Jason Mraz

A drama school dropout with doe-eyed dreams of becoming the next Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz first burst onto San Diego's coffeehouse scene in 1999 with a house-filling weekly gig at a trendy spot called Java Joe's. It was there — amid the clanging of chipped cups and the heady aroma of freshly pulled cappuccinos — that he sharpened the kind of crowd-pleasing singer-songwriter skills that carry in-concert cuts like the hurts-so-good, honey-covered heartbreaker "A Beautiful Mess" and the lover-boy lullaby "Sleeping to Dream." Live tracks aside, Mraz became a bona-fide pop star with his chart-crashing debut, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, fueled by the funk-flecked, power-chorus explosion of "The Remedy" and the playful banjo plucking and rapid-fire rhymes of "Curbside Prophet."

In Next Steps, take a journey from pop paradise to new-wave nirvana to find out what makes Mraz tick.

If you want to discover what an artist is really about, dig into his roots. Think you've got Jason Mraz pegged based on his radio hits? A peek at the cover tunes he's recorded will give a more revealing glimpse at his true musical makeup. His passion for lush, sun-dappled pop dreams becomes clear when he puts his one-of-a-kind, folk-funk fingerprints on Seals & Crofts' '70s smash "Summer Breeze." If there's any question about whether he's a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, Mraz puts those doubts to rest with his reggaefied reinvention of the moon-eyed Modern English hit "I Melt With You." And just in case you thought that R&B lilt in his sound was born in a vacuum, listen and learn by swaying to the supple hip-swivel of his take on Lionel Richie's "All Night Long."

Jason Mraz is a jumpy guy. That doesn't mean he leaps off his seat when you tap him on the shoulder; it means he's too restless a talent to stay stuck in just one stylistic bag for long. The music world's overloaded with artists who'd be perfectly happy to find success solely as a tender folk troubadour, a pop prince powered by more hooks than a fly fisherman, or a beat-happy, R&B-loving groove grinder. Mraz embraces all of those identities, not just from song to song, but often all at the same time. Getting a bead on that kind of quicksilver songsmith can be tricky, and that's where we come in. From his heart-tugging duet with Colbie Caillat on "Lucky" to the tongue-twisting folk-pop hip-hop of "Wordplay," we've taken a sonic snapshot of the object in motion that is Jason Mraz, so even if you can't slow him down, you can stay happy riding in his slipstream.