He's the singer-songwriter behind one of the biggest hits of the past decade.
It was this catchy tune that in 2008 catapulted Jason Mraz to international stardom.
But this was not sudden success.
The American singer had been building a following for nearly a decade.
Now at age 35, Mraz is busy crisscrossing the globe, promoting a new album and talking about some of the causes close to his heart.
Let me ask you about when you did leave Virginia.
I read that you packed up your stuff, and you got in the car, and you headed to California. What was that like?
Oh, it was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life, because it was the second time I was dropping out of school.
It was... I was leaving everything, my job, everything behind that was secure and going to this unknown coast.
I had no contacts. I had no idea what was gonna happen in the industry. I had, you know, one friend that was gonna let me live on her couch, you know, and that was it.
And... but something, it was like a magnet, something out there in California was really calling me.
And it... I just thought it was going to be experience. In fact, that's what it has been -- experience.
I just wanted to go and have something stimulate all of my emotions and senses so that I could write something great.
And I thought it would be a short trip. And it turned out to be, you know, a lifetime.
All of us, for some reason, I don't know what it is, but that song gets stuck in your head and will not leave.
Is there an art to that?
Yeah. I call that "sacred geometry," when everything's just right and it feels really balanced,
so that when it unfolds to the next part, you feel totally familiar and at ease within the song.
I don't yet know exactly how to do it every time, even though you can look and see there's a formula to it,
but I think it's also a message of right place in the right time when a song like that connects with, you know, either an individual or, obviously, the masses.
What are some of the causes that you have? Did you go to the Antarctic with Al Gore?
I did. I met Al Gore. He and I were both on a talk show, and I met him, and I shook his hand,
and [I said], "I love your work, I love your presentation. If you ever need, you know, a musician to help you rally anything, let me know."
And sure enough, I got a call about six months later. He was taking a trip to Antarctica
-- his first return since he was a senator in 1988 --
to show 150 entrepreneurs, entertainers, scientists, researchers firsthand the stark realities of climate change.
It was enlightenment, but of the dark kind.
So I came home, and I worked with my team to start a tree-planting project,
so, in an effort to raise awareness about our impact on the planet and do my best to sequester and offset our carbon.
I don't think I'd ever met a real hero until I came here.
And I got to work alongside real heroes, real modern-day abolitionists, real modern, real activists,
doing the work for antislavery.
Is that a sort of a shocking thing to you that in 2012, that this still goes on? Slavery still exists?
Yeah. Incredibly shocking, which is why I make it one of the beneficiaries of my foundation, that issue,
to raise awareness and to help provide resources for those who are actually working on the ground.
And after seeing that and learning about this issue,
I felt that we can make a huge difference using the powerful tools that we have through Internet and television today.
When you think about, you know, sort of, other people kind of coming up in the business,
is there anything that you would say to an aspiring singer or songwriter as a bit of advice or a bit of experience from someone who's sort of done it and been there?
I always tell people to sing their own story, sing their own truth, because each of us are born unique and are going to have our own experiences.
And when we speak our truths and reveal our vulnerability and we allow ourselves to be transparent in front of an audience,
that audience gets to see themselves in the work.
And then if you're really beginning a journey through the business, don't wait for the business to find you, I would say.