HIT THE LIP: with Jason Mraz

This singer-songwriter wins the war on burnout.
By Cristina Black

FOAM: You took a year long break after touring on your last record. Were you totally drained?
Jason Mraz: I was living on catering and room service, in airports and hotel rooms. I didn’t want to write another record from those places. I didn’t want to write about the industry, and traveling, and not being able to have a relationship last longer than a day. So I just went home and surfed every sunrise that I could.

FOAM: Do you take your board with you on tour?
JM: No, because we don’t hit coastal areas enough. Even touring Australia, I was booked the whole time. But I’ve been lucky to meet more and more people who are willing to lend me boards and wet suits when I have a day off. I have some friends who were visiting San Diego, near where I live, and I loaned them long boards and some suits. Now I know when I go to Kitty Hawk, I can hook up with them. I’m building connections so I don’t have to travel with boards, because things get ruined on the road.

FOAM: Including your soul, eh?
JM: Kind of, yes. For a while, I didn’t know who I was. I was miserable. I said, “I need to get away from this and get back on the spiritual path.” So I just quit and went home where I could write a song in the afternoon after a long session and some fish tacos. Everything was just perfect.

FOAM: How did that lifestyle affect your current record, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.?
JM: The songs became stories of transformation. Everything I was loving and learning went into these songs.

FOAM: Now that you’re back on the road, how do you unwind?
JM: I do these meditations every day. There’s this mantra that I think about, yo-hay wah-hay, while I inhale and exhale. So on every hay, I envision the drop-in and turning right and riding up and down the wave. It’s amazing to me how I can actually go there. I can even see my local beach in Oceanside in my peripheral vision.

FOAM: Do you think you’ll stay busy, or do you have another break planned?
JM: I’m pretty well booked until Christmas, but I have a few weeks off here and there and I might go on a little Baja adventure or check out Costa Rica.

FOAM: What about the next record?
JM: Right now, I spend so much time talking about this record, at the end of the day I just want to go home, burn a doobie down, and go to bed.