Although Jason Mraz‘s fourth studio album, “Love Is a Four Letter Word,” is still going strong after being released on Atlantic Records last April, the singer-songwriter plans to spend time next year recording a speedy follow-up to his latest offering.
“We’re gonna hit the road again in the springtime — we’re gonna go to Australia and back to Asia. I’ll be in the studio and hopefully, hopefully, if all goes well, I’ll have a new record out in 2013. It’d be [out at] the end of 2013,” Mraz told Billboard on the red carpet at Z-100’s Jingle Ball concert on Friday night (Dec. 7). The 35-year-old performed at the annual event at New York’s Madison Square Garden alongside pop stars like One Direction, Taylor Swift and headliner Justin Bieber.
Jason Mraz, ‘Love Is a Four Letter Word’: Video Track-By-Track
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If he stays true to his word, a new disc in 2013 would mark the quickest turnaround between albums for Mraz, who waited four years between 2008’s “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things” and “Love Is a Four Letter Word.” After scoring his biggest hit to date with “I’m Yours,” which set the record for the most weeks spent by a single song on the Hot 100 in 2009, Mraz notched another victory with the single “I Won’t Give Up,” which has moved 3 million downloads to date according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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Mraz released the official music video for new single “93 Million Miles” last month, and tells Billboard that it would “tickle me so to hear that song on the radio.” Also coming up for the singer-songwriter is a free outdoor concert on Dec. 16 at People’s Square in Yangon, Myanmar. The show, believed to be the first open-air concert by an international artist in the country, will raise awareness about human trafficking and exploitation.
“It’s a problem that still exists in the world, which kind of blew my mind, and then once you know something like that you can’t really get it out of your mind,” says Mraz of human trafficking. “[Myanmar]’s a country that’s just coming back into communication with the Western world, and we want to be there on the front lines to educate, empower and engage the youth.”
Along with this weekend’s Myanmar performance, Mraz will perform as a headliner at Madison Square Garden in New York on Monday night.