Smooth McGroove Interview
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Interview by: Zelda
Geek Girl Zelda recently had the opportunity to interview the talented musician Smooth McGroove!
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Q: For anyone who isn't familiar with who you are or what you do, give us a little bit of background.
A: I'm Smooth McGroove and I'm known for singing a-capella arrangements of video game songs.
Q: What kind of musical background and training do you have?
A: I studied drums for most of my life and took a year of piano lessons in elementary school, but outside of that I learned guitar on my own and sang along to music in the car. Both of my parents met through music, so I grew up hearing lots of music through them.
Q: How much of what you do is straight out of the microphone? Do you use any effects or do you legitimately manage to make every sound using your voice/hands? It borders on inhuman.
A: Once I record a track, I equalize each one to match the specific part (bass, lead, harmony, etc) and then depending on the song I'll add either add reverb, minor delay, or up the volume in the mix. As more and more people started watching my videos, I began to take the mixing and recording process more seriously. I now spend at least double the time recording and mixing that I did when I started doing a-capella arrangements.
Q: Do you have any plans to do acapella covers of non-video game songs, regular vocal covers of songs, or original works? Or do you plan to mostly stick in the theme you are in? You have a lovely voice, and as much as I love the work you are doing now, there are lots of other things I'd love to see you do too :)
A: I started my channel doing original non a-capella songs and in the beginning I did a few non-video game a-capellas, but now that I've hit a stride I feel fortunate enough that I can continue doing video game material. It's the most fun! I have ideas for some non-video game related a-capellas though, and I'll do them when the time's right.
Q: Do you perform live at all? Would there even be any way to perform the kind of music you do live?
A: To perform live, I'd either need some type of loop station or a barrage of pre-recorded audio/video tracks behind me while I belt out the lead part. It could happen!
Q: Where do you ideally see yourself going with your music? Soundtracks? More albums? Writing original soundtracks to video games?
A: Ideally, I want to keep doing what's fun. Right now I'm having a blast taking requests from fans and doing them weekly. I just released my second a-capella album on Bandcamp, and it'll be out on iTunes and Loudr.fm soon. I might have some other exciting things coming up in the future, but I can't talk about them yet :]
Q: Your kitty also makes an appearance in pretty much every video. How did that come about?
A: Charl's a very affectionate cat, and he hopped up in my lap while I was recording one day...so I decided to prop him up and put him in the video footage. Now I make sure to include him in every video, because it's fun for me and people seem to enjoy it :3
Q: What has been the best moment for you since you've started doing this?
A: There's been some great moments, but I'd have to say when Legend of Zelda Facebook page linked my Song of Storms. Before that, almost no one had seen my videos. Afterwards, thousands of people started flooding into my YouTube page and it's kept growing ever since.
Q: If you could live in any video game universe, what would it be and why?
A: Ahhh...that's a hard one. Probably some rich RPG universe, like Hyrule or Azeroth.
Q: Where else can people follow your work?
A: You can follow me on
Facebook, Twitter
@SmoothMcGroove, and
Bandcamp
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August 01 2013