Last week I had the priviledge of speking with a rising pop-rock-indie-folk star, Cady Groves. Her latest EP, The Life Of a Pirate, gives us an eight track glimpse of a young songwriter with a fantastic voice and a knack for catchy hooks. She will soon be making her major label debut, and has been doing music for only about a year now! Check her music out at www.myspace.com/cadygroves and vote for her to be "best new indie artist" at http://www.musiqtone.com/.
Mousertime: Cliche question to start it off... How is the tour going so far?
Cady Groves: This tour is way different than my first tour. My first tour was Bamboozle, that was insane. I think I got spoiled because it was amazing, ridiculous. I became best friends with all of these bands that I was obsessed with as a kid.
Mousertime: Like Good Charlotte?
Cady Groves: They are like my best friends now. Benji and I text a lot. He is really inspiring. I don't know if a lot of people understand him when they first meet him, but he is like the coolest, deepest person that I have ever met. Everyone on the tour was amazing, I get all choked up when I think about it. But this tour is really cool because it feel like these are all my friends, that are kind of doing exactly what I am doing right now. So, it is cool to build with them and it is smaller and more intimate. Its really cool.
Mousertime: Your voice is so unique and I was trying to describe it to one of my friends and I came up with this: If Miranda Lambert and Christofer Drew(Never Shout Never) had a voice baby, it would sound like you.
Cady Groves: I always say if Taylor Swift, Hayley from Paramore, Miranda Lambert and Cristofer Drew had a less talented baby, that would be me. So maybe we should be friends now?
Mousertime: No way! Changing gears a little bit, how do you normally write a song? What is the process like for you?
Cady Groves: Up until now I would write songs without any instrument. Like in the van last night I wrote two songs, because we had a four hour drive, I was really bored and everone fell asleep.I write them melody and lyrics first. I have like a million songs in my head, melody wise. So when I go to writing sessions now with big producers, they are like "Do you have a melody?" and I will sing them an entire song just out of remembering it. They are like "How do you..what? OK." I didn't know that I wrote in a weird way, so now I am writing with guitars and stuff.
Mousertime: Are you getting into co-writing yet? Is it pretty much you?
Cady Groves: Yeah. What is cool about RCA is they gave me a lot of control over every little thing. I get to write all of my own lyrics, I get to do all sorts of stuff.
Mousertime: I was going to ask you about them actually. How long ago did you sing with RCA?
Cady Groves: Right, before Bamboozle. I signed my contract with them in my living room, the day before I left to go on tour. I was so excited and I don't know how it got out either. I was literally signing my signature, on the couch, by myself with my puppy and all these sites said "Cady Groves just inked with..." I was like "How do you? What..?" I still had the pen in my hand!
Mousertime: That's why you have to check the bushes. So what attracted you to them exactly?
Cady Groves: It was so apparent that I needed to sign with them. There were a lot of labels that were fighting over the project, which was really scary. I had just started music eight months ago and I all just came so fast. At first, I posted one song on Myspace and then it blew up. Then management started calling me and annoying me. I just didn't what to do, I was like "Ahhh", I didn't even know I could sing. I wanted someone else to sing my song and then they backed out, so I sang it and put it on MySpace.
Mousertime: So where did you get the idea to write a song and then just put it up?
Cady Groves: Something had to give. I didn't have anywhere to live for like five years and I was just in my car hanging out, delivering pizza in Vegas. I was like I just gotta do something cool. Also, I sing constantly. All the bands here and really anyone who meets me and is around me for half a day, is like "you sing constantly." I never really stop. I really like writing, and that was my thing. It all unfolded really randomly. When people ask me "describe in one what happened" and I'm like "Huh?"(laughs)
Mousertime: What about the inspiration your first EP, "A Month of Sundays"?
Cady Groves: I randomly wound up going to college for a year at this place called SouthWestern University and I met this guy Evan, who was like the funniest person I ever met. He happened to play guitar, so I was like "Dude, I Love writing lyrics and stuff." So he forced me to sing, and everyone in their house was like "you can sing, you have to do it!" So everyday after classes for four hours a night, we would make up stuff and it was so much fun. I never thought anything would come of it. Then I moved away, because I am crazy and I just left in the middle of the night. So I left and went to Vegas and lived there for a year and then one day I called up Evan and was like "Hey do you still live in Oklahoma" and he was like "Yeah!" So I moved back that night and we wrote the whole EP in one night. I then was like "Let's go record." He knew a guy and it just kind of happened.
Cady Groves: That was actually pre-meditated(Laughs). I actually tried on that one. I made sure that it was right. I can hear how I want my song to sound, before I even make it. I was just so frustrated, because we made it once and then we completely remade it, because it was not anything like I wanted it to sound. So then we did it right, took the time and I am really happy about it now. It was a long road for that one.
Mousertime: So you do a ton of collaborations...
Cady Groves: I know, what is up with that?
Mousertime: Do you have any coming up?
Cady Groves: I can't tell you, but it is a really big one. A really big one. Boom.
Mousertime: Maybe off mic...?
Cady Groves: Maybe(laughs).
Mousertime: How did the whole Breathe Electric re-mix EP come about?
Cady Groves: Well, we talk constantly and he is so cool. He just decided one day that he wanted to re-mix some of my songs. We decided that we were going to make this little side project. He re-mixed them in a couple of days and my label was like, "let's put it out." So they did, and I think it just shows how the music can be different...
Mousertime: You say that you write all of the time, do you have a count on about how many songs you have written?
Cady Groves: Oh my gosh. I was talking to my manager about this today and I think that I have upwards 500 songs on my laptop. That is from the time I started falling in love with music when I was seventeen.
Mousertime: So the whole "live performance" thing is new to you, so who are some people that you look up to in terms of stage presence?
Cady Groves: Well, on the Bamboozle Tour Alex from All Time Low and I hung out a bunch. He is like really good at controlling a crowd. Third Eye Blind, I sang two songs each night with them and he taught me so much. Benji and Joel taught me a lot everyday, even now. If you just follow them on twitter they are so positive. Nothing gets them down. You have to realize that it is your show, and I have realized that I have to have fun out their.
Mousertime: Perfect day, you are driving in your car with the windows down...What are you listening to?
Cady Groves: "Hazy" by Rosi Golan with William Fitzsimmons.
Mousertime: No way. I just saw them in concert and interview William Fitzsimmons!
Cady Groves: No you didn't. Do you tell him that I am in love with him?
Mousertime: I did not, but I will next time I see him.
Cady Groves: Did you see his beard? It is amazing!
Mousertime: It was actually touching me during the interview...(not really).
Cady Groves: (Laughs) Tell him that I want to marry him. If I come up in the conversation...
Mousertime: Most def. So what is next for you after the tour?
Cady Groves: After the tour, finally I get to finish my big RCA album, then comes radio. I am so excited! But it is a lot of work. Out of all of the songs I have, only three are going to be on the album. That's the way I see it in my head at least. It is going to be big, like sounding big. It is going to be organic.
Mousertime: How many songs are you shooting for?
Cady Groves: I want 13, but we will see...
Mousertime: How about 13 with 12 bonus tracks?
Cady Groves: If I could do a 40 song album, I would. But people typically don't want that.
Mousertime: Thank you so much!
Cady Groves: Thank you!
Please check out my music on youtube youtube.com/elisagarcia11
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