And That's What You REALLY MissedKevin and Jenna GLEEK out over Grammy Award-winning artist Jason Mraz joining them on the show!! No really - Kevin confesses Jason's music has been the soundtrack to his life.
Meanwhile, Jenna and Jason reminisce about their time on the Broadway hit show, "Waitress," and Jason shares how he felt about having his songs featured on Glee.
Plus, Jason chats about his latest album and why this might be his last tour ever!!
**We stand in solidarity with our union SAG-AFTRA during the strike. For more information, go to SAGAFTRAStrike.org.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Welcome to and that's what you really miss Kevin.
Yes, Yes, today's the day.
We get to speak to the mythical magical. I said it wrong, mystical magical Jason Moraz Are you kidding?
I'm not ready.
We're such big fans.
Jason raz is the sweetest human with the sweetest voice.
I met him backstage at Waitress. I went to go visit and he was doing doctor Pometer at that point, to.
Which I'm so mad I'm going to see him do.
That, Kevin.
To watch him sing you Matter to Me with Sarah Brellis was such a treat.
I mean truly such a treat.
And he's featured on Sarah's twenty fifteen album What's Inside the Songs from Waitress, so you should go listen to that too. So it was like projecting him coming to do it.
Those two singing together should not be allowed.
No, I know, I know, it was really something else.
I think they both have perfect pitch.
That would make sense.
What oh I I love to ask you more about that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well you guys imagine we have the wonderful, Jason raz enjoy.
Coming to you from a motel room on the side of the one oh one freeway.
Santa Barbara, Oh, Santa Barbara is fancy.
Well, Santa Barbara's fancy, But a hotel.
Room on the side of the freeway maybe not so much.
Not so much. But that's okay, Jason.
I don't if you remember I came backstage when you were doing waitress and met you. Oh, because I also did waitress, like two were you doing?
Yeah, that's so cool. I think I saw you is done?
Really it did.
Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, what a great show.
Truly, what a joy, what a joy.
I would do that job forever and ever.
No, right, I sing that music, hang out with those people, the nicest people, and one of the funnest experiences I ever had.
Yeah, mine too. Wow, small world. You know, if we live long enough, maybe everyone in the world will get to be in waitress.
I believe it. I will one day be in waitress.
Yes, you could be old Joe at some point, Kevin, try to give you some suff like that.
I would love that.
Well, we know you're on tour, so thank you for chatting the best and taking the time.
Also, by the way, please look up Jason's tour because I've seen you several times live and if people haven't, or if they have, then you too. Anyway, because you have one of the craziest voices.
I don't know that it's simple. I try not to.
I will say it for you because I don't know how you do it. But like, every time you hit a high note, I'm like, oh, surely that's the top of his range. And you just keep going up. You just keep going and your voice never breaks and you have like this beautiful rasp but you put in that. I just yeah, so cool.
Thanks for saying.
So Yeah.
Our show right now is so much fun. We have costumes, we have dance moves. It's kind of like a big show choir kind of a feeling. Everybody plays instruments and there's multiple multiple instruments. You know, people are changing out and switching places and it's so fun and we and the show's not you know, we don't do the same song order every night, which is also fun where we're still trying to make it exciting for ourselves.
So great.
So I think if you if you have them into a show of mine yet, this would be the tour to do it, and also, I don't know how long I'm going to tour after this, you know, I don't know. Living in a motel on the side of the freeway.
Tough people show up and they see you in the lights, in the stage and all that, and they think that's all it is.
They're seeing the best part of the day, you know. They're saying, yeah, they're seeing the two hours that everybody works all day to put together, you know. And then after that the countdown begins to like, you know, pack your stuff and get on the bus. You know, we've got like, you know, crew that has to keep things moving, and then we all squeeze into a bus that's too small for all of us, pile of bags and the gross you know, just the smells of the bus are not pleasant, and you go bang them out night after night. There's another job like it. It's like a circus, is it really is.
We toured for a little bit and we got a small taste of it, and we got some swanky you know things along with it too, and it was not a fair tour experience.
You know, you get you get all the whole spectrum.
Yes, that's right, Jenna I believe that.
I believe that.
Congrat thank you, thank you so much.
So on Glee we got to cover two of your songs, Lucky and I Will give Up.
