Jason Mraz

We’re LUCKY to have Jason Mraz!

 

The singer, songwriter and guitarist joins Lance for an intimate conversation from his early days at the roller rink and borrowing suits from friends to finally achieving success. 

 

For Jason, through all his ups and downs, the most difficult part of his journey was coming out to his family as bisexual.  What does the future hold for Jason Mraz? He reveals all to Lance

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and I Heart
Radio podcast. Hello, my little Peanuts, It's me your host,
Lance Bass. This is Frosted Tips with me Lance Bass
and my beautiful co host husband, Extraordinary Turkey Turchin.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Wow, that was a great interest.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Better at your intro.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hung It was really good and very accurate.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
If it sounds like I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes,
that's not the case. We get one warm day in
LA and my snus is crazy, so me too. You're
gonna know.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
You said I'm here to hear this during the show,
and yeah, we're not dying.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Just this weather's been nuts. I mean, I'm I don't
need to complain because I personally like a little chili
weather with you know, sun. But usually at this point
it's one hundred and ten degrees. Yeah, and it's like
sixty degrees.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's still cold and night. What is going on?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's nice, but then yeah, when it warms up just
the underside, I don't know, it just really gets to
me and I and it's only been the last few
years it's been doing this. I've lived in California twenty
years now, off and on, but I've never had this
problem until the last three or four years.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think it's all the cod that's all the UFO
sidings I've been happening lately.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
We do need to do a show about the UFO sidings.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Because it's getting more and more every day, there's a
new we're talking about it.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
If it's so proven, now, why isn't this the lead stories.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I've really because I get all many some TikTok and
it's obviously all correct, but they're saying this. There's been
there's a big heavy like government puts back on releasing
anything stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
But I thought the government was releasing things.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, I think they were just releasing some things to
appease people. But I don't still don't think they're releasing everything.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Well, and do think it's because if they released the
truth and it's kind of like overwhelming, that people would
freak out.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, I think that's part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
And I also think I think the I think people
would actually come more together and be like, oh, it's
I mean, I would just hope that the world would
come together and be like if they were peaceful, obviously
of course, but you know, I would think we finally
look at each other like, wow, we're really in this together,
and we need to all kind of you know, protect
this little blue dot. You would like that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
But you know the world is burning down as we speak,
and what's happening. We're not getting together, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Our old show. I loved a conspiracy Thursday, but this
one kind of seems like the conspiracy is being broken.
But we'll see again. It should be if this was true,
if there's really, really, really, really really proof of alien existence,
it would be the top story on every news from
no it's.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
All it's all working together. It is on news, things
on news all the time, but it's always kind of
down place.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm saying. If it was for real, real real.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
It would just be Lance. You just don't know. You're
just not in it. But before we start our interview, I.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Just yeah, we have on the show, and I'm so excited.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Oh yeah him before Oh my gosh, good dude.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
I love anytime there's a interview on. I'm always like
listening to his He's really well spoken.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yes, so the puppy likes him too. In the in
the distance. But before we start this interview, I actually
am going to interview you via a fan question. It's
only one question. This was a very small interview. I
call this a frosted flake.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Did you just come up with that?

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Literally, it just came up with that. So I'm gonna
hate you with this hard hitting frosted flake. This message
came in from Megam on Instagram. Him Megan Megam Do
you have any weird hobbies or interests weird?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
I mean, I don't think any of my interests are weird.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Okay, we'll start listing them now.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
The thing is I have too many interests.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah I do.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's just it's which is a downfall for me, because
I do. I have, like I'm interested so many things
that I don't really have time to I don't know, really.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Really focus into one. Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's why I'm a what do they say, uh an
expert none?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
So oh yeah you're uh you're somethink.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Of all but a master of none, like a student
of all, an expert of none or I don't know.
That's that's how I feel like I think I'm like
good at many things, but I'm not great at anything.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah you are, I'm not. You're great and so many things,
but I have a but yeah, I love some of them.
It's a horrible interview.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Interests. Oh my gosh, Well you tell me you know
my interest.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, you have a big interest in feeding wildlife around
our property. It depends all the animals feeding, uh night habits,
rabbit girls and I have all kinds of gardening. You
love gardening.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
I do love gardening. Yeah, I love space. I love
music obviously. You like puzzles, love puzzles. I love my children.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well that's I shouldn't. I guess raising your children shouldn't
be a hobby. It's more of a duty.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know. Sometimes it feels like a hobby, right.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Because when they're having so much fun, of course, it's
like a hobby. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean again, I just have I have so many interests.
It just it all just kind of Do you have
any weird habits? Again, you tell me you're the one
who sees me. I don't know some of the things
I do. Weird habits, weird habit.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
I mean, you're not that weird.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I don't have anything that you're like, Oh my god,
he always does this little tick.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well you weird habit? Yeah, Well you have habits of again,
you like to when it comes to quantities or explainings.
Oh yeah, you tend to put like an exponent on the.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Quantity of everything has to be dramatic.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yes, everything's dramatized to either be more or less depending
on how the story needs to go.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Because I need people to feel how dire it is. Yes,
you know when I say there were you know, twenty
million people.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
But the problem is you know that it felt like
to the people around you. Is believes you things when
you say it literally, So I always have to go
and I feel like an asshole after No, I go
and sprinkle the truth.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
After I exaggerate so much that there's no way you
can believe it.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
But it's not true, because the amount of people that
go to me like, really that that's true. No, that's
not true.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well then they should know it's it's a thing you
really believe.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Don't worry, I do. I do. Damn's control behind when
she leave the scene.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Oh Giggles is here, and she's reminded me of the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade debacle where I thought, what fifty
people were coming over for Thanksgiving? Which I did think
fifty people we were, We did have a lot of
people invited, and then maybe eight people showed up and
then I was on air and they're like, what are
you doing. I'm like, oh, I'm having a Thanksgiving for

(06:31):
like fifty people, but only eight showed up. But you know,
I quantitate it could have gotten to fifty. I've had
parties that went well built, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
So yeah, he does that with parties too. He's like,
we're gonna have it most forty people are gonna have
a pool party, and then ninety eight people show up,
and he's like, well I had to invite the.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Not exaggerating, that's just being popular.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh god, Okay, you know what, this is a horrible interview.
We're gonna put this in the archives. Is a burn.
It's one of those little burnt frosted flakes you get,
you know, sometimes you get the little black frosted flake
that's burnt. Yeah, in the pack. That was this interview.
But you know what, it's the first ones we got
bugs in it. Let's move on to let's get.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
To Jason Morass. It's take a little break, we'll come back.
We're gonna have Jason Moras. Jason Thomas Moras is an
American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Born and raised in Virginia,

(07:36):
he rose to prominence with the release of his debut
studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come in two
thousand and two, which spawned the single The Remedy that
reached the top twenty of Billboard Hot one hundred chart.
His next two studio albums, Mister A to Z and
We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, peaked in the
top five on the Billboard two hundred, with the latter
album spawning the Grammy Award winning singles make It Mine

(07:58):
and Lucky with Kobe kalay To just release this eighth
studio Albumistical Magical, Rhythmical, Radical Ride, which is the you
have the Best Titles ever. In June, Jason Rows, Welcome
to Frosted Tips.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
My man, Hey, thanks for having me on your program.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Nice to be here.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
We have definitely been looking forward to this interview. Love
you so much. But let's take it back from the
beginning because on the show we'd like to really get
to know what it was like at the very beginning
for you. So you grew up in a small town
in Virginia. What's town was this?

