One-on-One with Jason Mraz
From Vegetarian Times; February 2009
He doesn’t just sing for his supper, he whips it up too BY TRACEY PEPPER
Known for his sunny songs, such as the Grammy-nominated “I’m Yours,” Jason Mraz, 31, had a recording studio built on the five-acre avocado farm he owns outside San Diego. Besides releasing a new album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things, last year, Mraz published a thousand things, an eco-friendly book of photography documenting his world travels. Also last year, the singer-songwriter embarked on a raw food diet.
VT: Do you consider yourself a strict raw foodist?
The thing about my diet is I don’t put a lot of stress on it. So I’ve never stood up and said, “I am a raw foodist,” because then if you stray from it, people will point fingers at you. I eat raw probably 75 percent of the time. I just can’t deny myself warm food, like soup or roasted vegetables, from time to time.
What inspired you to try a raw diet in the first place?
A guy in my band found out that he had Type-2 diabetes and felt that the only way he could help himself was to go raw. I did it as a partner for him so it would be a little easier. He managed to reverse his diabetes. He no longer has it. In the meantime, I got hooked. It was so easy to prepare the foods and make the world’s most delicious salads. We had a raw food chef on the road with us for a month who turned us on to making our own hummus and cheeses and a bunch of alternatives to dairy, bread, and sugar. Once you kick sugar, you won’t want it because there are so many other sweet things to eat. Raw desserts? Forget about it.
Speaking of raw desserts, you posted a recipe for “chocomole” on your blog. What is that exactly?
It’s the easiest vegan dessert I can make on the road. You mash up a bunch of avocados until they become a pudding, then add dates, agave nectar, some coconut oil, and raw cacao. You mix that up and suddenly you have a delicious chocolate mousse. I discovered that I could truly kick sugar when I started to satisfy my sweet tooth with raw desserts.
You’re on the road for months at a time. How do you stick to your diet while on tour?
I do local shopping in the towns I visit, or if there’s no time, we have people on tour who do grocery shopping in advance. I also travel with a with a very large knife and a Vita-Mix 4500 blender.
I assume you haven’t tried to take the knife through any security checkpoints.
No, I check it. I also check a special flight case that holds all my powders and mixtures and even my fruits. Sometimes I’ll have an awesome mango from the Philippines that I want to bring back to California, but U.S. Customs makes you declare or quarantine all your fruits, so it’s hard to move food.
What kind of powders do you stock in your flight case?
I pack Vitamineral Green by HealthForce Nutritionals, Nutiva brand Hemp Protein Powder and Coconut Oil, and fresh bee pollen, which I’ve been lucky enough to get at farmers’ markets. Then for omegas, I use Barlean’s Omega Man, which has got flaxseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, and lignans. I also use a dark raw organic agave to use as a sweetener and Maca Root powder. I always travel with plenty of nuts. Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, Goji berries, Incan berries, mulberries — I call it my “bliss mix.” If I can do a smoothie in the morning, eat bliss mix all day long, and do a super spicy rainbow-colored salad for dinner, I’m happy.
For the past five years, you’ve lived on an avocado farm in San Diego. Can you describe it for us?
It’s a five and a half-acre piece of land where every tree is an avocado tree. They’re all about 25 years old. There’s a grove company that looks after the trees. They pick the avocados when they’re ready and take them to market. The bonus is that I get to eat as many as I like.
Do you prepare a lot of your own food at home?
There are three of us who live in my house and we all pitch in for dinner, which is when my subscription to Vegetarian Times comes in handy. One of my roommates is always challenging himself to try the recipes and make them look like the photos. We all start in the kitchen around seven o’clock and it just becomes a mad cutting, chopping, stirring, and simmering hour. Then we sit down to eat and it feels very sacred and familial. Another roommate is a raw foodist who makes the most incredible desserts, like coconut cream pie, brownies, cookie dough, and chocolate mudslides. They’re so decadent and sweet we have them for breakfast sometimes.
You took a year off after you finished touring in support of your 2005 album Mr. A-Z. Why?
Because I wanted to write a new album based on human experiences, not experiences in the music industry. I didn’t want to be affected by that part of my life. It had been years since I’d cooked anything in my kitchen or slept in my own bed. I needed to do those things. I needed to check in with myself and say, “Who am I now? What would I do if I went to the grocery store?” Because I had been living on room service and catering for so long that I needed a lifestyle change. So I just hung it all up and went home. It reminded me of the importance of what we call normalcy
What kind of impact did your year off have on We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things?
It was absolutely huge. My music chronicles my life. It’s therapeutic for me. When I’m making an album, I’m looking at this musical journal and taking 12 songs that I think would be appropriate to share with the world. And so the music I made during that year reflected a lot of positivity, a lot of realization of the self, of what life is. A lot of us are waking up to a hope for change. I’m really pleased that I had the opportunity to be a part of that awakening and make music that celebrates it with everyone else.
What propelled you to publish a photography book?
Well, I’ve got shoeboxes full of Polaroid pictures, and someone said, “Hey, these are great, you should share these.” I just wanted to let people see some of the things I’ve seen. The book contains images I’ve taken all over the world. You see something that catches your eye and you stop and take a picture of it. All of my projects have been very word-heavy, so it was a great relief to do something that doesn’t include any words, because the picture is worth a thousand.
Why was it important to you that the book be packaged in an environmentally friendly way?
I just think it’s necessary to find an alternative solution so that we can have less of an impact on our community. If everybody does their part, it actually makes life really nice.
###
