Gigs, Galileo and the Best Guinness Ever – Her.ie Meets Josh Groban

Josh Groban is all kinds of fun. Proving that serious music doesn’t make for a serious man, the fun-loving tenor jetted into Dublin this week to take advantage of the hospitality on offer, promote his new album and announce a June gig at Dublin’s 02. Her.ie caught up with the LA lad for a cuppa and a chat while he was in the capital, and discovered that he’s just as lovely and funny as we expected him to be. Roll on June.

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Hello Josh! Her.ie is very happy to meet you, and delighted that you took our visit as an opportunity to announce another Irish gig… 

It’s so exciting! I’ve been looking forward to coming back here for a little while now. When you’re in the studio and you’re recording you kind of dream about what the shows are going to be like, and where you’re gonna play and all that… The amazing thing about coming back here is that every time we come back here we seem to do more and more of an audience, which is a very nice feeling. Since day one the fans here have been so great.

Proof that he likes us too... 

 

Your new album should get a great reaction from Irish audiences, with a few Irish songs in there? [Josh has covered ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ and ‘Falling Slowly]

It's not a shrewd marketing ploy, I assure you! It’s genuinely that I love the music, I’ve been inspired by traditional Irish music since I was little. I think some of that influence has woven its way into the fabric of what I’ve been doing when I’ve had the chance to make albums, and with this album it’s nice to have a couple of really solid Irish tunes!

 

It’s not the first time you’ve taken on an Irish classic though…

No! I got hooked up with my friend Declan O’Rourke on the last album. I’ll never stop singing Galileo, that’s one of my favourite songs of all time, and Declan is such a great guy – you just can’t go wrong. Declan and I are here for the same thing, here to help love along…

 

We suspect that might be more for the women. Do you get gigs where it’s mostly women dragging the menfolk along ? 

Well it’s very mixed, you’ll have the odd husband or two, there because their wife wanted to go, or people on a first date. It’s great because it’s all types, sometimes it’s not both people wanting to go equally, (there are brownie points involved), so my goal is not only to make the *fan* fans have a great time, but equally to make the people who are on the fence have an amazing time too.

 

How do you do that? 

It’s a combination. First of all the live show represents the music in the best possible way, there’s something about sharing the energy and being in the room that’s very special. Hopefully you can win over some fans in that way. The other thing I really like to do is keep it fun, and funny and loose. 

I think sometimes if those people don’t know me very well or haven't seen me in interviews they assume that the show is gonna be very straight, sit-on-your-hands type thing, and I like the show to be anything but. I like to run out into the audience and talk to people! It keeps me relaxed and it’s fun to see what’s going on with the audience. I’ve had proposals out there – people pulling rings out of their jackets, it’s amazing!

 

Surely that locks you in as a wedding singer? 

Absolutely.

It’s at this point in the interview that Her.ie politely requests that Josh sing at an imaginary future wedding… maybe?

I’ll lock it down, I’m there! 

Her.ie is delighted.

 

You talked about some comedy and fun in the show, you’ve definitely shown your comedic ability on Jimmy Kimmel’s show once or twice…

Jimmy Kimmel has given me such an amazing comedic opportunity in my career. I mean – he was giving me skits to do when no one else was giving me couch time to talk. Everyone else just thought, ‘singer – relegate to the last three minutes of the show’, and if you’re singing serious music you’re pretty much viewed as a serious guy, and nothing more than that. 

Kimmel saw something that others just didn't see. He saw that I had a funny bone and he knew that I had taken Improv when I was younger and that I loved, loved comedy. Plus he saw the humour in it that it would be me doing all of these things, and that I would be the last person you would expect, so it was win-win.

Those clips have gone viral, I got stopped just in a pub the other night, some guy just came up to me about the Kanye West tweets! That stuff goes around the world – I can’t believe it! Their writers are so great, we just have such a great track record of doing fun stuff together. 

Then I always sing the serious song later in the show but, you know, that doesn’t go viral… nobody cares about that.  (Laughs).

 

Perhaps people are too distracted by the earlier bit to pay attention. Most recently you sang about ‘Pills To Make You Better At Sex’? 

Yes, Josh Groban sex pills with a really, really happy looking me on the front.

We have sold, like, seventeen whole boxes of those since then you know, so…

 

Perhaps you should start selling them at your concerts? 

Oh yeah, at concerts, at the airport – customs had to take them off me when I got here, a whole suitcase.

 

We would watch that on Airport Stories.

I was just watching one of those shows while I was having lunch! Can you imagine?

‘How long are you in the country for?’ ‘Just a few days’ ‘What brings you here?’ ‘An album’ ‘Oh an album… really? Explain all of these please.’ ‘They’re for me… all of them… 500 boxes.’ ‘Busy trip’.

 

That would make a great Twitter story. You seem quite fond of Twitter.

You know, I never thought I’d have an addiction in life but apparently, that’s my one. Not a bad one as they go.

 

You’ve been keeping fans up to speed on your Dublin trip – did you make it to the Leprechaun museum?

No! If I weren’t flying to Paris tonight I would go to the Leprechaun Museum. I saw that sign very late at night.

Were you indulging in some Irish hospitality at the time? 

Oh yes. I was.

 

At this point Josh gets up and goes outside to find out what pub he was, where he claims he has the best pint of all time… and arrives back with a recommendation… 

The Long Hall – best Guinness ever. Amazing.

 

We’ll have to test that theory. Now, how many languages can you sing in?

I suppose the sky is the limit if you really study them before you sing them? I love singing in different languages, I like the homework of it. At the moment, I guess, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin… uh… Japanese, not Irish yet though. I haven’t sung in Gaelic. I’m gonna have to do that.

 

How many languages can you speak?

Fluently? English and Gibberish. 

I took Japanese for four years and having the classical training I’ve studied some Spanish and some Italian but conversationally? When you sing in that many languages it’s hard to pick one to focus on and really get good at it.

 

So if you have an obsessed Italian fan, for example, who’s heard you sing in perfect Italian and gushes at you in Italian expecting a conversation…

Oh it’s happened! I’ve got a set group of things I can say to counteract most comments! [Speaks some very fast Italian while wildly gesticulating… Her.ie is convinced anyway].

 

Work on the Gaelige before June will you? 

I will, I promise.

 

Josh Groban plays The O2, Dublin, on June 23^rd  Check out his Top 5 Film & TV Appearances here, and his best moments so far right here. We like him, a lot.

Also, his new album 'All That Echoes' is out now, download it here!