Speaker 3 (08:32):
This was Richmond, Virginia, but we were a suburb of Richmond.
We were called Mechanicsville. Virginia means, so it was a
fine place to grow up, specifically because we did have
music arts band in our public schools and that was
a big deal, you know, to go from second grade
to be introduced to music in fifth grade, given a recorder,

(08:55):
sixth grade, you could choose music as an elective, you know.
So props to hand over County Education for giving us
arts because it kept my grade point average where it
needed to be to get the heck out of there.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
And it shows you right there why it is so
important for us to keep the arts in school. I
think it's so insane that it's twenty twenty three and
we're still trying to fight for the arts and schools
like it's a bad thing, like they're trying to get rid.
So what do you think about that? Why do you
think arts is so attacked in our public schools?

Speaker 3 (09:27):
That is a good question. I really don't know. Just
a few years togo here in San Diego, about eighty
student eighty teachers were let go specifically from the arts
education programs across the city, and I don't know why.
When they look at budget cuts, they just they look
at finger painting and music as something that can be
done outside of school with the parents or in after

(09:50):
school programs, which is why there's so many nonprofits supporting
arts education because you can't always get it in the
regular school curriculum. But I don't know why that is.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
I wish I could answer that question. I mean, we
don't have a national Endowment for artists, you know, to
live on like other countries have. We don't have a
Minister of the Arts in our government that oversees the
arts as a beautiful part of our culture. So we
got to do it rogue on podcasts like this, you know,
we gotta go gorilla.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
I'm going to let's call President Biden right now. Okay,
it's a chemistry of the arts, because that is such
a great idea because maybe we don't we have data
after data saying that the arts, especially music, it helps
gets It makes you smarter, it makes you better in
different subjects. Yeah, it just opens your mind. I think
that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, especially with the arts. You know, we usually when
you're in the arts kind of you learn just about
different people. But it's more an empathetic thing to be
in the arts. You open up your mind more and
I think that's scary to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, exactly. So growing up, what did you listen to?
What kind of music were you really into? What? What
what got you going?

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I was, I'm I'm glad we're having this conversation because
there's some parts of my child I've never shared with anyone,
but I'm going to share them here with you. Yes,
this seems like the this is the thread, you know
when I look at your podcast and who's on air
and who's listening. So I grew up listening to the radio,
and I grew up going to a roller skating rink,

(11:25):
So that was pretty much. You know, the pop charts,
the top the top of the pops, I guess. I
don't know if you remember an act around eighty nine
ninety called PC Quest. Oh this act, I think they're
out of Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I don't think.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
I do think it's good for pop charts. Quest they
were a cute act. They were cute act, young, very
young act. But I was a follower of theirs, as
well as a few other unique bands that inspired my
friends and I to create our own little act. And

(12:03):
so around eighth grade we were called Double Trouble. Yeah,
we would go out and perform mostly dance and lip sync.
But then we caught the eye of another local act
called Dressed to Kill. And then I got tapped by
Dressed to Kill to join them. You got poached, WHOA,

(12:26):
I got poached. And I was thirteen, singing like the
high Range, like Michael Jackson songs. We'd sing Jackson five
covers and they were all in college, so they were
all like to me, they were men, you know, and
we were a boy band. We were Dressed to Kill.
We had dance moves, outfits, and this is something I've

(12:47):
not really shared with the world, and I'm happy to
post pictures when this podcast comes out.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
That was my next question. Well, Lance's first boy band
was in a group called Seven Card Studs, so it's
like right there.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
We did more medleys of the fifties and sixties, and
we wore vests that were shiny. But yeah, we all
had our first boy bands. And I'm so glassy. I
knew I needed you on the show for a reason,
and it is.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, And then Double Trouble was no more. He was
then Single Mingle.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Do you keep up with any of these guys?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
No?

Speaker 3 (13:24):
One of them. I ran into in Houston about two
years ago we were on tour. But I'd really love
to find some track down some of the other guys,
just see how they're doing.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
So, how how did the how did the band disband?
What was the ending?

Speaker 3 (13:40):
We were together a couple of years and we would
play random gigs around Richmond, Virginia, some big, well you know,
publicized events, and somewhere, you know, it was midnight after
a boxing match and there were just a few people
left in the center, you know, but we were there
to do our gig. So I think after a couple

(14:02):
of years of it really not taking off, people had
to find other jobs, other work. I was then going
into high school, was getting more involved in drama and
chorus and had homework and things, uh, and then started
to see a path from me going through musical theater.
So the band just kind of naturally slowed down and dismantled. Sadly.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Gosh, I love this story so much. I cannot wait
to see these pictures and of course for this right now,
they're gonna be on Instagram page.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
I'm sure, sure, yeah, make sure you get a copy
of Dress to Kill.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
I'm sure your what was your style?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Like?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Dress wise?

Speaker 3 (14:41):
I was borrowing suits from a friend of mine who
had you know, uh suits. I didn't have any suits
prior to being in Dressed to Kill, but they had
shiny suits, big shoulder pads.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Dressed to kill you have to you know, you have
to have a look exactly.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
We went to one meeting with some kind of talent
consultant and we didn't we didn't have the look on.
And he even mentioned that he's like, you know, if
you're called dressed to kill, you need you guys need
to look dressed to kill when you walk in the door.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
So my husband, here, show me a picture I forgot.
I guess I was in another boy band before seven
card stud This is me and oh yeah, barbershop quarzet
in fourth grade.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
So the barbershop boy tetyes.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
A boy tet. We love a nice boy tete.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So when did you start writing your own music? Was
that early on in your life or did you just
yeah that later?

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Eighth grade when I was in Double Trouble, I was
making raps and I would and I would just sing
them over whatever material I could find, and so I
would usually the backside of my cassette single of whoever
I was buying, and so, for example, C and C
Music Factory would have instrumental on side B, and so

(15:59):
I'd sing my song over the instrumental and then using
a bunch of tape recorders, record my voice onto that
tape recorder and I could get them to play it
at the roller rink on the weekends, and it sounded
like a mastered C and C Music Factory track, but
with some different DJ vocal or something. So I was
getting the thrill really early on in eighth grade of

(16:22):
like recording music and would just to kill I got
to go into the studio and record a jingle and
I got to so that was my first time in
a recording studio. So I got the bug in eighth grade,
probably thirteen prior to that, I was making up songs
on the piano, but not really knowing what I was doing,
but I knew I was like being creative and inventing stuff.
So after eighth grade, it was like cassio, keyboard, get

(16:45):
into a tape machine, drum, little drum, demo beats and
making up songs or you know, people I liked in
high school or things that I think would make me
laugh and buy college. I had no other interest. I'd
kind of lost interest in everything except making up songs

(17:09):
like that to me was like this magic trick that
I could do. And so in college, people would come
to me and give me a random object and say,
make a song out of this, so a candle or
a doctor pepper can or an ash tray or just
random stuff. So basically like freestyling, and I would grab
my guitar and freestyle these songs into existence. And that

