Just one day after the release of his twelfth album House of Groove, we sat down with saxophonist Euge Groove (a.k.a. Steve Grove) to reflect on the new project. He offered insight into to the makings of a number one CD, as well as some exciting tour news and how he spends his spare time. It was a fun time as we shared some laughs together in the morning hours.

Smoothviews (SV):  Congratulations on the new release of House of Groove yesterday after eight months of planning.  How did your day go for you?
Euge Groove (EG): You know, it’s really odd, I think I was more nervous and excited yesterday than about a new album coming out in a long time, or may be the first one. It was very odd. I actually couldn’t sleep Monday night. Usually I’m not too stressed about things, it was in anticipation and that is unusual for me which is good. So that was good for me. I like being excited about things.

SV: Sort of like Christmas Eve?
EG: Yeah.

SV: How does it feel to put so much time and effort into a project? I know you worked on that for a long time having it all to yourself and then having the whole world hear it the next day? How does that feel?
EG: (laughing) You know it can be nerve wracking for sure. It’s a long process. Each album I do I think I kind of bite off a bigger chunk of it, and take on kind of a bigger responsibility of it. I like doing that. The way technology is now, there are things that I used to have to go outside to do that I can now do myself. Each album, I think I put a little bit more of myself into it. It definitely makes for a different feeling.

SV: I can tell that by just the numbering and the lettering of the last two albums.
EG: (laughing) To say that I’m anal would be an understatement, I think. I kind of go into these things one hundred percent. I kind of disengage from the rest of life while I’m making these things. I look at every angle and take care of every detail, and become very detail orientated. It’s fun to be able instead of naming the songs or tracks, name them rooms in the house. During that process of writing I keep thinking what is the House of Groove ? It helped the whole way along. You know I named this album very early on and it’s usually up to a deadline trying to name an album. “You have to have the name of the album!” OK, OK, OK…I’ll tell you now. I kind of knew the name of the album very early on. It helps.

SV: It sort of connects you with the whole project and gives theme and balance to everything doesn’t it?
EG: Yeah, it definitely makes for a theme and it just glues everything together. It’s kind of like the Just Feels Right album. I knew I was going to do something with music based on the mid seventies. It really makes the mind become very open and creative. It conjures up a lot of images than when I go into things more scattered. That’s what’s kind of hard about starting an album. I don’t know where it’s going to go or necessarily what I’m going for. But once that first song or one or two songs are written, it takes on its own personality. The first song I wrote for this album was the title cut, “House of Groove.” It was a big relief to have heard that song and got that song done. It was kind of funky and jazzy and there were different themes to it. It was kind of a party in to itself. It just helped me write the rest of the album.

 SV: How has the reception been on the first cut so far?
EG: I guess good. I hear in my suggestion box (better known as Facebook). I really think that people are taking to it. I don’t know if you have seen the little video I have put together for it. That was a lot of fun with the theme of I had never done something like for one of my songs before. It was really fun doing that. I think people are taking to it. Last weekend we played in Birmingham, and I got to play the new material for the first time. It was probably the most fun I’ve had playing new material than I can remember. I usually takes a while to figure it out and work it into the set and where it’s going to fit. We played the new material and saw how “House of Groove” had heads bobbing, which is a huge relief. I’m always nervous about that. If I can see the heads bobbing in the audience, I know they’re feeling the groove.

SV: That’s great. The first cut is called “Knock! Knock! Who’s There?” It gets its roots from Italy as we talked about earlier. Tell us a little bit about that one.
EG: Yeah, we were hinting on Shakespeare a little bit. It was a Shakespeare thing that started all those knock knock jokes. I kind of had a tradition of going back to my first album, that the first cut be “Romeo and Juliet.” I had written that song in Verona, Italy which was the home of Romeo and Juliet. So a traditional superstitious thing I guess. I always like to start the album with one of those romantic soprano ballads. I generally write the songs in order and this was completely out of order, one of the last songs I wrote. I think I had most of the album down in order and didn’t feel like I had a song that would be an opening cut for the album. So I sat down and went through some different cords and feeling the right kind of color. That’s how that song came about.

