The Guy Next Door?
Foster's Sunday Citizen
February 6, 2005
By Rex Rutkoski
For Josh Groban it begins, and ends, with “the voice.”
That can be both a good and a bad thing.
“I’m a regular guy. A lot of people assume because I sing this kind of music, I must be aloof and ‘I probably wouldn’t want to talk to him.’ They assume this kind of music is aloof,” the artist explained from his Los Angeles home during a recent interview with Foster’s Sunday Citizen. “I hang with guys in rock bands most of the time. I’m a regular 23-year-old guy. This is the voice I have.”
There it is again: The Voice.
Following his remarkable 2001 self-titled debut album, The New York Times hailed him as “The New Boy Wonder of The Voice.”
“I know what the business is all about and what is out there and what is kind of expected of artists. It’s really tough to make a name for yourself without compromising and without fitting yourself into a real specific mold,” said Groban, who performs at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester. “When I made the choice that I would be involved in every aspect of music and not necessarily make music for radio or MTV, I was saying, ‘OK, this is me. You decide who it is.’ “
As soon as someone writes, “He’s an opera singer,” Groban said he replies, “No, not yet.”
A pop star?
“Not exactly,” said Groban, whose international hit, “To Where You Are,” propelled his debut CD to sales of more than five million copies worldwide. His enthusiastically received “PBS Great Performances” special became a number one selling DVD and the best selling long form music video of 2002.
Reprise, his record company, said his appearance at the closing ceremonies of the Salt Lake City Olympics was seen by more than a billion people.
“What I’m trying to be is kind of ‘genre-less,’” added Groban, who understands that it is convenient, necessary even, for people to classify an artist, especially a new one. “The fact people have opened their minds and ears up to something a little different, and have enjoyed it anyway, I’m really, really thrilled.”
Given the challenges of the music business, particularly for an artist with his approach, he admitted to being surprised at the enthusiastic manner in which he has been embraced. “I like to think of myself as a realist. Sometimes people call that pessimistic,” he said, laughing.
He senses he has encouraged some people to at least give opera a chance. “Yes, absolutely. Only a certain amount have been exposed to it. One of the coolest things is working with school programs and students. It’s great when you see young people open up.”
Groban grew up listening to varied styles, including Pavarotti, Paul Simon and Radiohead. “I’m somebody who loves to tell a story and express my feelings through music and I’ve always had a huge passion for music. It’s the dream of my life to express myself through singing and now writing,” he said.
He’s thrilled to have come so far so relatively quickly.
“Breaking through and reaching people in this industry is so extremely difficult, as I found out, especially when you don’t have the kind of music immediately accessible to Top 40 radio and MTV and things like that,” he said. “It makes it very difficult to get your face seen and name known and especially your music heard. It’s a real uphill climb, but there are great rewards.”
As Groban continues on his worldwide concert tour, he comes armed with new fuel, his second CD, “Closer,” which has sold more than four million copies. It’s not something that can be considered a safe follow-up, with 13 diverse tracks, which his publicists describe as a “journey through melody and lyric, language and emotion.” It includes three original songs by Groban.
“Believe,” a song sung by the artist from the movie “Polar Express,” is nominated for an Oscar. His haunting song “Remember” was featured on the end credits of “Troy,” starring Brad Pitt.
Groban said that what most people know about him, they know through his music. This time, he says, he tried to open that door as wide as possible with the “Closer” CD. The songs on it are a major step closer to who he really is and what his music is all about, he added.
People are indeed getting a better idea of who he is through this album.
“Whether you are a song stylist, singing other people’s music through you, or writing it, the main goal is to get people closer to who you are. You choose music and sing music that best expresses that,” he explained. “Having grown up in a great city where I was able to experience and listen to many styles of music, and having an amazing, supportive family who supported me the entire way, there are so many experiences I wanted to get across.”
In selecting music for the second CD he said he wanted to make the stakes a little higher, choosing some styles that might be considered somewhat different. “I wanted to take more risks and reach emotional levels that maybe are a little deeper than the first album.”
The results, he said, are a definite step closer to where he wants to be as a singer, songwriter and as a person. “It’s great to hold that (CD) in your hand and put something out there.”
Groban adopts the philosophy that every song he sings has to come from the center of his being. “It absolutely has to come from the ground up,” he added.
He says he has a natural affinity for sad songs and he’s not sure exactly why.
“I don’t think I’m a sad person. I’m pretty optimistic,” Groban said. “Maybe it’s the kind of voice I have. I always sang ballad-type songs.”
Sometimes the saddest songs are the ones with the most meat on them, and possess the most depth and emotion, he suggested. “So many ‘happy’ songs can be kind of shallow. It’s very rare that a ‘happy’ song is really expressive of happy feelings.”
He also wants a song to grab him. “Sometimes I sit on a song for two years. I can’t get a melody out of my head. It evokes a feeling in me.”
Groban said the feeling is difficult to put into words. “I just have to feel it first. It can’t be cerebral at all. I’m big on lyrics, a big lyric person, especially the kind of singing I do. It’s hard to sound not cheesy sometimes with the voice I have with English songs.”
He is excited about having the opportunity to express himself on tour. “This is a major undertaking for me, something I’ve been dreaming about and worried about at the same time,” he said. “It gives me the opportunity to give people a view of what they might not be able to get on CD. Live performance is what got me into this.”
Groban hopes to surprise concertgoers.
“People kind of assume after listening to the CDs what the show will be like. We will kind of change a little bit,” he said.
He is drawn to the “immediate energy and feedback” from an audience.
“You can gauge and adapt and it keeps you on your toes. There’s the adrenaline, as nervous as you might be on stage. It’s just being in the zone. It’s just fun. When it’s live, you’re there and it’s done and over and you have fun. That’s when I’m at my best.”
Anchoring that good time are his fans.
“I try to have a real close connection with my fans. That’s extremely important. They are the ones that have been there from the beginning and proved everyone else wrong,” he said.
They’ve come to be known as “Grobanites.”
Groban laughed when it’s suggested that sounds like a branch of some Russian political party. “They’re an incredible group of fans. Thousands are registered on my Web site. I see kids, teens, parents and grandparents. That’s the most rewarding thing for me.”
At the beginning, he said, it was an older demographic of mostly women.
“Which is fine, but this is for everybody to see, everybody is on to it.”
What’s this thing, though, about Josh Groban and women of all ages?
He laughed again. “It’s a nice feeling. I was not like the popular guy in high school. This is revenge for all the bullies in high school (more laughter). It’s a great feeling. Maybe women sometimes are more open to romantic music.”
He feels that his voice has grown since his debut CD, one of the reasons, perhaps, that he wanted to try some new material on the second CD that challenged him. “It’s a lot of fun beating the sophomore jinx, showing people I’m moving forward and trying to do things that appeal to a large audience.”
Groban certainly will be adding to those “freeze-frame” moments in his career.
In playing back that video in his mind, one of the first stops is the Grammy rehearsal in 1999. “I was singing with Celine Dion at 17. I can still even now picture the Shrine Auditorium. It was such a magical moment. It wound up being the moment that changed my life.
“And being in the Olympic arena is a moment that I’ll never forget. I got to see a time when the world was together.” He also sang the National Anthem at the 2004 Super Bowl.
But probably the first “freeze-frame” moment takes him back to seventh grade. “I was singing for the first time (on stage) and I saw my mom cry. I loved music but never thought I could sing. I had to wait for my voice to change.”
Can Josh Groban still make his mom cry?
“I can. That’s my meter,” he replied. “If I can’t make her cry, I better try something else.”
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