Now.
How does that work from your end? Do you hear about like this show wants to use your music? Do you approve of it? Had you heard of Glee? How does that work from your end?
Yeah?
I heard of it and knew that they were taking, you know, modern songs and spinning them into the script and into the storyline for this musical television show. And I just thought that's super cool. And as a songwriter, you want to find homes for your songs. You want to have places where they're played. And I think the more interesting, the better, you know. I think anybody can get their song streamed, anybody get their song on the radio, but not everybody can get their song woven into a script, into a storyline on a musical television show, you know. So I find stuff like that, moments like that to be really high honor. And and then I'm always curious, is that you know how they're going to take a song like I Won't give Up, which, you know, it sounds like I'm singing to someone but you know, really, I'm sitting at the table singing to myself to not quit and I give up with myself after a heartache, after a breakup, I still want to recognize the beauty and the other person, but I still want to maintain the beauty that I have inside, because when you go through a breakup, you feel like a loser, you know. And so I won't give up was a way for me to say, Look, I don't want to walk away from this, I don't want to walk over my dream. I don't want to give up on thinking I'm a cool guy. I won't give up, you know. So that song was very healing for me. So whenever I see people using it at weddings or in any ceremony in their life and in the casically, you know, it was pretty amazing just to see how a song idea from your kitchen table can suddenly exist in some other universe.
Totally, yeah, totally did you now? Did you? Were you curious after we use them? Did you not want to see it done? Did you watch it? You don't also have to tell us, But I'm just curious because like as actors, some people watch their stuff and some people cannot possibly watch their their work, So I'm just curious, like what you are kind of processes.
I didn't see it in real time. I think I saw it much later. I was touring a lot when it came out, And honestly, I'm always working on the next song, you know. Yeah, I don't think about the old songs. I'm delighted, you know, don't get me wrong, But as a creator, I'm always like, what I know where my next song idea and where my next musical expression will be.
Sure.
It was also so fun for us because we did so many older songs as well, Like a big part of the foundation of Glee was doing sort of eighties and seventies music. Sure, And I remember when we first did Lucky so excited. I had my fingers crossed that I was doing it, but I didn't get to do it. But Cordon Dana who did it. It works so beautifully with their voices and in the storyline. And then it was one of our favorite times during the show on tour because they did that every single night all over the world, and.
It was really.
Beautiful. I mean, like, I mean the most minised glimpse maybe to what you are receiving every single night on tour because we were all on stage for that, but it's those two outperforming it, and so we're looking at an arena full of people singing the song wow and yeah. To hear them like that must just be the most incredible feeling for you night of night on tour because you have gigantic songs and songs that mean a lot to people. I think a lot of your songs soundtrack a lot of people's lives in a way, because you're such a good storyteller. When you go out on tour, do you do people just bum rush you of how much these songs mean to them.
I don't get bum rushed, but I do, you know, receive. You know, hear a lot of great stories about people, how they've applied these songs to their lives, or what they mean between friends and family. I wish I had more of more songs like that, because they when they hit in the set list, they pete. You know, the show has these moments where suddenly the audience is just singing so loud. I have a great singing audience and it is a wonderful feeling that I never get tired of. And like I said, I wish I had more songs in the show like that, because occasionally, you know, I'll do a few of those in a row, and then I'll go to some obscure song and it's just quiet. You know, the audience is like, Okay, we'll wait until we know the next one. So sweet, But wow, I didn't I didn't think about that about Lee on tour and how that song would be sung. Thank you so much. That's a great like visual to imagine arena full of people and I'm not even there. Yeah, you know, if I want to go on tour again, I might be wrapping my tour years up and you can take my songs and have That's very nice.
I think are over you could be a Jason Rats cover group, you know what.
You know what when I'm on to I feel like a Jason Rand's cover group, you know, I really do.
Who played the flash and he was also on Glee. I was texting him before this because he and I used to bond over your music. I love of your music. So I was am like, is there anything you want me to ask in your behalf? He's like, no, no, no, I don't want to embarrass myself, but have a good, good interview.
That's cute.
Hey tell your friend Grant that my friend of house mixer e T. He looks he looks a little like Rod Stewart. He is the biggest Flash fan, the biggest Ye every show, whole series on a little catch him watching it on a little iPad on the soundboard. What are you doing, I'm watching the Flash. He's in a digets like I'm watching the Flash show, very familiar with Grant.
