The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:58 AM PST

Josh Groban's latest album took 18 months to finish.

THERE is no stopping Josh Groban. In the 10 years since his self-titled album came out, he has been topping the charts and selling over 25 million albums worldwide.

Now, with the release of his sixth effort last month, Groban has done it again – All That Echoes debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 charts in the United States.

Some people may attribute this to natural talent while others may credit his popularity and large fanbase. But, as he describes his process of cutting an album at The Soho Hotel in London prior to the release of All That Echoes, there is also a lot of hard work that goes into it.

"As soon as I finished the final date of my world tour (in South Africa), I maybe took one week off and I went right into the studio with (producer) Rob Cavallo, and we started writing songs and started listening to ideas," Groban shared.

Other than his Christmas album Noel in 2007, this new album was one of the fastest he's made. Groban says that he views the culmination of the tour as the end of an album cycle, and as such, All That Echoes was put together in about 18 months, which is about half the length he usually takes.

"I take time because I don't ever just want to throw out what people expect," he explained. "I really want to strive to find new ways to present the best of what I can do."

Groban rarely puts a time limit on how long he works on an album, saying, "When it's done, it's done."

The process is also extended by the fact that Groban doesn't just sing – the self-confessed control freak is involved in almost every stage of the production.

"I usually start with a lot of cover songs and then I say to myself, here are the ones I really can't live without and here are the ones I'd like to 'beat' with my own writing," he explained adding that he doesn't get too upset if he can't beat them because they are great songs anyway. "But you strive to beat it."

Like many of his previous albums, this one, too, features cover songs including Stevie Wonder's I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever). Then there are the lesser-known tunes such as Glen Hansard's Falling Slowly and the traditional Irish folk song She Moved Through The Fair.

It is obscure tracks like these that Groban prefers so that he can make them his own. Also, people may not make much comparison between his version and the original.

Groban doesn't really have a regular method for identifying which songs to cover. He says that he gets a lot of suggestions – "from the fans to the record label to A&R". But then there are those that he just stumbles across.

"Sometimes you decide to spend the day just listening to songs – She Moved Through The Fair is a song I found just going through YouTube and listening to lots of songs, just for fun," he said.

"I was listening to some Irish music, and I was listening to, I think it was Sinead O'Connor and she was singing this song, and I thought, 'Wow, this is a beautiful song!' and I was wondering,'Did she write this?' It sounds so familiar."

In the end, Groban included four covers in All That Echoes. In total, he and his team cut 25 tracks in seven months in preparation for the album. Twelve were finally selected (of which, he co-wrote seven) and some of the extras will be used as bonus tracks or saved for the next album.

"The good problem that we had was that out of the 25 songs, we loved 19 of them – really loved them," he said.

Three of the songs that did end up in the album are foreign language songs – another regular feature in Groban's albums. Renowned trumpeter Arturo Sandoval features in a Spanish song, while Laura Pausini duets with Groban on an Italian number. These tracks, including another Italian song, were all co-written by Groban.

"Every year, I try to tackle a new language," he shared.

From what he described, there is a little bit of everything that helped make his albums a success – chance, hard work, good decisions and more. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to his talent and the quality of songs.

"It's not complicated. A great song is a great song is a great song," he said.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 3 Mac 2013

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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