(17:32):
was it for me. I quit every other plan I
possibly could have had, auditioning for musical theater, all of that,
it just went right out the window, and I decided
I would pursue original music.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Did you ever have any aspirations besides entertainment.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
No.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
In fact, in high school, when we would have like
a career day, a type of day, or you know,
a conversation and to hear people say I'm going into
economics or finance or I'm going to go into management,
I did not understand what they were talking about. I
seriously looked at the whole room as if I was
the center of the universe, and I thought, you're not

(18:14):
going in the entertainment industry. I would look around the
entire room it's like, y'all aren't going into entertainment, Like
are you out of your minds myself? So, because I know,
I was so convinced that I would just be an entertainer,
because I think I always was. I was entertaining my grandma,
that I was entertaining my middle school friends and dressed
to kill, and then I was entertaining my high school

(18:36):
and college friends. It's just that's just what I knew
my strength was. And if I could entertain my way
out of having a real job, then that would be
success for me. If I could go find a song
and dance and not have to clock in somewhere.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's the dream. It's the dream. So when you started,
do you remember the first song you wrote and how
old you were?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (19:04):
So this bit of book girl walk in my way,
I thought, what'll I do? I needed something to say.
I said, my name is Jay, and I want to
say hi to You're the good of my dreams, and
I think that I love you like that.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
That's a that's a good VideA.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
I ever recorded that.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Just here on this podcast? Oh wow, No, I'm sure.
I'm sure I recorded on a cassette tape in nineteen ninety.
I wrote that in eighth grade CIVIX class.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
It's a good little tune.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
It's probably in the same key and everything. Maybe it
was a little higher.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
So you attended a few different schools growing up, had
a bunch of jobs, then went on. There's a road
trip where you ended up in San Diego and you
decided to stay there. So what drew you to San Diego?

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Come on?

Speaker 3 (20:04):
What draws people to San Diego to be?

Speaker 2 (20:07):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Let's for those who haven't been here. It's not an
easy place to live. The weather is crap. It's just
it's crowded.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
You just want to stay away.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah, there isn't there's no like. The environment here is
just not great. Like if you've ever been to Toledo,
it's kind of like Toledo.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
That's how we say here. You know, I live in
the valley and I'm like, oh, you don't want to
go to that. That always horrible, Like you can't park anywhere,
it's way too hot. It's you just don't come over here.
It's yeah, I like it at all.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah, so same. I got kind of got stuck in
San Diego, so same, just no need to come down here.
And check on me.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, well we wish you well.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Thanks. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
In ninety nine, I dropped out of college, or I
should say I took a little break. It was spring break, actually,
is what it was. It was spring break like my
freshman year of college. I was a I put everything
in my car just in case spring break went well.

(21:16):
And my mom noticed that because I had lunch with
my mom right before I left on this drive to California,
and she knew something was up because she's like, why
are you taking everything you own in your whole life
to your on your spring break.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
You had that foresight already, You already knew that this
could be a possibility.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah. Because say I was writing, I had been writing
songs for quite a few years. I was feeling good.
I probably had a dozen songs that I could play
on guitar that were originals that I really believed in
and and but what I felt was missing in my
life was experience. So I was like, I'm going to
take myself on an adventure. I've never been to the
West Coast. I've read about it, I've heard about it
feels like it's a pilgrimage that one must take in

(21:54):
one's life. So I set sail across the US, not
knowing what I was going to do. I had one
friend in San Francisco that I was going to be
able to crash with, and then so I landed there,
scared out of my mind, had no money left. But
I figured, you know, I'll figure it out. I'll get
a job, I'll play house parties, I'll work my way up,

(22:15):
I'll find places to gig. And luckily, my friend had
a boyfriend who had a friend in the entertainment industry
who was a concert promoter and manager. You probably know
I'm Bill Silva. Oh yes, yeah. He was concert promoter

(22:35):
from San Diego and in the LA area, and so
he and my new friend in San Francisco were friends.
And so my San Francisco friend said, let's go down
to Vegas. We're going to go to a party. And
I took my guitar to this Vegas party and I
met Bill Silva and a lot of other great people
just playing my guitar in a hotel room and having

(22:56):
a good time. And luckily it was at a time
in Bill's life when he too was looking to take
on a client. So Bill leaned over to me, He's like,
what do you do? What do you do? And I
was like, I don't do anything. I just moved to California.
I mean, it was kind of the perfect thing. It
was like, I'm twenty one, I have no job, I

(23:17):
have an interest in entertainment, I have songs. I don't
even have a home really, and so Bill, being a
genius and a very generous and loving man, said why
don't you come down to San Diego and record some
of your songs. Let's see what you can do. So
I went down to San Diego from Vegas with my

(23:37):
little backpack, and I've been in California for maybe a
month at this point. So I really got lucky following
my intuition and this hunch that if I left at
spring break, I would be able to make some connections.
And so I find myself in San Diego just a
couple of weeks later, I record some songs. We all

(23:58):
agree that I need a lot of work. I don't
have any experience. So I stay in San Diego and
I start working the open mic scene and the songwriter nights,
and I basically live at Bill's house for two years
because he moves to Los Angeles at this exact same
time and says, look, I need somebody to house at

(24:19):
my house. My house is for sale, but you can
stay here until it sells and go play shows. Just
go play as many shows. So I just immersed myself
in the coffee shop scene, writing songs every week, playing
shows over at Java Joe's, over at Java Joe's. Luckily,
Bill's house didn't sell for about two years, so I

(24:43):
had this beautiful place I could crash. For two years,
I met a lot of friends who would pick me up,
drive me around. I didn't have vehicle. I got a bicycle.
And after those two years, I had gained a little
bit of an hodolliance and I'd written a lot more songs,
and Bill and I then created an agreement where he'd

(25:05):
be my manager and we would try to take these
songs to another level. So I gotta tell you, if
if I hadn't, if i'd have waited for the summer
break while I was in college, not taken the spring
break jump, my friend in San Francisco would have broken
up with her friend because that was inevitable, that was happening,

(25:29):
and I would have missed that window to meet that
guy who introduced me to Bill, and I may have
met Bill later, or I may have just met another
manager later. You know, it's probably that's probably what would
have happened. I would have met a different team. But
meeting Bill was the right person because of who he

(25:50):
was as a mentor, as a guru, as a yogi,
as a promoter, as a friend. He was just the
right person. He nurtured, he cared, he's patient. So I mean,
I got so that was my first big break, was
really meeting Bill and him encouraging me to then go

(26:12):
work hard, and then a couple of years later we
would get another break, and then another break and another break.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
I think it's so wild. I mean, the butterfly fag.
We talk about this all the time, how lucky we
are all to be around right now, not only following
our dreams and having some successes and all that, but
just to be here. You know, your great grandmother could
have taken a left out of the house instead of
a right and not met your great great grandfather, and

(26:38):
then you wouldn't be here, just one little thing in history,
so everything had to line up perfectly for you to
be here today. I think that is so wild, and
I think everyone should realize how what a feat that is.
That is a success right there. So if you're ever
feeling down about yourself, just think about what it took
for you to get here, Like that is not it's

(26:59):
like you want you won, that is it? I mean?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
And that's that's why we promote gratitude because if you
there is always something to be thankful for, it's a
miracle that we are here at all. You are right, And.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
You know, gratitude is something that I take from you
with this new album. You know that to me, You
know this this album that you've come out with is
all about finding the good and things and the gratitude.
And even you have a song Gratitude, which I think
is beautiful and really hits home for because I know
you growing up. You know, like a lot of us

(27:34):
were bullied. Yeah, and I love because I was listening
to one of your interviews where you're saying, you know,
it's so easy to move away, right, just get out
of the situation. But sometimes people can't get out of
that situation. You're not you know, you're not able to.
But you took all of that bullying and all of that,
you know that that pain and turn it into something good.

