Hello and welcome to episode 265 of Live Happy Now. This is Paula Phelps, and this week we have a very special guest who has crafted the perfect message for this most unusual year.

Since his first hit single, The Remedy, in 2002, Jason Mraz has built his musical career by sharing positive,

uplifting music. This week, he's releasing Look for the Good,

an album that encourages us to find hope, optimism, and gratitude, despite the turmoil we're

experiencing right now. I sat down with a two-time Grammy winner to find out how this collection of songs came

about, what he learned in the process of writing and recording this album, and what he hopes

every one of us takes away from it. Jason, welcome to Live Happy Now, and thank you so much for coming

on our show. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Well, this is a really exciting album to talk about, and I'm very

excited for our listeners to hear it because it's so timely, and it really does feel like it was

written specifically for even the last couple of months. Can you talk about how this whole project

came about? Well, on the topic of the songwriting first, you're saying how it feels so

timely. I felt that in life there will always be suffering. So we always need a reason to look for

the good. We always need music to hopefully help us cast the darkness away and at least to shift our attention or our

perspective back to something brighter, something more positive, something that we can be

grateful for. So I feel like there's always work to be done in that field and that's what I try

to use my music for is for the power of good. It's a superpower, so I my music for is for the power of good.

It's a superpower, so I want to use it for the power of good.

I feel like we're really able to hear that power of good maybe more than usual because

of the current situation.

But regardless of the current situation, I'm always trying to write songs that are on the good side of the language, I guess.

The whole concept of doing the reggae album was many years in the making.

I always wanted to make a reggae album, but it was obviously going to take the right musicianship, the right producer, the right songs.

...