Mraz takes up the flag for North County

By: SEAN MOELLER - For the North County Times | Wednesday, November 23, 2005 7:23 AM PST ∞

The four-bedroom, Spanish-style hacienda, 1,700-square-foot recording studio and 5-1/2-acre yard that Jason Mraz bought in Oceanside more than a year ago is a five-minute drive from the North County Times office, and the 28-year-old singer/songwriter is loyal to what's spread before him over the Belgium waffles he makes for breakfast.

"I'm a North County Times reader," Mraz said from a tour stop last week.

Though he's always portrayed a kind of effortless cool and beach bum nonchalance, Mraz is new to living the lifestyle of said demeanor. Hailing from Mechanicsville, Va. ---- a suburb of Richmond, with a population of 30,000, the hyperactive, tongue-twisting lyricist has been gradually integrating himself into the safe haven that North County is to him.

"I'm absolutely loving it, owning a house in North County. I mean, I've been in the San Diego area for about six years off and on, but once I was able to buy a house, I wanted to live here. It's very private and it keeps me safe," Mraz said. "It's just a nice, quiet surf culture that's good for the soul and I can get to L.A. quickly if I have to.

"My girlfriend (23-year-old singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman) and her family have been surfing for 20 years, so they're teaching me. I don't know anything about it. I don't know whether or not I'm going to get my ass kicked. I don't know when to take a wave or who it belongs to. I'm getting better. Now, I check the surf report every day anyway, if I'm going out or not."

Copley Symphony Hall, where Mraz will be playing Saturday in support of his sophomore album, "Mr. A-Z," will be a drastically different setting from the ones that he first played when he made the move to the West Coast. He made the coffeehouse rounds and made a living of sorts doing it. Sharpening his guitar work and wordplay led to the nimble pop sound that got him his first recording contract (with Atlantic) and record, 2002's "Waiting for My Rocket to Come," which netted him the hit "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" and a preponderance of cooing girls.

Many of the places he remembers playing in North County have long since closed their doors and, according to Mraz, left the area in need. He'd like to change that.

"There are places in Normal Heights and University Heights, but there's nothing in North County," he said. "That's kind of one of my goals in the next five to 10 years. I would love to open a coffeehouse venue in North County.

"I'd like it to be a place where people would be able to walk in, all day long, and get a variety of vegetarian food and snacks that please all the taste buds. Do you want salty or sweet? It would all be there. I would want there to be an open mike night, a poetry night or a movie night. There would probably be a residency, and then on Fridays and Saturdays, we'd have touring acts. Of course, I'd do a show every month. It would be a nice, small theater. Every day the place morphs in my head."

The idea isn't just a whimsical cloudburst that will be forgotten in a week. He sounds serious. He already has a name picked out ----- Shy's ---- and he pays close attention to all of the venues and coffeehouses he walks into when he's out of town working.

"It's a shared dream," he said. "It would be something that would allow us to surf in the mornings and work at nights."

Mraz has tried not to lose the intimacy that coffeehouse shows can't help but facilitate, even in bigger, spacier surroundings. He'd still like the air of his clever lyrics to brush up against neck hairs, not just hit ears from a mile away.

"I try to keep that feeling. We still do acoustic shows and we still get the interaction we love," he said. "Everything's pretty much the same as it's always been. We're constantly working for it and working with it."

He's hoping to finally record the acoustic record that he's been meaning to do since he got signed, but he's learned not to play any of his new songs live.

"I used to always play my new songs live as soon as I finished them, but by the time 'Mr. A-Z' came out, you could download the entire album because people had posted live versions of the songs," he said. "I want the next album to be in two parts. One will be a disc of all old material that gets requested all the time, that I haven't recorded properly, and the other is going to be an acoustic disc full of new songs."

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