(27:55):
And I also love that you said, you know you
you thank those bullies, you think all those because you
know what you did was you weren't going to live
in fear anymore and you're going to do something good
with your life to prove to them that they made
nothing like. They worked so hard to hurt you, but
you did something so much better, so they didn't affect
you at all. So I really love your writing on

(28:18):
this one in particular.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Ah, thanks, thanks, appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
We had to get into Okay, So congratulations. Also coming
out bisexual, was that twenty ten or twenty eighteen? I
think that you were able to talk about that, and
I relate to your stories so much because a lot
of the things that kept me from being who I
truly was was protecting my family, you know, and you

(28:56):
know you don't you want them to You never want
them to feel like a failure, right, And we were
told so much in our lives that it's wrong to
be this, you have to do this, and you just
always and for me, just wanted to kind of stay
in because you didn't want to embarrass your family and
make them feel like they did something wrong. So tell
me your experience of finding yourself and how your family

(29:16):
took you coming out as bisexual.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
I'm so glad you said family, because that's part that's
often like, it's that's the real you know, It's it's
not my fans. It's like, how's mom gonna feel? You know,
how's I'm going to look in her community?

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right? You don't want to hurt them, You don't want
to go because when you come right, your family comes
out too, exactly.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
And when I was growing up, I think I think
my mom was a bit of a late bloomer to
to understanding gay lifestyle and understanding that gay people are
born naturally.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
You know, it was late.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
She was a late bloomer to that idea. Because my
best friend in high school came out and my mom
had a little trouble with it at first. And when
I say at first, I say for a couple of years.
And that almost prevented me from going any further in

(30:24):
my exploration or at least my public sharing of it
in some way, you know, just for just yeah, fear
of your own parent. I guess my mom was never abusive.
My mom was such a wonderful lady, but so yeah,

(30:45):
there was that, And then I think for me, my
remedy was, I'm just gonna leave town. I'm just I'm
never gonna have to I'll never tell them, I'll never
face any of it. I'll just go to New York
City and then I'll move to California. I'll live three
thousand miles. Well, I'll do my own thing. I'll live
in my own bubble. And uh, you can't do that forever,

(31:08):
you can't. You just so over time, it just felt
I felt like I was shorting myself and and limiting
the experiences I could even have in life by being closeted.
So my dad found out when I made a video
clip with very gay paint. Do you know very gay? Okay,

(31:33):
my studio is painted by very Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
They have a brand new book out too. That's really great.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
I y love the very very gay pain for a
mutual friend.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Oh yeah, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
That's a really good friend.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Hope.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Yeah, we were Yeah, she's the best. Yeah, so we
made a song together. I wanted to write very gay
painted theme song and they're like, no, no, no, no, thanks,
we don't need one.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
I was like, I'll write you one, no problem, prostitutes.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Sure, I'll make you so. So I made a little
video for it. It's cute. It's on It's on our socials,
Deep Deep, a couple of years ago, and at the
very end it's either the tagline is we're very gay
paint and also we're gay and your son is gay.
And then my dad calls me afterwards and you know,
he's like, hey, I saw your video. Son. He's like,

(32:25):
I just want you to know we love you and
we're proud of you for everything you've accomplished. I was like,
all right, Dad, thank you, love you. You know, he's
so sweet. Not a man of many words, but he's
all love. So that was just a few years ago. Yeah,
you know, it's it's been. Honestly, I always wanted my

(32:48):
songs to be more popular than me. I didn't want
my songs to have to have a person or a
personality attached to them. For you to understand it and
get into the song. You should just be able to
hear it, like it, And in general, I didn't want
to ever like have to feed too much celebrity into

(33:09):
my career. I just I wanted to be able to
sell tickets. I wanted to be able to play shows,
and so with all of that, I never thought about,
you know, putting my sexuality into my sound bites. I
guess even though even though whenever I was in you know,

(33:32):
hetero romantic relationships, I noticed it was easy to do.
I could off the cuff easily talk about it, sing
about it. So I was kind of I'd kind of
grown tired of that, that sort of one sidedness, and
especially as all my relationships were failing, I was like,
I'm not being real with myself. So I freed myself up.

(33:53):
I got a little real, started being a little more open,
and my whole life experience has transformed and shift that
I feel lighter, yeah, having more fun.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
That's true. It feels like the you know, the weight
of the world just kind of is off your shoulders.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Well, you could finally be like your real self without
always having to kind of guard that one side, so
you're always kind of on alert at all times. At
least for me, that was my case before I came.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
To the anxieties. Great, do you do you suffer from
anxiety at all? Are you able to handle that well?

Speaker 3 (34:24):
I think I handle it well.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, how do you how do you deal with fame.
I mean you started at a very young age. I
mean you started shitting a boy band when you're in
eighth grade. How did you how how do you do
you cope with fame? Well, because you were just saying,
you know, you'd rather the songs be bigger than the artist.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Yeah, I you know, it's I don't think I have
to deal with a lot of fame. I think I'm okay.
Most people don't know what I look like. In fact,
i'll see comments on videos that I'll say, that's what
Jason Morez looks like, and I like that.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Yeah Yeah. And where I live in terrible, gloomy San Diego,
the worst town in America. Nobody, I don't know. There's
maybe one lady at my grocery store that wants a
picture with me every time I'm in there. I'm like, really,
the same You're wearing the same outfit every time. So

(35:20):
that's about it.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
So you released your first album October two thousand and two,
your first major label debut with Waiting for My Rocket
to comb Ah. What was that moment like for you?
You're finally You've been working on these songs for years,
You've been paying your dues, you've been living in shitty
San Diego. What was it like to finally release this.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Album, this, this new album or.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
The first the first one?

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah, scary, very scary because I had prior been a
a pre been a coffee shop acoustic thing and a
bit punk like songs that didn't have choruses very long,

(36:10):
you know, Bob Dylan s songs with seven verses. And
I had a percussionist and a bass player and it
was just the three of us, and we made this
really quirky acoustic sound. And then I go and make
a record and it's you know, there's ninety tracks on
the remedy, you know, literally ninety pro tools files, right,

(36:33):
And I just thought, there's no way I'm going to
be able to perform this. I can't. The chorus starts,
the down beat of the chorus starts before the verse
even ends, and so in my head, I'm just thinking, technically,
I don't know how I'm going to pull this off.
And I thought I was also going to alienate or

(36:55):
scare my fan base, which was, you know, a bit
of a San Diego crowd, but also this college crowd
that had been purchasing my acoustic CDs online and were
spreading these CDs around campuses, and so I don't know.
I just thought I I had blown up my sound
a little too much. But I was wrong. I was

(37:16):
wrong because what I did was I amplified my sound
that gave me access to radio waves, radio frequencies and
get my songs played on the radio and make a
even bigger noise. So while I was a little intimidated
at first, it turned out to be a good thing.

