Getting Started

Album: Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • This energetic album opener to Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride promises that it's never too late to go after a dream, but getting started is the hardest part.
  • In the bridge, Mraz sings about knowing he'd make it as a musician, even when he was a kid. In a 2023 Songfacts interview, he elaborated on the claim, saying he was always confident that his gift of singing and entertaining, which he calls his "magic trick," would provide for him. Early on, it was in little ways, like strangers offering to take him to dinner or buy him coffee, but the payoff got bigger as his career grew.

    "I've had this experience my whole life, that if I stay close to my gift, I will be okay," he said. "But I never imagined I would be as well off as I am and have the freedom to travel the world and make albums and have these big bands. That's a little over the top. But there was a belief from a young age that I would be okay."
  • The second verse features a callback to Mraz's seminal hit "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)," where he confronts his fear with the memorable refrain, "I won't worry my life away." This time around, he comes to the same conclusion as he won't let his potential failures stand in the way of achieving his goal:

    There's plenty to learn from our old mistakes
    I might embarrass myself, but that's okay
    Every journey begins the same
    And I won't worry this life away
  • Throughout the songwriting process, 45-year-old Mraz was conscious of getting older, and his feelings about it influenced a lot of the lyrical content on the album. But his age also inspired the sonic direction of the album. Rather than lean into the acoustic-reggae vibe of his previous releases, he returned to his pop roots - with a retro dance spin. He credits his mom, June Tomes, for giving him (and his collaborators, the female rock-folk group Raining Jane) the push in the right direction.

    "I played her some acoustic demos and she was like, 'Yeah, these are great but y'all need to make a pop album,'" he explained in a press release. "She said, 'Because you're not getting any younger, and you better do it before it's too late.' So anytime we found ourselves needing to pick up the tempo, we'd say, 'Do it for Mama June.' "

    "It became bigger than five musicians who usually sit around a campfire playing acoustic songs," he added. "This album reflects a concerted effort to push ourselves and push the process with our hearts fully open."

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