Recently I managed to catch up with Youtube sensation and video-game a-capella singer Smooth McGroove (Max Gleason) and ask him a few questions. These ranged from the possibility of touring to the evolution of his musical work and favourite games.
Dear Mr Gleason, in your interview with Daily Dot you said, ‘I’d eventually like to make arrangements of an entire game soundtrack’. Have you given much thought to which game you would love to make the soundtrack for?
SMG – Pretty much any game I grew up with, including games like Link to the Past, Mega Man, or Street Fighter.
SMG – That’s probably up to the people that listen to me, because I always pick songs that I want to do regardless of the style. Some people tend to like the more upbeat songs I do, but I also enjoy doing melancholy tracks.
SMG – I do feel that I have a bigger skill-set as a drummer, but I’ve learned recently that the human voice has much more flexibility than I ever thought. If you watch the first few videos on my channel, you’ll see some songs that I played drums, guitar, bass, and wrote lyrics to. I’d like to eventually do more songs like that.
SMG – I like to keep collaboration opportunities open, though I think I work best alone. There are several people I’d like to work with though, so anything’s possible.
SMG – I absolutely never thought this would happen, but I’m very grateful that people have enjoyed my videos as much as they have. It still shocks me when I look at all the people commenting on my YouTube videos. I remember feeling great when I’d get 100 views on my early videos!
SMG – I can’t say that I have an absolute favorite, because I enjoy different types of games for different reasons. For me, though, it’s hard to beat a well-made RPG :]
SMG – I don’t remember much about our Atari besides that fact that my father traded it in for our Sega Master System. Sadly, my mom gave away the Sega when she thought we didn’t play it anymore. I’m still sad about that 🙁 I still have my original SNES, N64, and PS1 though, including almost all the games!
SMG – I still wish Sega would have made it through their hard times and kept making consoles.
SMG – I have thought about doing something different like that, but for now I’m having a great time with video game songs ^.^
SMG – I’ve thought about that quite a bit, actually. I’d have to have pre-recorded video/audio backing tracks and play them on one or more screens while I stand on stage and sing the main track. I don’t have the funds to do that right now, but maybe it’ll happen in the future. It would take a lot of time to set up and perform like that, so I’d probably have to take a break from doing videos if it ever happens.