Josh Groban says, “Bring it on!”
Aware that many artists have told tales of not being able to enjoy their greatest moments of success while they were happening because of so many demands on their time, and music industry pressures to repeat their triumphs while the proverbial iron is still hot, Groban, who has his own multi-platinum success story, says not to worry.
He plans to savor it all in the moment. “Anytime I wind up feeling that pressure, I try to understand and make it a situation where I realize it’s right for me, not because I’m doing it for someone else or the industry machine. I’m doing it because I want to do if for myself. If I decide to run myself ragged (he laughs), it’s because I’m passionate about what I’m doing. I’m very, very excited about spreading this music one listener at a time.”
That’s what the California native is doing again as, armed with his third album, “Awake,” he takes his ever expanding music to the people on concert stages across America.
Along the way he hopes to offer a better understanding of who he is as an artist and a person. He senses that he has been making progress since his self-titled international debut in 2001, and then with his follow-up “Closer,” with the major hit, “You Raise Me Up.” Collectively they have sold well over 13 million copies.
His first of two PBS Specials became the number one selling DVD of 2002. He has performed at the Super Bowl, the Oscars and at the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the latter with an audience estimated at more than two billion people. He has been in demand for a variety of television appearances, including performances on Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America, and the Today Show.
Still, there is work to be done, Groban says. “Certainly I feel the foot power of people coming in buying the album. The success has been beyond my wildest dreams and that is great,” he says. “On the other hand, there is still probably a very large group of people who just have the wrong idea or a pre-conceived notion about me.”
It can be difficult to get a well-rounded idea about someone in the modern world of media, especially on the Internet or TV, with 30 seconds of a song or a photographic “blip,” he suggests. Everything is so quick, he adds.
He believes he needs to do a better job of getting his personality “out there.” Part of the problem, he theorizes, is that he sometimes keeps too low of a profile.
He says a concert tour is his time to show an audience every aspect of who he is and wants to be. “With an album, you may have three minutes to sing on TV. It is hit and miss. Sometimes you don’t get across who you are,” he explains.
Though he feels he still has a long way to go, he says his audience is wider than it once was. “On the last tour, I looked out into the audience and saw exactly what I was hoping to see, such a broad range of people just like me who love every style. They might be at a U2 concert one night and my concert the next.”
That’s very inspiring to him.
Groban, now 26, says he does want to reach a bit more of his peers.
He is very excited to be playing a lot of arenas. Theaters are rewarding, he says, but he senses that people are not certain if they can let go in that more formal atmosphere and display their excitement.
The artist assures that he wants them to feel free to express themselves. “In a theater they don’t know if it’s OK if they holler,” he says. An arena encourages more audience expression, he suggests. “I want the music to allow people to escape and have fun. I want it to be a ride of emotions. It’s time to let loose and have a good time.”
He recalls that when he was growing up and went to concerts, he often wished that he could be the one on stage making people feel the way he did in the audience. Now he is.
“My constant goal is to allow for a very honest, very real thing, that is shared between myself and people out there. I want them to feel we are sharing that time together.”
Those coming to his shows can expect the concert to be completely unique to them that night, Groban promises. “I don’t like to have a script. I want it to be visually and musically like the feeling of listening to the album times 20. I want it to be a big, big experience.”
So, who is this Josh Groban, with the big, powerful voice that seems to live so comfortably in both the classical and popular music worlds?
“Like any artist out there, I’m complicated. There are many, many layers to the music I do,” he replies. “People may have the CD in their hand and have a preconceived notion of what it will be.”
He just asks them to listen from beginning to end and make a decision. “First and foremost, I hope I can sing in a way that people like to listen to. And second, I really tried with this (new) album to put in as much of myself and my personality and influences that I can. I feel music is my way to express all the things inside of me.”
He hopes he brings patience and a willingness to explore to the table.
“I hope no matter how old I get to always think of myself as a student. There is so much to learn every day. That’s part of the fun and enjoyment of being in this business. The idea of learning doesn’t end.”
In approaching the “Awake” album, he says he felt it was time to go where his heart and mind were telling him to go, even if it would be a risk.
Anytime he has taken what might be considered a chance it has worked out well for him, he says.
“It has opened more doors musically or inspired me to write a song or write something new that tried to focus into the creative energy I was feeling. With every release, it is I saying, ‘This is what I learned the last couple years and what I have to offer.’ ” He is convinced that it all is still the “tip of the iceberg” for him in terms of what he can achieve artistically.