(37:37):
But what I had to do was hire a drummer
and another guitar player slash keyboard player to come on
the road with us. And I had to learn how
to be a band after the album came out, because
the remedy was taking off and we felt like I
needed to show up and make the album sounds. So
our little trio turned into a band. And then ever

(38:00):
since then, I've been kind of learning how to put
a band together and figure that out. But it still
starts with you know, solo acoustic or just a few
people on acoustic instruments.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Do you remember the first time you heard your song
on the radio. There's nothing like hearing your song on
the radio.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
Yeah, I have two different experiences of that one, I
was at the radio station, so it's not as romantic the.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Car, it's exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
And so my first car listen, I was actually in
Australia and I had rented a car, and so I'm
on the opposite side of the car. I'm on the
opposite side of the road, and I'm at a red
light and the remedy comes on and my first instinct was, oh,

(38:48):
I got to take the CD out because I'm returning
the rental car. But I didn't have the CD in there,
and I realized, oh, my gosh, it's on the radio,
and so I turned the the wind is down. I
turned it up, and then I got embarrassed and I
turned it down because I didn't want to be seen
like rocking out to my song. But then I realized,

(39:10):
nobody knows this song or who I am. But it
was a really like literally a backwards moment because I
was on the opposite side of the road.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
I love hearing people's first time they heard Yeah. So
it was cool. You know, in the early two thousand,
it was an interesting time in the music industry. It
was you know, the nineties really kind of set it
up where it was just so eclectic of just so
many different types of music that was blowing up at
this time. You were coming out there, you know, it
was Us, Brittany, Jennifer Lopez, Eminem. It was a crazy scene.

(39:43):
So what did you think about entering the music scene
at this point or are you thinking about, like, how
do I stand out? How do I, you know, compete
with Britney Spears, who's selling fifty million records in album?
Was it a scary time for you or were you
just excited to be your singer songwriter?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Yeah, I was excited to be myself. I didn't really
start to feel like industry competition until probably around twenty sixteen.
So I had a long stretch of I felt like
where I was just in my own lane or it
didn't matter because I just felt like a contest winner already,

(40:23):
you know. So I made my first album and I
just felt like, this was great. I got to make
an album. Let's go on tour. And then the album
did well, so it's like, oh, great, I get to
make another one. Let's try that, and that one was
The second album was a little bit harder to make
because I had to write it on tour and pull
it together really quickly, and while it commercially wasn't as successful,

(40:46):
it contains a lot of songs that have survived my
show so that I still play quite a bit, which
is quite cool. And so then I thought, Okay, no
big deal. I did two albums. I'm going to take
a big break, still not really paying attention to trends
in the industry and whatnot, and I was going on
personal life workshops and just trying to make sure I

(41:08):
had peace in my life. And that's when I ended
up writing I'm Yours into the songs from We See,
We Dance, We Steal Things, and that album did its
own thing that took us around the world, and I
just stayed busy for years that then, and then it
just kept going. It went into the next album, and
then I got to go into the next album. It

(41:28):
wouldn't be until twenty sixteen that my songs were getting
stuck at an an r's office for about three four
years and I wasn't getting any traction, and I really
felt then, oh, I need to have some a story,
I need to have a sound, I need to have
something that competes in the world. And that was the
first time I really felt the competitiveness, but no, you
were free to do your own thing. I was doing

(41:50):
my own thing. Early days were great.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
What is your favorite song to play in concert?

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Ah sucks. I don't know. No, I have no preference.
I mean when I'm in the song, that's my favorite song.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Right. Yeah, we have to sorry about the remedy because
I know you've told the story so many times, but
you originally did not want this song on the album.
So why was that?

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Yeah? So I had written the remedy in my car
on the five Freeway driving between San Diego and LA
and I had seen the fireworks exploding in Anaheim at Disneyland,
and I just start rapping. I saw fireworks from the
freeway and behind closed eyes, I.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Got about Disney.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Right, it's about the fireworks. And what that moment relates
to was my friend Charlie, who I grew up with
in Mechanicsville. He was born on July fourth, so the
fireworks really represent his birthday celebration. And at that time
in two thousand, the year two thousand, two thousand and one,

(42:56):
he was diagnosed with you in sarcoma and was battling cancer.
And I was living in shitty San Diego and living
my dream and making music and potentially making an album.
And I couldn't understand why I ended up with my
circumstances and he ended up with his because we grew
up in the same town, drank the same water, they

(43:18):
did the same people, I mean, very similar upbringings. And
yet he's he's losing all of his hair and he's
plugged in and he's going through chemo. So I write
this song in my car, and I start putting it
in my show, weaving this little rap into various songs
as a tribute to my homie. And then I take
that song idea into a songwriting session with the Matrix

(43:42):
and we distill the meaning to down to its essence,
and they helped me write the chorus, I won't worry
my life away, which is Charlie's mantra during that whole ordeal.
He'd say, Man, I'm not going to worry my life away.
I'm going to do what the doctors tell me. And
the only and like the for this is the experience.
I'm just going to go through it. He's like, I

(44:03):
gotta go through it to get over it. And so
I was putting these messages in the song. And when
we made this song with the Matrix, it scared me
a little bit because of how giant the song sounded,
and again how the chorus started before the verse ended,
and then also because I felt like, oh, no, am

(44:24):
I exploiting my friend? Am I exploiting his you know
what is sacred to him? These mantras? And I got
his blessing. He said, man, I love it. I think
it's a great song, but I still didn't want to
put on the record and I didn't share it with
my producer and I didn't share it with the band.
But the label had heard it and that was enough.

(44:47):
So I get into the I get into the studio
on our last day of recording the basics, which is
drums and bass, And when I get into the studio,
everyone's listening to the remedy, my demo of it, and
I think, where did you get this? Because I hadn't
heard it in months, and they're like, well, the label
sent it over and they thought we should give it

(45:08):
a try, we should do our own version of it.
And I thought, Nope, not happening. This song is going
to take me a direction that I'm not sure I
want to go. And I don't want to ruin, you know,
I don't want to exploit my friend's situation. And they're like, well,
you just don't like the demo, lets us try.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I just felt like my life was going to change
in this moment. I knew it. There were other songs
on that album that I thought could be great singles
that I could go forward with, but I was nervous
that if I did the remedy, that was the song
I was going to have to sing every day. And
in the vocal booth, we're going through the motions, we're

(45:50):
putting the arrangement down, and I am crying on the
microphone while singing it because they felt like a bit
of a sellout. And my manager was there, and as
soon as the song's over, I'm embarrassed and I run
outside to just get away from people, and it's pouring
down rain and I'm hiding. I'm hiding under the stairs,
and my manager comes out and he's so sweet and

(46:11):
he says, just listen to the words, like listen to
your own take your own medicine right here and right now.
Listen to the words. You know, this is a beautiful song.
It's going to touch a lot of people. Don't worry
your life away, you know the experience, you go through
this experience, And so I took his advice and I

(46:33):
continued to build the track and color it the way
we thought would fit the record, And of course it
continued to take off. And then ironically or not ironically, symbiotically,
it really started to connect with people who were going
through cancer and surviving cancer. They were hearing those ingredients

