Mraz returns with cosmic sounds, new friends

Jason Mraz will visit Chengdu and Shanghai as part of his world tour. (Photo/Provided to China Daily)

Jason Mraz is returning to China with a show he promises will be "very cosmic".

The American singer-songwriter will perform in Chengdu and Shanghai as part of his world tour, An Acoustic Evening with Jason Mraz and Raining Jane, supporting his latest album, Yes.

He says audiences can expect "a lot of conversation, fun, laughter, harmony and all of our favorite songs".

"Thank you guys for bringing us great energy and gratitude. We can see how happy you are," says Mraz, 37, recalling his debut performances in China as part of his A Four Letter Word tour in 2012.

"This time, we will be bringing the new album to life as well as taking that song landscape and applying it to old songs from my previous records," he says.

His fifth album, Yes, was released last July. It is Mraz's first acoustic album and was created in cooperation with Los Angeles-based rock-folk band Raining Jane. Mraz started touring with Raining Jane as soon as the album was released and he says that the band has added rich dimension to his shows.

"They've been a band for 15 years. They self-manage, they control all their media, they're artists. The beauty of their vocals and what they're doing can't be replicated," he says of Raining Jane, which is composed of vocalist-guitarist-cellist Mai Bloomfield, vocalist-guitarist Chaska Potter, drummer-vocalist Mona Tavakoli and bassist-vocalist Becky Gebhardt. "They have a super specific sound so some of my older songs can now run through the filter of that unique sound."

The Grammy award winner first met Raining Jane about eight years ago and they wrote the song A Beautiful Mess together for Mraz's 2008 album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. After that initial collaboration the friends would get together to write music for fun.