“For me, this is my cardboard sign up at the march. This is me putting my body and my music and my name on the line to say ‘I stand with this movement and I want to help move this down the field towards a more equal and just world,’” Mraz said.
The 12-track album was recorded last summer but finds itself quite prescient, with uplifting messages of togetherness and unity. “Something about reggae says, ‘You’re welcome here’ or ‘This is for everybody,’” Mraz said. “For me, it started with the 2016 election and feeling like such a shift and a loss of power and a rise of a sort of ugliness that still exists in the U.S.” he said.“2020 is election year, so that’s really what prompted us to be like, ’Hey, 2020 is going to be an engaged year. There’s going to be debate. Things are going to happen. Who knows what. But what we need is to be prepared with some positive music,” Mraz said.
“I think of reggae as message music,” Goldwasser added. “Jason — whether he even intends this or not — can be a great conduit for other people to discover important and great music but also important messages.” The new album has several nods to beloved TV icon Mister Rogers. Mraz is such a fan that he bought an autograph of the children’s TV host on eBay just to have “his energy in my space.”