(46:56):
in there because it's it's not obvious, but for somehow
they were really connecting it. So I found myself in
care centers and in hospitals singing this song a year later.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Was that the first time you realize that you could
affect someone just through your lyrics. Because there's so many
times in my life that fans will come up and,
you know, tell me a story about one of my songs.
That God must have spend a lot more time when
you you know, stop someone from driving over cliff. One day,
you know, the song came out on the radio. She
listened to the words and she decided not to kill herself.
Those are the I mean, just like, yeah, sometimes you

(47:28):
don't realize you know what people are going through and
what your music can actually do for them. So was
that the moment you're like, wow.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, and how does that feel just knowing? You know,
you think to yourself it's like, oh, it's a song
I don't know, but to other people it could be
life changing and just so many people you can spread
these messages.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Yeah, it was a huge learning experience and it opened
my eyes to the power of positive thinking, transformative language,
positive articulation. Songs that have mantras like I won't worry
my life away, I won't give up. These these powerful

(48:04):
messages that anyone can sing and transform transform their life experience.
I get transformed by it when I sing it. And
so what it did was it shifted my perspective as
a songwriter to try to create these songs of purpose
and try to create these songs that have that that
same potency of a reason to live, you know, a

(48:30):
reason to survive, you know.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
So I definitely credit Charlie and his experience for being
a huge inspiration on what has now become an entire
career of it.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
What I've always loved about you is your awareness of
the world and what is going on, and just the
way you talk about uh situations. If it's political or not.
I love how you just describe things. Every time I
listen to an interview of yours, I feel like it
just improves all of our mindsets, you know, like, yeah,
that's right, you really, Yeah, that's that's the way to

(49:18):
look at it as a public figure. And I feel like,
especially in the last you know, few years, it's we're
kind of the enemy of the state. Sometimes it's you know,
sometimes when we have a message that we want to
use our platform for, sometimes it could go the opposite
way because people are like, oh, and don't preach to me,
don't get political, you're too woke. You know that those

(49:40):
you know, those things that keep being thrown at you.
How do you deal with that situation? How how do
you kind of walk that fine line of getting a
message out you want people to know, but yet not
I don't know, pissing off the people that are pushing
back against this message.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Yeah, honestly, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
You do a great job of it.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Thank you, Thank you. I feel like I could still
do more. First of all, when did woke become such
a bad thing?

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I know, it's ridiculous that you are aware, you've opened
your eyes something you're.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Aware of inequality or things differences.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, I remember distinctly, like six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
like all these years, the language, especially around la and
people that I was looking up to, I was hearing,
there's an awakening. We are we're in the middle of

(50:43):
an awakening. The great Awakening is coming, right, And then
I feel like we were, we're we're kind of there,
and all of a sudden, the awakening is in the
past tense, and now we are woke. And now woke
is a bad thing bad And I and so anybody
out there who who hears the word woke and as

(51:06):
a bad thing, I invite you to just shift your
perspective on that, because basically, we are finally awake to
see the injustices and the inequalities that have been there
for our entire lives. And now we have an opportunity
to correct some situations and amend those situations and make
life better for all people in this miraculous moment that

(51:30):
we are given to live and breathe. So, woke is
a good thing. Don't let any politician or any other
channel tell you that woke is bad.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Oh it's a buzzword, you know. And I think it's
because the people that are so scared of the word woke.
I think it's just because they're embarrassed about what their
mindset was before they exactly, you know, exactly comes from
that embarrassment.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yes, exactly. You don't feel bad about yourself.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
And we've all come from I mean, look, we were
all ignorant at some point in all kinds of situations,
you know, that's right, so we all became aware.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Meaning well, of course, everybody's ignorant until you learn. I mean,
there's not one person who's born non ignorant. So yeah,
it's just it's just what it's just. I mean, in life,
you become more woke as you go through.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
As a teenager and a closeted gay guy, I was
against uh you know, same sex marriage, you know, because
that's what I was taught I needed to be, you know.
So it's like, that's right. You you believe these things
that you know, you end up not believing it in
the future, and you should be proud of that. You
should be proud of educating yourself and learning. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Yeah, everybody's awakening looks different, and that's another reason to
be compassionate for for everyone out there, and so the
same can be said about standing up for for any
issue and being vocal about it. If if a fan
has any issue with it, it's just that they're, like
you just said, they're they're probably embarrassed for their mindset

(52:54):
and they're just likely not yet tuned into the to
the same information that I am. So I think it's
important for us if we, if we believe something, to
use our platform for good. You know, I try to
look at it that way. I use my superpowers for good.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think you and Ed Charon
should compete for the most songs used in wedding songs, hey,
for people's first dances, because I mean, I'm pretty sure
I'm yours is the number one first dance at weddings
that song. I mean, did you realize how huge that
was gonna be? I want to say that it's been
sixteen weeks at number one.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Wow, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
It was crazy.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Yeah, on the adult contemporary charts four months straight.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
I don't know what happened with that. If I did know,
i'd write a lot more of.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Right, right, Yeah, do you ever go to weddings and
they do play that song, You're like, oh God, here
we go.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
No, I just don't go to weddings.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Yeah, that's a good.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Remedy for this, because I can't go to a wedding
without by Bye Bye being played, you know at the reception. Yeah,
and then of course, then you know you kind of
get the side I have, like going to go on stage?
Is he going to go on stage?

Speaker 3 (54:02):
That's the thing this, Yeah, you feel that side I
it's beers.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yeah. Do you like doing collaborations duets? Is there one
that you do to do in the future, Like who
is your get?

Speaker 3 (54:19):
I don't have a get.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I may and you're sharing you should create the ultimate
wedding first dance song.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
That's that is actually a great idea. Yeah, so yes,
let's just put that out there. Ed and I will
create the ultimate wedding.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
So I'm sure Ed is listening right now, So.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Yeah, he is. He's a loyal, loyal listener to Speaking.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Of boy bands, what was your favorite band in the
boy band genre? No pressure, you know you don't have
to say Insanc.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
Okay, well I did mention pc quest, yes earlier.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
I'm going to go deep dive on pc quest after.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
The reason that was influential is because the sing was
probably also twelve or thirteen, and so that's how old
I was, and so it really clicked. And I saw
them perform at a skating rink, but they were on
a national tour, and I thought, wait a minute, you
can do this. You can you can see it.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
And so we were talking about the skating rink right
before we got on with you, because one I was saying,
am I too old a skate and.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
He said, yes, Lances, Lance is definitely too old. He
see every if he just like bumps into a counter,
he like breaks a hip.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
So it's I think I might be at the age
where I shouldn't be on skates.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
It's absolutely not okay.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
But they have video games there too.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
But it was the place to be growing up in
the eighties and nineties and it was the original TRL.
That's where you went and you heard all the hits.
That's right with your friends. You all had to be
there on Friday night. It was just it really. I
wish that was a thing today. I mean, I know
there's roller skate rinks out there, but it was that's
the only place that you really got to get with
your friends to I don't know really get into view. Yeah,

(55:56):
it was a music video.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
It was like your way of going to a club
back when you were younger.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
You're waiting for that right song to do an all
skate or backwards skate like it was a whole thing.
And then yeah, your rich friends would get the h
one of the speed skates. I could never get the
speed skates. Yeah, yeah, poor thing. And well, congratulations on
your eighth studio aut okay, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride.
Tell me how did you come up with this name?