Tell us about your new album, because you came out a couple of weeks ago and it's so good.
Thanks. You know, I'm still trying to do things that I haven't done yet. And as a singer songwriter who typically writes some guitar piano, it's hard to like break out of you know, pop formulaic structure, you know. And but I've sort of always been in the acoustic rock lane, and I wanted, but I've loved electronic music for my whole life, you know. I love synthesizers and beats and going to you know, dj C DJs and listen to m and all that roller skate to disco and dance music. And Michael Jackson was one of my heroes growing up, and so I've never really gone down the dance music route, and I tried that on this album. I wanted to see if I could take the songs we were working on and just go them up a little bit. So we we wrote from that perspective of like, how could what could we give our audience Because that's another thing is we tour so much. We noticed that our audience wants to actually participate in dance and do things, you know, So we wrote an album that would would hope affect our tour and it is, you know. Now we're like a little singing and dancing group. I just watched the Wham documentary and I'm.
So inspired by their They're just there, their their attention to inclusivity and their their love of dance and bringing joy to audiences.
I think that that document came out just the right time for us here. We're launching, when we're launching the tour, so we feel a little bit like Wham right now. And that's kind of what the album feels like as well. It's just like happy dancing, uh, cheering you on to go live your dream type of songs.
We need more of that right now. So I'm glad that you are sending that out into the world right now.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a great album. It's called Mystical, Magical, Rhythmical Radical Ride. Make sure you go stream it, by it, download it, go see a tour.
Yeah, we're going to stream our tour live on August eleventh.
That's right from the bank Amphitheater.
That's right, Well, go check it out.
Yeah, if you can't get to a show, just tune in. We're going to do our singing and dancing on a live stream.
Do it.
We'll be dancing in our living rooms.
That's the best place to do it. Yeah, nobody's t shirt.
Eating a bowl of ice cream and dancing around.
That's right. Well, we won't keep you from your crazy travel and your wonderful motel. Thank you for joining us. Really great to see you.
Thank you so so much.
Thanks for having me on your program. Okay, goodbye, Oh.
My god, so nice guys. We just talked to Jason Rice. We should really start using this podcast as a way to just hang out with people were gigantic fans of.
Well, I remember, and I just didn't we didn't have enough time. But I remember they would ask me on the carpet what I would want to sing, and I would do a lot of carpets with you, Kevin, and I would be like, I don't want to tell them what I want to sing anywhere. I'm tired of that. I'd be like, well, I want Kevin to sing I'm yours, and I would always pitch that one for you out in the world. But we loved Jason Raz. We loved listening to when we were such a big fan of his.
One of my earliest memories of living in LA when I well, when I first started going to LA before I properly moved there. I think I was thirteen or fourteen. I made my mom drive me to a CD warehouse is what it was called, to buy Jason Raz's very first album. I remember it, oh so clearly. I went and buy myself. I paid for it by myself because I saw him like on VH one or something they're doing like a new artist Spotlight, and I was like, I want this guy to be so successful, because you know, it was indie pop. It wasn't what everybody else was doing at the time, and I felt like I need to do my part and make sure Kevin he gets to keep making music, and wow, wow, you know it's like I said to him, soundtracks the rest of my life.
We got to see him from New York last a couple of weeks ago, and he was really it was really inspiring, and he's really wonderful, and you can tell how much he loves his craft and how much he respects it, and and it's so grounded, so just.
How naturally good he is at it too. It all just comes pouring out.
So his eighth studio album is mystical, magical, rhythmic, rhythmical, radical Ride. You try saying that ten times fast in it's here, so go stream it. And then he's also on tour and he's live streaming his August eleventh show. So go to Jasonmraz dot veep's V E E p s dot com to go scream that if you can't go to a live show. And I hope you guys enjoyed Jayson Riz. We're just gonna go gleek out even more now because I'm overwhelmed. Yeah, that was exciting.
I'm fully overwhelmed. So thank you Jason for spending some time with us. Thank you for allowing Glee to cover a couple of your songs. Meant a lot to us as a show and as fans. Correct See you next week, and that's what you really missed, y'all. Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. See you next time.
