Singer, songwriter, and Grammy winner Jason Mraz has been touring for over twenty years, and performed on all seven continents. In that time, he’s learned how to survive, and reframe, some of the indignities of life on the road. For one, he tries to explore every city he passes through. “That’s the beauty of being on tour—you are a professional tourist. It takes looking at a city as a tourist to remember what it has to offer,” he explains. “If I get a day off, or just a couple of hours on a show day, I wander, take a walk, get lost.”
With a pop-driven new album, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, out this week, and a US tour coming up in July and August, Mraz spoke with Condé Nast Traveler about in-flight straight jackets, performing for penguins, and the glories of Indian food at the hotel breakfast buffet.
How he makes himself at home on the road:
I have what I call my kitchen case. It’s a hard-shell suitcase that, when you open it up, looks like a little travel pantry. It’s filled with ingredients, herbs and spices, teas and tinctures, and concentrated powders—like Vitamineral Green, that’s a staple for me. It’s this really dense, brilliant green powder. I’m a big fan of tinctures, whether it’s echinacea or lemon balm or a loquat syrup for the throat. I’ll leave space in it for dressing room provisions on our rider, like trail mix, almond butter, and avocado. There’s an immersion blender in there, some cutlery. It’s basically survival food, so that when I’m showing up in a place and setting up to do a show, I don’t have to go out and find a health food store. It also allows me to make a smoothie in a hotel room. Maybe once per tour, I have to restock my kitchen case.
The venue he always looks forward to on tour:
The Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire. They have bicycles, so you can leave the venue and ride to Lake Winnipesaukee, which is only maybe a quarter or half a mile away. Usually on tour, you’re living in a parking lot, so when you get off the bus and suddenly are in a little forest, and there’s a bicycle waiting for you to go to the lake, that’s a perk. They have postcards on the table that are pre-stamped so you can send letters home to your family from Lake Winnipesaukee. And there’s a little fire pit where they make s’mores for you after the show. They really bring the camp experience to life, because that’s what people go to that region for—camping on the lake.
His amazing advice for sleeping on planes:
Pull the seatbelt snug, but loose enough that you can fit both arms underneath. With one of your hands, pull the belt a little tighter, and what that does is creates this sense of being tucked in. Swaddle yourself. Your limbs aren’t worried about flying around. I don’t know if it’s because I can sleep anywhere, but that little effect allows me to just pass right out. I lock myself in my seat and off I go.