Speaker 3 (56:24):
So it's a lyric inside the the the album in
one of the songs, and it says something get down
low like an animal and kiss the ground that you're
walking on because it's a miracle that we're here at
all on this mystical, magical rhythmical radical Ride. It's kind
of how you preface this this whole interview, is that

(56:48):
it's a way of looking at life rather than just
say life, because it's just it's there's no parameters there,
it's just life. It's one syllable, but mystical matter ag
Rhythmical Radical Ride, thirteen syllables, this multi syllabic thing that
colors our world and reminds us to be mystified by it,

(57:08):
that we don't know everything, but to use our superpowers
and to explore and to be magical and trust that
we'll get another chance. That's the rhythmical nature of life
is that you know, if we failed once, we can
pick up and try ourselves again. And radical is anything
you want it to be. And Ride is this time

(57:29):
through life. So the album is a journey through time.
It's looking back at you know, whatever experience I may
have lived in forty years, and looking ahead at maybe
another forty years, at what's possible. But it's the album
itself is no different than other albums I've made. It's optimistic,
and it's got a variety of tempos and themes, and

(57:52):
but it's just, I guess, the first album I've done
in my mid forties. I also wrote this album in
tandem with Reigning Jane. I would love to add And
they are a girl band, although it's not really necessary
you call them a girl band. They're just a great band,
four women that I've worked with since two thousand and six.

(58:13):
We made an album in twenty fourteen. It's called a
Yes And this is our follow up to that album.
We wrote this together over the pandemic. We'd come together
sitting in a circle and write songs, and so I
made sure when we recorded this album, I was only
tapping into that pool of songs that I wrote with
raining Jane, because I wanted us to have another experience together.

(58:33):
So they'll be in my super band this summer, as
well as some other great musicians to bring this album
to life.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
That's great, you know. I love the return to a
little pop music sound. We were just at Disney Pride
and your song was playing. I didn't know it was
your song yet, and we were just jamming to We
were with Joan Grande and Frankie Grande and everyone was
just loving the song. And Joan was like, oh, that's
Jason Moras, Like what, no way, Like, what song was it?

Speaker 3 (58:58):
I don't know that I feel like saying maybe so maybe.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
I don't know. It was over the loudspeaker, so I
couldn't like, I love it, but it but it kept
playing all night long. I guess they had like a
playlist of only like twenty songs they could play. Incredit
just kept playing like yes, the songs on So that
became like our song of prive it oh so cool.
So uh. Now, we hope you keep making music forever.

(59:23):
But in your mind, what do you see the next
ten years of your life being? Do you want to
continue pumping out albums? You have other aspirations of maybe?
I don't know. Have you ever thought about doing acting?

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Uh? Yes, I did a short stint on Broadway and
Sarah Burrellis's Waitress.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
I mean that was your Broadway debut.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
I loved it. I loved it so much I felt
like I was on a paid vacation. Even though eight
shows a week, I felt like I was doing Saturday
Night Live eight shows a week right because it was
a funny show, it had great music, The audience was
so excited every night every day. And I didn't have

(01:00:08):
to make a set list. I didn't have to think
about what hat I was gonna wear. I could put
Jason ras aside and just go be doctor Pometer. And
if my phone rang and I had an invitation to
go do another one of those, I definitely would. I
love acting if there's gonna be if it's gonna lead
to a song. I don't know that I could carry
acting in just a TV show or a movie.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Would you ever take a crack of writing a musical? Uh,
it's a long process.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
That's the thing. I A song is three or four
minutes long, and so I love building these short stories
in song. It's where my strength is. And I don't
I can't see myself spending seven years working on a
batch of songs because I hear that's kind of the average.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
It could altogether. I mean, all your lyrics are just
so say thank you anyway, thank you. Take all your
favorite ones and just write a story around it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
It's true. It's true. So the next ten years of
my life, you know, I've been so fortunate that I've
gotten to do what I've been doing. And when I
finished up my major label deal in twenty eighteen, I
switched to an indie label and I get to make
anything I want. And so my first album was a

(01:01:28):
reggae album. This new album goes back to dance and
sort of a pop format with mystical magical. The next
thing I have on the shelf is is completely bizarro.
It's country inspirational bluegrass.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Bluegrass is yeah favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Okay, Well, this is something I made for my grandmother
because she never cared for my music. She would always ask,
is it gospel? No, it's not. So I made a
country reinspirational album based on these songs that my grandma loved.
So that's sitting on the shelf. And basically what I
want to do for the next ten years is just

(01:02:09):
do things that are completely different from the next and
and do things that I haven't done before. And that
might also end up sort of evolving into me writing
with other artists or producing for other artists, because as
I get older, the less excited I am about public appearance.

(01:02:33):
I don't know why. It's just it was fun to
do when I was young and felt like I could
just throw myself in there. But again, I live in
San Diego, away from the LA and I don't put
fame first, so it's hard to put records out if
you don't want to be on camera. So I think

(01:02:54):
the next ten years you'll see me kind of retreating
a little bit. Maybe open a cat sanctuary here in
San Diego.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
That sounds perfect.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
I could just do that, Like if I had a
hundred cats here, you'd never hear from me ever. Again,
I'd be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Cat like I know, I always say, I just want
to open up like a dog cafe, which is all puppies,
all rescue puppies that you can come and adopt them
all the time, and you're just drinking your coffee and
you just the puppies in your lap the whole time.
But I don't mind cats either. We can't have cats
because he's highly allergic.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
But I can't make you a cat hair cappuccino at
my cat.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
You know what, I'll take lots of allergy pills that day.
I'm certain I'm delicious.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
All right, Jason. Before we let you go, I have
some fan questions for you from Searn sb Eskerka if
you could do if you could do a duet with
any artists too, would it be? I kind of said that,
but I uh, maybe today's artists, like right now in
the zeitgeist of new artists, who would it be.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
In the zeitgeist of new Well, I should just ask
Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
I'm sure everybody would say that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Yeah, that's always a good answer, yes Taylor. Have you
ever met Taylor Swift?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Before I have?

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
I got to perform I'm Yours with Taylor at one
of her big shows. Nice when she because she always
loves to cover other songs when she's nearby that artist's hometown.
So she invited me up and I got to pop
out of the you know, the elevator, Yeah, pop up,
sing my song and then go back down. She was
she was lovely, a very very nice person.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
That's awesome. Another question by Trev music expert, what was
it like being on Family Guy and the people still
refer to you as some guy with the hat?

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Yes? Yes, I hear it all the time. Whenever I
introduced myself or someone says, I'll hear it like it's
whatever the ear version of side eye is. Maybe it's evesdropping.
I'll hear someone say, oh, there's Jason Raz over there,
and then someone usually says, no, that's just some guy
and a half, just like the just like the Family

(01:05:04):
Guy script.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
That's great, okay. Texas Pearl Fringies asked what's the key
to knowing when an avocado is ripe?

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Mmm?

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Mmmm, Well, it'll develop a little circle on it that
says ripe. Now, oh yeah it doesn't. Some grocery stores
will stick that on there. What is the key? I
like to say that it's soft to the touch, but

(01:05:33):
still firm like a pencil eraser. Oh, okay, okay. And
people also ask me how do you avoid avocado? Hand?
Do you know what avocado is?

