It has to be something that is unique to them and a story that is right for them and lyrics notes that are right for that voice. GROBAN: What makes a great song? I think that a great song is something that can be expressed truly by the person who writes it. People aren't going to want to see you go outside your box, and so I've been very lucky that I've had the support from great producers to do that because it's made my singing and my career much more versatile and meaningful to be able to do that. Learn about how to formulate a song and take the risk and decide you're going to do this now.” Because it is a risk. It started out as frustration, kind of saying, "I don't want to sing this." I said, “Okay, if you don't want to sing, get off your ass and use all the improvisation stuff you've been doing and structure it. Rick Rubin said it to me best once, and he said you have to write songs that are coming from you and not just being presented by you as a vocalist and as a generic voice. They were melodies that felt like "Ah, if I sing this maybe we'll get a radio hit," or they felt very formulaic. They weren't my stories, and they weren't melodies that really connected with me. They weren't my vision they weren't my life. Cut to when I had a record deal-and I was continuing to play and play and play and play-and I realized that so many of the songs that were coming my direction were not me. I didn't view it as writing I viewed it as almost therapeutic. It was my way of getting out all the angst from school life out of my system. I would just sit at the piano I taught myself to play piano…. I’d had a piano since I was a kid and every day after school I would come home and I would improvise. I'd always written I just didn't know what I was doing was writing. But the problem was that once you hit, once you break into the business… you start to get people writing for you and you start to get inundated with songs and ideas and people wanting to push their stamp on you. GROBAN: My first album I didn't write anything at all, and I was absolutely okay with that. We spoke to him by phone on a media day for his summer tour-to promote his newest album All That Echoes-about songwriting, why arts education matters, and what Paul Simon has in common with a Transformer. In other words, Josh Groban is so much more than you think he is. And while you may be familiar with Groban’s renditions of the adult contemporary hits "You Raise Me Up" and "The Prayer," he’s also covered songs by Glen Hansard, Nick Cave, Simon and Garfunkel, and Linkin Park. Don’t forget the passionate arts education advocate who helms the Find Your Light Foundation, the actor who’s guested on Ally McBeal and Glee, and broken Emma Stone’s heart in Crazy Stupid Love, and most recently the Groban who’s giving Ryan Seacrest a serious run for his money as the host of the ABC reality competition Rising Star. But there’s also the impish Groban who makes self-deprecating video selfies for his fans on his website, the hilarious Groban who’s got mad game on Twitter, and the Groban who dispenses mantra-like advice learned from uber-producer Rick Rubin (yes, that Rick Rubin-he produced Groban’s 2011 Illuminations). There’s the familiar vaguely pre-Raphaelite curls, the boyish face (though he’s now a ripe old 33), and of course, that voice that is both expansive and earnest. The best way to sum up Josh Groban in one word? Surprising. "Art matters because it is the one true great connector in a world that seems to be very unconnected, and it's important now more than ever to shine a huge light on that connectivity that we have, that we often forget." - Josh Groban
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |