“It’s always been sort of a rule for us is that we want the writing process and studio process to be spontaneous,” says drummer Ryan Rabin, who has been Grouplove’s in-house producer since their earliest recordings - tracks including their platinum-certified 2011 single “TongueTied,”as well as alternative radio mainstays “Colours” and “Ways To Go.” (As part of production team Captain Cuts, Rabin has also produced and/or written tracks for Tove Lo and JenniferLopez, among others.) “Most of our best stuff has come from letting the song dictate the moment rather than forcing it into some preconceived sonic space,” says Rabin. “Even a song you that think might come outa certain way will be completely reimagined by someone like Andrew or Ryan or Dan, because their tastes and inclinations are so different.” “What influences us the most is each other,” says Zucconi. The band members say they feel most inspired when they’re collaborating on new ideas with a completely open mind. While those core qualities remain, Grouplove continues to mature on Big Mess, which demonstrates their ever sharper instincts as songwriters and their growing ability to make a bright, bold, genre-defying sound that is entirely their own. I've never been apart of an environment where everyone was willing to be so selfless if it made the song better.The lack of pride or ego allows the best ideas to drift to the top, and that's rare, but I think that's what makes the band what it is.” Describing the vibe in the studio during sessions for Big Mess, Gleason says: “It was really open and honest. Though Sean Gadd left Grouplove amicably in 2014, new bassist Daniel Gleasonsays he connected to the familial spirit of the band right away. There has been the tinge of fate to Grouplove since the beginning, when its five original members met at an arts colony on the island of Crete and formed such an immediately comfortable bond - both personally and musically - that they started the band upon their return to LA in 2010. Says Rabin: “I showed them the idea and when we put those two parts together, they fit perfectly, both lyrically and melodically. Months later, on the same day that Hooper went into labor, the joyfully defiant chorus came toRabin in the shower, like a bolt from the blue. Hooper recorded the hook - “we’re back in business, you’re such a big mess, and I love you” - on her laptop, but the rest of the tune took awhile to come into focus. The album’s opening track, “Welcome To Your Life,” was one of close to forty songs that began in that messy moment. “We had so many songs come out of that, and Big Mess is a collection of our favorites.” Instead of trying to deal with the mess, we just started writing,” Hooper explains. Like the true pair of artists they are, Zucconi and Hooper viewed the chaos as an opportunity to be creative. In the midst of it all, Hooper and Grouplove singer/guitarist Christian Zucconi, who have been a couple since the band’s inception, found out they were going to have a baby.
“We were out of touch with friends and family, our house looked like we were hoarders - it was like an explosion of so much at once.”
“We got off tour and realized we had been completely neglecting normal life,” says singer and keyboard player Hannah Hooper. For the first time since releasing their breakthrough 2011 debut, NeverTrust A Happy Song, Grouplove were back in Los Angeles indefinitely, with a lot of catching up to do. In the case of Grouplove’s third studio album, Big Mess refers not only to a lyric in the buoyant lead single “Welcome To Your Life,” but also to the situation in which they found themselves when they got off the road following 2013’s Spreading Rumours. Turns out that a big mess can actually be a good thing.
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