Appreciating Josh Groban

I was perplexed. Josh Groban was a curious choice to be the special guest speaker for an all-woman week-long songwriting seminar I participated in recently. He certainly has a golden voice and I hear he’s a lovely human but couldn’t they have found someone with lady parts (or spirits)? There are loads of them out there. 

And also? Just because you’re a Grammy winning musician, actor, record producer and one of the biggest record-selling artists in the country, it doesn’t mean you can write a song. 

I tried to keep my mind open as I clicked “start meeting” but my arms were crossed. I expected Josh to be jaded and watching the clock. 

There he was, all scruffy-haired and baseball cap adorned if I recall correctly, looking like your roommate’s big brother or your best friend’s son. (How can such a rich voice come out of that scruffy boy?) He was sitting at a piano smiling (a lot) and began the conversation talking candidly about how he gets started creatively…how he goes deeper. He was kind of making sense. But still, no “vagina.” 😡

He focused on the importance of free-styling and posited that pre-judging yourself can be a songwriter’s worst enemy. Ok, so even Josh Groban admits spending time in limbo not knowing where he’s going until he gets there. Just like all the rest of us.

Then he engaged in what I consider a very scary thing: Songwriting Improv— or coming at an idea cold in front of a crowd — which, if you’re not on your game, can reduce you to a meme in the morning. 

He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about and as I watched him go on I realized he did. Why was I surprised? Well, there are many artists who claim to be writers but they’re not. They’re singers. I’m not belittling singers. To be able to sing like Josh Groban is an anomaly. But if you’ve been in “the room” as long as I have you’ve undoubtedly witnessed this grubby culture. That said…some golden voiced singers are truly legitimate writers and should be included in the process. I was witnessing one. 

Josh even had something to say about gibberish — those meaningless sounds and syllables…that je ne sais quoi aesthetic that falls out of our mouths when our guard is down because it just feels right for some reason. 

He offered the follwing tidbits:  

Embrace the gibberish! Let the noise come out of it. Don’t overthink. The right angles and sentiments will find themselves.  (Yes. I completely concur. I bow to gibberish). 

There’s a confluence to the nuttiness that you weren’t expecting. Embrace what makes you feel good. It’s an organized mess in my head. (Mine too!!) 

Let your goosebumps be your guide. (THAT WAS MY FAVORITE TIDBIT!! Worth uncrossing my arms for and acknowledging that maybe I had been the jaded one.)

The guy totally disarmed me. He was unguarded, unpretentious un-celebrity, super-friendly and enthusiastic. And it seemed that he was enjoying himself immensely. Just one of us gals. 

Were there women out there who could have been as inspiring as Josh? Definitely. Should they have been considered being that it was an all women’s event? Of Course. I don’t know how it came to be that Josh got the ask and not Jane. But I’m not gonna take it out on Josh. Because when I pressed “leave session” I was lifted up, entertained, turned around.

Hey, I’m “woker” than I was yesterday and not as woke as I’ll be tomorrow but it seems to me in these days of inclusion, when indeed we need more women in a man’s world and more color in a white world, that if somebody is gifted and can enlighten us, no matter who/what they are, we should let them in. 

I hope I’m lucky enough to be in the room with Josh some day. I think there’d be a lot I could learn.  

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I’m aware he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but talk about goosebumps >>>>>

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