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Slice that hand.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
And I say, use a spoon because if it's if
it's ripe, you don't need to use a knife to
cut into your avocado.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
You know that's good. It is insane how avocados go
from perfect to just rank in two days done.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
It's true, you got to hit it when it's right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
They're elusive. Yeah, there are varieties that don't turn dark,
so they can really fool you because it's still green
on your counter, but it's long, long overdue.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Yeah. I think a lot of restaurants use that because
I get comment it's like it looks green, but why
does a stink?

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
So it's a.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Yeah, what do you what movies or actually what TV
shows are you watching right now? Give us some recommendations.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
Gosh, I don't have them. I I haven't seen anything film.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Is there a film you've seen recently? You can recommend documentaries.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
I do like documentaries. I really enjoyed gosh. I think
the last movie I really enjoyed was Everything Everywhere, All
at Once. So yeah, so if I if I choose
a film, I go for sci fi, inspirational. That's my genre.
So movies like that's the perfect example. But you know

(01:07:14):
it might be like Phenomenon. Remember that movie. I think
it was Travolta. Gosh, what am I thinking? Interstellar? It
has to have a sci fi twist, but also has
to have an inspirational and spiritual twist, like that's that's where,
That's where I want to sit. That's where I want

(01:07:34):
to watch Life of Pie. Do you remember that that
was a great book turned movie. Yeah? I I For
some reason, movies TV just doesn't hold my attention.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
I feel like you would like the movie big Fish.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
I loved a big Fish.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
That was great.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
There you go Fish, There you Go, big Fish.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah. Well, the album is mystical, magical, rhythmical, radical ride.
It's Jason Raz. We're so excited for your eighth studio album,
and thank you so much for coming on Frosted Tips.
You are gentleman and a scala okay dropped out in
your fresh Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
I'm definitely not a scholar, but like I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Said, I I enjoy everything that you've done. I love
how you're using your platform. You're so easy to listen to,
and I think you are changing the world in your
own way, and I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Wow, thank you so very much.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
All right, Jason, Well we have to go right now,
but I hope you can come back on the show
in the future because yeah, we love having you here
and we'll talk about wonderful behind the scenes with Jason.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Love it. Thank you so much. I feel touched, moved
and inspired.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
That's what we try to do here on Frost Tips.
That's that's a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
It was so thank you, Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
You have a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
Thank you too. By back.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
Jason Maratz. What a good guy is so easy to
listen to. It so easy, like the rout the last
twenty years. Just anytime there's an interview, I just always
stop and might listen to him because I know he's
going to say something that I'm like, yeah, exactly what
I think. I just can't He's I can't verbally say
it like he does, I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Know, And he's so like, he's so calm, yeah with
everything he says, but he's so smart and yeah, a
good guy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Yeah, and one of now in the community. You know,
I'm so jealous got our sexual people. I know I
shouldn't be but oh it does attracted.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
To every just everything. But you know, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Yeah you have like twice the that would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
The fish in the c I know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
All right, before we go, we have our We've been
we've been teasing this but we haven't done it in
a while. But we have your reviews because you know
you have to review this show, subscribe rate review. Well,
here's some of our favorites from the week.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
All right, podcast reviews. We've had mainly five stars, people
giving six in the comment section. Can you believe? Well?
Our first review is from what says Hm Roasted Peanut
Dane Cook miscellaneous love that's the title.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
That's wait, oh I thought that was his screen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Well at first I did too, and I said, Dane Cook,
are you roasted peanut? What a big peanuts? Here's your
sixth star. Amidst my generally heavy podcast playlist. It's great
to hear behind the scenes stories, embarrassing stuff, songwriting, et cetera.
Great podcast. By the way, I'd love to see Lance
interviewed on hot Ones YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
I get that one, oh hot Ones. Yeah the wings
I should. I mean, I've been told that twenty million times,
so not really twenty lit. I exaggerate, guys, maybe three times,
and I really want to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Okay, you just rounded up.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
I do a round it off twenty million.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Yeah, ever thought about going on? PS. Turkey sounds like
a very pleasant Dane Cook.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Oh, oh, you're the Dane Cook.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
I'm the Dane Cook. Well, at least he said I
was a pleasant Dane Cook.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
I can't. I don't know what he sounds like now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
Not very pleasant pps. It's nice to hear different kinds
of guests since a lot of the stories are similar,
and Lanson Turkey bringing a loving, yet inquisitive atmosphere to
the podcast interviews.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
What's that's one of my favorite reviews?

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Okay, Oh, you're welcome. I mean, yeah, it was a
great review for you. No, I would never give something.
We have another one, Whispers Secret Society. That's the name.

Speaker 3 (01:11:29):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Back in the day circa two thousand and two, a
girlfriend and I joke that Lance needed a talk show
called I'm Lance Pass and I have an opinion. Well,
it never got called that. From Dirty to Daily Pop,
the tips has always been frosted, and I think this
is the perfect venue to delve into the unique experience
of being a teen idol. I love hearing new stories
from some of my favorite stories, well also discovering new
facets of performers I didn't know as much about. We

(01:11:52):
are only a few months and I've already gone back
multiple times, so we listen to certain segments or quotes.
Sharing these stories with fans is truly a gift, but
also hearing the conversations that come out of them give
so much insight into the wild ride it has been
for all of all of you. Being able to talk
about the ups and downs of the journeys has us
listeners truly invested in everyone's futures. So that said, so
excited to listen every week and continue the adventure forever

(01:12:16):
Frosted Mary Beth a different one than before.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
Us swear these are some great reviews.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Now we have the less review okay, and it's the
third okay, it better be good. The title is could
not be lamer, and the promising and the review is
a simple sentence. This whole podcast is so pathetic and
that was by Kahiri. Well, Kahiri, you know what, it's

(01:12:43):
not for everyone. It's not for everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
Now we love your reviews, even the bad one, so
keep them coming. Also, you can stay in touch with
us on our DMS on Instagram and TikTok go follow
us there. Our tiktoks have been really fun. They have. Yeah,
we're starting to, especially on Instagram, share some really fun
on memes that you are making and it makes me laugh.
So continue to send us your fun boy band teen

(01:13:06):
idol memes because we will post it. And if you
have any ideas for the show, guests you want to
see dms, We're there for you. This show is for you.
This is a fandom show. All right, guys, That is
all the show I have for you. Is there anything
else you would like to say?

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
No, I just want to say that it has been
a great show. Okay, you're a great husband.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
You're a great husband.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
I just had to get that out there. I needed
it reciprocated.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
All right, guys, that is all the show I have
for you. Thanks so much for listening. Again, rate review, subscribe,
whatever you want to do. Listen to my other podcast,
It is the Last Soviet. If you like scripted podcast
and bedtime stories of the Ingle side in those are good.
Other scripted fun seventies musical Yeah podcast with Really with
Jason Alexander.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Come on, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
It's really fun, all right, guys, be good to each other,
don't drink and drive, take care of those animals, and
we'll see you next time on frost Tips and until then,
stay frosted. Hey, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram
at Frosted Tips with Lance and Michael Turchinard and at
Lance Bass for all your pop culture needs

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
And make sure to write a review and leave us
five stars six if you can see you next time.