SV: One of my favorites has to be “God Bless You.” I like how it moves, then you get used to that groove throughout and get familiar with it, then you come back in and “boom” with the vocals. You say, oh my gosh, there’s words to this melody that’s playing in my head. I can’t get it out of my head.
EG: You know you mentioned it has that droning kind of groove that just kind of keeps plunging forward, and plunges forward. There were a couple different directions I could take this in. I had the chords, I had the melody in my head the entire time from the moment I wrote that song. The part where “God Bless You” comes in, was always going through my head every time I would play it on the sax or what ever I could hear those words and I knew that’s what I wanted it . In the demo I put in a guitar solo, a nylon guitar solo, like Peter White or some one. You know I’m going to try putting some words to this. I finished out the words. Some very simple lyrics and straight to the point. Then I sought out a singer that used to sing in a church that I went to years and years ago. I remembered this great voice she had with almost a country tinge to it a little bit. So I got in touch with her and we found each other. She was down in Texas (so Facebook again, the poser of Facebook) I reached out to her and got her to record it. You know it had that little country tinge to it. So we were laying down the guitars so I had them to sort of emulate the pedal steel guitar a little bit. So it’s kind of a different one for me.

SV: I like it a lot. You’ll be out by yourself somewhere and that tune comes back to you. It’s there for a reason. I just keep hearing those notes coming back to me.
EG: Good. It’s a simple message. It really is a simple message. I think if we all kind of live life by that message we’ll be much happier.

SV: I agree one hundred percent. My absolute favorite has to be “Never Met A Woman.” That song is very infectious. Tell us about your song with Jeffery Osborne.
EG: It’s kind of an interesting story with him. I ran into him at Lake Taho last November. They have a holiday concert series they do every year. He was leaving the venue as I was arriving. We hadn’t seen each other in a while. He gets requests to do the song that we did back on my Born To Groove album. He said, “We should do another one.”  I went “OK, if Jeffery Osborne is inviting me to do another song, I’m going to do it.” So I got home from that weekend and immediately went to my computer and keyboard, and I sat down and wrote the groove and cords and arrangement to that song. I sent it to Jeffery, he was probably like, “this guy took me seriously.” He was cool. He was the total professional. He did it then. He put the words and melody to it. It’s definitely a lot of fun.

SV: That’s a great track, and I’m looking forward to hearing it live with somebody out on the road someday.
EG: Well hopefully I’ll get on some shows that he’s around and we can do it together.

SV: That would be great. Another fun one is “Old EDU (Old School).” Tell us a little bit about that cut.
EG: “Old.edu” I hadn’t done a song in that I always think of old school and that kind of groove. That four on the floor where the kick thumb is hitting and the dance thing. I haven’t done one of those before. I thought I would give it a shot this time. Again while I was writing this syncopated background sax the whole way through it. So that’s how it came out. I couldn’t just call it “Old School.” I had to make up a name for it. So I did the new technology way of calling it old school.

SV: I like how you did that. Do you have a favorite on there yet? 
EG: You know, the most fun I’ve had playing a song has been “Faithful Central.” That is a blast to play. The key of it just flows out of the sax for me. That’s really been a lot of fun to play that.

SV:  So you have been able to add some of these to your show?
EG: Yeah, this last weekend we added some new music that was a lot of fun to play.

SV: Your shows come across so fun anyway, you have the dance contest and so much more. So I’m sure this is only going to add to the fun of the live shows.
EG: It’s a kind of a blessing and a curse over the years because I have a lot of songs that are recognizable, so when it comes to doing a new album what do you pull out? Instead of thinking radio because the radio format is so different, it isn’t reaching the people the way it used to so there’s no such thing as singles any more. I went through and picked songs that were fun to play. Things I can get the audience involved with and be a little more diversed and trying to stick in that niche that this song was popular on radio so I should play that. Again I really think that’s helped this time.

SV: That sounds like a fun show. Tell us a little bit about some of the tours you have coming up.
EG: Oh my. We’re making a run through Florida again. Jacksonville and Orlando is coming up in November. Art Good’s Jazz Tracks, I didn’t do that last year, so it’s good to be back after a break and get in there with new material in the middle of October. A great venue up in Sacramento in Folsom, at Folsom College, a beautiful, beautiful concert venue. It will be my first time playing in there. I’m really excited about going there and stretching out and being able to take advantage of their big concert grand piano and do some things in there I wouldn’t normally do. That’s fun for me. I’m really looking forward to that. I’m going to the UK It’s almost a two week trip this time starting at the end of November. Then closing out the year I have a couple of really fun gigs coming up with what we have dubbed The Three Tenors. It will be the three saxophone tenors. Myself, Richard Elliot, and Gerald Albright. We’re doing a show in Phoenix, sort of a pre-new year’s show, the Saturday before New Year’s. Then down to Austin Texas for another show with them.