Groban says he always tries to keep himself open to people and sounds that enter his life. “Some of the people I’m so honored to work with just kind of come into my life. It seems to happen in the most mysterious and wonderful way if I just let those things happen.”
Since he was a child, he believes he has had music running through him. He couldn’t explain it, he says. “I had blinders on for music. It was one of those things where I feel there is always a nagging kind of pulse in me to not sit down, rest, stop exploring, not cease to have the wonderment that always affected me since I was young.”
It is a challenge in the entertainment industry not to let go of the innocence that brought you to it, he says, “and to go where the goose bumps take you.” It’s about not getting caught up with what your cautious side tells you to do, but by how you feel about it, he adds. It really is about the heart and not the head, he says.
Groban followed his heart to some distance places in making “Awake,” including fulfilling a long-held dream to go to South Africa. The fire was lit 15 years ago when his parents bought him a copy of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album, which explored the musical possibilities from that land.
“So many of us were introduced by Paul Simon to that kind of meshing of American folk songs and African drums and the incredible voices that talk about spirituality in the songs,” he says.
He recorded two of “Awake’s” songs, “Lullaby” and “Weeping,” with South Africa’s celebrated Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
“When I hear them sing, I don’t know what they are saying, but there is a pathos that is impossible not to affect the heart and soul of everybody around the world,” he says.
The South African experience exceeded his expectations.
He read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, and had the opportunity to perform for the civil rights legend and visit with him. Mandela made him an ambassador to his foundation, which focuses on AIDs awareness and global poverty.
Groban felt humbled to meet Mandella and to visit some orphanages. “You walk away so inspired to try to make a difference any way you can,” he says. There is sadness there, he says, but he is convinced everyone can make a difference to address the poverty and the health issues. “A little goes a long way,” he says.
“Lullaby,” written by Groban and Dave Matthews, addresses that sentiment.
Groban believes this is his best album, “but it’s up to the fans to decide.” “For me, I want to feel everything I do is a step up from my last CD. Each one is how I feel. I had the most fun I’ve had making music and I wanted that to come across. It was a very, very inspiring experience and one of the reasons I called it ‘Awake.’ I feel enlightened by it. It is the tip of the iceberg of what I’d like to do and a cleansing experience for me to get everything out.”
This experience is a musical adventure, with 13 songs (in Italian, Spanish and English); four producers (including his longtime associate David Foster); and stellar guests, including Glen Ballard, John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting), Eric Mouquet, Marius DeVries, Imogen Heap and Herbie Hancock, in addition to Ladysmith, Foster and Matthews.
He believes he emerges a stronger artist from a collaborative effort. “Without question, you learn so much from people you work with,” he says. He agrees that working with several producers can be a challenge, “but it was kind of the same way I loved summer camp as a kid.” “I like the idea of getting out of the city meeting a new person you don’t know. David Foster will always be a great safety blanket for me. It is a lot of fun for me to work with new people.”
“February Song” finds Groban on keyboards, performing a composition on which, melodically and lyrically, he wanted to express how he felt one sleepless night. “It was one of those moments where I was feeling a certain thing and I wasn’t resting until the chords I was playing represented what I wanted to say,” he explains.
Groban believes that his music resonates for people because he tries to make it something that touches their lives.
“I like to make people realize they are not alone in the emotions they are feeling. I always turned to music either to feel more comfortable about things I was feeling, or to allow me to feel things I never felt. It is a visceral thing that makes you feel not alone. Hopefully my music can do that and inspire people the way it has inspired me to do so many different things.”
He says when he listens to a song, he can pretty much tell immediately if something is right for him. “There’s nothing like hearing a song that affects me so greatly that I feel I have to be the interpreter of that song,” he says.
He is really big on lyrics, he says. “It really has to be a lyric I feel, whether in English or not, and because of the style of my voice, I have to choose a lyric that will sound appropriate and still resonate with all age groups and make something very honest.”
It is exciting for him to explore language as an instrument itself, and the way to get a song across even if people don’t understand what he is singing.
With “Awake,” he wanted to embrace a part of his voice that he felt came naturally to him – the pop and classical voice – while pushing himself to be more experimental in the pop context.
“I wanted to take the pop influence and put it in there and make it a little more world music oriented,” he explains.
The artistic bottom line for him remains honesty. “Hopefully every album can show different sides. It’s all about honesty,” Groban says. “You just have to be honest.”