kind of how we
came up with the title of the album, Yes!
We feel that saying yes was the key
to unlocking creativity and getting stuff
done, because if you say no to an impro-
visation, the scene is over. It’s also been a
theme that led us to this point. Had these
girls not said yes when I introducedmyself
to them eight years ago at a gig and asked
if they would be interested in coming over
and just jamming, then we wouldn’t have
created this album.
One of your best friends came out to you
during your senior year of high school, did
this affect your views on civil rights?
When he came out tome it blewmymind.
I thought that was so courageous because
of the potential for abuse and the potential
for violence – it was something that I