SV: There’s a lot of great fans down that way. Do you think there would ever be a recording coming from that, maybe after the first of the year?
EG: You know, I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. Reading it on paper and talking about it really sounds like a lot of fun, so hopefully that will translate on stage for us and we will want to continue that. I know we have a couple of dates booked early next year. Then for the summer we’re all off doing other projects. You know I think it will be really fun.

SV: Those are two really good guys, you’ll enjoy your time with them, I’m sure.
EG: Yeah, you know when you play with great players like that it really makes me want to play better. I can’t get sloppy with my playing. They will look at me funny.

SV: Well I’ve heard you on the Internet radio quiet a bit as of late. Tell us how that all came about and how it’s going for you.
EG: You mean my side gig?? Yeah, that’s been fun. That was something that station is programmed by Jimmy King who I’m actually going to do the UK dates with. He’s from London and put together those gigs as well. I put together my first one on there last year. I mentioned that I would get out and run. I’m a street runner and I put on his station and listen to it and I was really liking it. He goes “you like it, you want to guest DJ?” I’m like, “OK.” I kind of gave it a shot, and he’s like, “you want to do it every week?” I said, “all right.” It’s really become fun and I know a little bit more about what I’m doing and that makes things a little easier. I’m just having fun with it. It’s really a great way to reach out to the listeners and have a more personal experience with them. I’ve really enjoyed it.

SV: I’m glad. It seems like everybody has received it well and you’ve got a lot of good feedback on it from what I have seen on Facebook.
EG: Yeah, the fans of this genre in general are just really passionate. Terrestrial radio has all but completely disappeared the fans didn’t go anywhere. They still like the music. They’re just finding different ways to take you in now, be it Sirius XM or other Internet stations. Now that you can hear any Internet station on your smart phone, you can plop that in your car and listen to it, or like I do running or exercising or what ever and listen to it. The sound quality is better than radio ever was. There’s no commercials, so it’s a win-win all the way around.

SV: It sounds like fun. You’re on the cutting edge of technology as always. What’s new in technology that you want to share with us?
EG: I love technology. I’m a techno Geek. On the recording front there’s always something new like new software, the computers get more powerful so the bit resolution gets up higher and stuff. I love all that kind of stuff. As far as the delivery of music, I think the quality keeps getting better. ITunes is changing the way that they are compressing their music to deliver it. I downloaded the new album yesterday. I download them to make sure there’s no glitches or anything in there. You never know. It actually sounded as close to the CD that I’ve ever heard. ITunes, I definitely think they’ve kicked their things up. That’s exciting. I’m still dealing with the company Beams Interactive which is software that you control through a laser beam controller. It’s kind of an exciting thing I’m doing through them this fall is they are having a contest to see who does the best news performance. Entries are through the Youtube link. You record yourself playing one of the songs and I could do one of my songs like “Chillaxin’” or whatever. The winner gets five thousand bucks. So that’s pretty exciting. It’s great new technology and it makes it so that people can interact with the music more. Not just be happy listening to it but interact and control how things are playing.

SV: Speaking of fun things, what are you doing when you’re not recording or on tour and just having fun out there in California?
EG: (laughing) You know, I kind of rejuvenate, get my Vitamin B, I like to go out in the sun a little bit and put on the headphones and listen to music. I love to cook. I’ve gotten in to making pizzas. That’s a big passion now making those from scratch. That’s really a lot of fun for me. I fire them up on a Sunday or something. I can make as many as a dozen pizzas for people so that’s been a lot of fun.

SV: As we close today, is there anything you’d like to tell your fans?
EG: Thanks for sticking around. (laughing) It’s been quiet interesting with eight albums over the past twelve years. I feel like the fan base keeps growing and considering what’s going on in this crazy world in the music business and stuff, that’s exciting.

SV: It really is. It looks like your fan base continues to grow as I see them at concerts and what we see on Facebook and record sales as well. We hope that everything goes well with the new album and wish you much success on this one.
EG: Thank you, I’ll know next Wednesday. I’ll see the sales results next Wednesday.

SV: Well hopefully it will premiere at number one and be a “Grand Slam” for you!
EG: That would be nice.You know I’ve been on both ends where it debuts high or debuts low what really comes out is the end result. I just hope people like it.

 

* as a side note, the new album premiered at number one and has held that position as of this writing.