Theatre, Rock Music and Female Fans: Josh Groban Gets Cultural
Music Brigade
January 2007
Since releasing his eponymous debut album in 2001, pop and classical singer Josh Groban has achieved double-platinum status, had his own PBS special, performed at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo and appeared at the Vatican. As he releases his third album, “Awake”, Musicbrigade’s Maria Haggkvist manages to interupt his busy schedule to find out about theatricality, rock music and female fans...
Do you see any distinction between singing pop and classical music?
For me - besides the obvious differences in styles - music comes from a very honest place and it’s got the same heart. I think of my music as pop music with classical and world music influences with different rhythms and things like that. The whole genre thing has always been a mystery to me…
I would describe my music as a very eclectic type of pop music; I would not say that what I do is classical really. There are classical elements to it but it’s up to everyone’s interpretation I guess.
There are some rock tendencies on your new single “You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up)”…
Yes, there are a lot of rock elements on it. I love rock music but I want to take from as many different styles that I love and still find music and melodies that I can sing honestly and naturally so that they kind of become a style of their own. When I hear it and hear the way I sing on it I think it sounds like nothing I’ve heard anybody do before; it sounds very different.
Queen is a big influence on me; there’s a song on the new album called “February Song” that has all these vocal harmonies on it which were inspired by them. Freddy Mercury was another big voice that wasn’t afraid to be big on stage and grabbed the theatrical elements; that’s exciting to me.
You like theatricality in music?
I love it! That’s why I loved theater when I was growing up and I can remember every single one of my shows. You share a one-time-only moment with the audience. The whole energy of a live performance can get you through anything.
How do you feel before going onstage?
Very nervous, very excited. It takes me a couple of songs to settle down sometimes because all of my nerves are wiring a hundred times per minute. I stand backstage ready to go on and think “This is my world; this is what I live for”. I wish everybody in the audience could feel the same feeling as I do two minutes before I go on stage because the excitement can’t be compared. It’s a holy thing – that you can take an empty room and fill it up with instruments and people and get this phenomenal experience.
It’s just when you get off the road that you get really depressed and realize the fact that you’re not doing that anymore.
Is the recording process like that?
It very different making an album than from going out promoting it. I like meeting the fans, I like being one-on-one with people and I think that it is a very closed world when you’re in the process of creating something. Nobody’s hearing it, but then when you are able to give the album wings to fly, that’s the greatest feeling in the world so the next two years I can’t wait for. It’s addictive, it’s great.
You seem very close to your fans.
I read all the emails posted on my website [www.joshgroban.com], but I can’t answer every single one. But the most important thing is when I meet my fans record signings or meet them after shows. The problem when you’re getting bigger and bigger is that you can’t have time to meet everybody.
Do you get a lot of women after you, wanting more than an autograph or a picture?
Yes, that’s a bit weird to me but it’s flattering. Who knows - maybe I marry one of them one day! No, just kidding. You just have to try not getting wired out by it and try to not let it get into your head. There is no rhyme or reason why they would ask that to you…they don’t know me and I don’t know them. Well, they know me through my music and know me through my image but that’s about it. That kind of thing I just try to do like – ha! ha! - that’s nice.
But as I understand it, you put a lot of yourself and your inner thoughts into your songs?
That’s true. So what people know of me is through my music. You get to know people a lot through their music and some times you take that for granted, that you’re getting to know someone through their music. But at the same time, that’s just a part of it and music is just one part of my life.
You seem so nice and relaxed all the time, how do you keep so balanced?
You know we all get stressed and depressed sometimes, getting angry and upset on yourself for instance. But I’ve increasingly learning how to deal with those things and really take it out on the music. I put myself in a place where the only way out is to make great music.
Do you feel nervous about what people will think of the album?
I think most of the pressure I felt was to make a great record. Now it’s finished and I feel like I’ve done that so what happens next happens. That’s the nice thing for following your heart; you don’t have a guilty conscience. At least I did my best and I feel it’s a good energy around it. From what I heard so far people really like it.
How do you take care of your voice?
Sleep is good, I warm up a lot and I don’t abuse my voice – I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs - pretty basic things for a good vocal health. And after the gigs, in the tour bus and so, I don’t talk, I just rest. It’s not that it’s so fragile you can’t use it but you don’t want to burn the candle at both ends either.
You co-wrote three songs on your last album, now four songs on the new one…
I actually wrote eight songs for this album and then made a choice on what to put on the album. I don’t feel a huge pressure on writing a lot, but it’s important to make that a part of what I do. The older I get and the more experienced I get makes it easier for me to write songs.
Do you think that your kind of music will change the more you write yourself?
Yes, I think it will go more towards a worldy kind of rock, a classical kind of rock. I like rock and when I play the drums that’s exactly what I can do, some heavy rock stuff. But maybe if I wouldn’t have to sing for a while then I could do something more but that would probably be more like a joke. But I prefer to listen to rock than singing it myself.
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