Jason Mraz Goes Acoustic for “Butterfly,” Talks Record-Busting Hit “I’m Yours”

August 21st, 2009 by Erica Futterman Leave a reply »

Jason Mraz set a Billboard Hot 100 record this week with his hit single “I’m Yours” (which he calls his “happy little hippie song”), but confesses he can’t explain the song’s success: “I don’t know what’s behind it — if I knew, I would write more of it!”

Adds Mraz, “The song is about generosity — giving yourself or your time to someone else. What moves me about seeing the world take to ‘I’m Yours’ makes me think the world wants to give its time to other people. I’m really inspired thinking that this is the kind of song people want to hear.”

He tells RS he drew inspiration from elsewhere for the sensual “Butterfly,” also off last year’s We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (Watch a special acoustic performance of the song, above.) “When I took a break to make this record, I joined my roommate Bushwalla’s band — I was the guitarist and background vocalist,” Mraz explains. “There was young woman in the band who would also do a burlesque show and invited us to go see her. And I was watching this burlesque show thinking, ‘Man, I wonder if my music is played in any exotic clubs anywhere in the world? I sincerely doubt it.’ That challenged me: I went home, and I thought, ‘I’m going to see if I can’t write a song that a young woman would want to model her shoes to.’ I don’t know if the girl ever found out, but it’s definitely one of the more fun songs in the live show.”

“Butterfly” and the rest of Mraz’s current live set were captured for an upcoming DVD last week in Chicago and Colbie Caillat showed up to duet with Mraz on “Lucky.” Mraz says he wanted to write a classic duet, and ha...

Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

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