Interview: Maddy & the Groove Spots release debut

(a portion of this piece was published by Planet JH Weekly)There’s an undercurrent of burgeoning young music talent in Jackson Hole that’s not only making a presence on stage, but in the studio. Formed less than a year ago, Maddy and The Groove Spots is releasing a two-song debut EP this week and celebrating in Teton Village.Fronted by singer-songwriter/keyboardist Madelaine German, the G-Spots consist of bassist Leif Routman alongside former Elk Attack members in guitarist Dusty Nichols and drummer John Wayne Harris, Jr. Backed by a successfulfan-funded Kickstarter campaign, the quartet tracked at Henhouse Studio in Victor and brought along a videographer to capture it. Arranged by Routman, produced by Nichols, and written by German, the self-titled release came to fruition with a distinct vibe of contemporary jazz-pop and lounge funk that bubbles just beneath the surface.German is the daughter of a music teacher, studying voice and piano in a classical and musical theater context throughout college before heading to L.A. to study film score composition (more about that in the Q&A below).Pop-hooked lead track, “Afraid,” kicks-off the nine-minute set with playful riff interplay, noteworthy drumming, and lyrical juxtapositions: “Canyons make best for rivers to flow, but its seems more often than does not, that from freedom my heart remains caught/But I don’t want this story repeated, want a world that really meets my needs, I want it all, I want it all to be true and free.”Nichols is cut loose for a soaring guitar solo to close “Undone,” a slow-burn track that hovers with a tight, yet airy bass and drum groove that leaves room for a jingly piano solo. Once upon a time, a release of this proportion would have been called a single (with a B-side) or a double-single, and that tag would work well for the G-Spots as these two tracks come across as a matched pair. The release is available as a stream/download in multiple formats for “name your price,” via MaddyAndTheGSpots.BandCamp.com. Maddy and The Groove Spots EP Release, 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Mangy Moose in Teton Village. $5. MangyMoose.com.

Interview with Madelaine German

Aaron Davis: What artists/bands have influenced the vein of songwriting that you write for the Groove Spots?Madelaine (Maddy) German: As a kid, I grew up in the world of classical music and music theater. My parents were religious and had pretty conservative musical taste, and so for better or worse, there wasn't really rock or folk music records sitting around my house at all. When I was young, I was listening to and performing songs by guys like Sondheim, Gershwin, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bernstein, Kurt Weill, and of course church music. The one exception is the Beatles – my mother loved the Beatles, and so they were the one “pop” music group that we had playing at home when I was a kid.As an adolescent, I got really into Bach, Debussy, Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, John Williams and the Spice Girls. I LOVED the Spice Girls. I was actually homeschooled during this early period of life, so I was immersed in this music, all day, every day. It wasn't until I went to a public school my freshman year of high school that I was really exposed to mainstream music. I dove into Alanis Morisette, Jewel, Fiona Apple, Ani DiFranco, The Cranberries, Dixie Chicks, Ace of Base. In college, I finally found rock through a love affair with Zeppelin and it was just a year and a half ago that I found jazz, soul and funk—a discovery which essentially brought me back to music after about 5 years away.It's been an interesting journey through many different faces and styles of music, and I feel like I've seen my craft through a lot of different lenses, which puts me at an interesting vantage point, to definite advantage and some woes. Since I started writing music about a year ago, I've had jazz pretty heavy on the playlist. Been studying Miles and Coltrane. Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Art Tatum, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Gretchen Parlatto, Joni Mitchell, North African guitarist Bombino, Shanya Steele, and I can't help but to put down serious Snarky Puppy rotation. Love those guys, so happy to see them take home a Grammy.AD: Coming from a classical background, what do you utilize most from that education? What is the biggest difference or challenge for you as a writer/musician in playing Groove Spots music versus playing classical?MG: Growing up playing classical piano music and singing with orchestras gave me a great ear for harmonic movement and structure, a skill which plays well into composition of both my singer-songwriter songs and also my musical scores for film. It also gave me a solid sense of musical form, highly-developed musicality and solid stage experience --- when performing any kind of classical music, people are silent and watching your performance with the microscope on you. There's no room for messy bar room flubs made over a noisy audience, you know? I grew up in a world where musical perfection was demanded, and that shaped my relationship with both music practice and performance.The downside of growing up in this isolated world of classical music, however, is that I never learned anything about how to play improvised music. I read from a page, learned how to play with solid technique, but never explored my own musical voice. This is debilitating as a creative individual, and it's a lot of the reason I walked away from music after music college. When my now-bandmember Leif Routman introduced me to jazz about a year and a half ago, my heart lit on fire with a new vision of how to make music, through my own musical lines.The biggest challenge I now face is that I'm picking up the studying of improvised style so late in life --- and it's a difficult task. Jazz is like the quantum physics of music theory, the learning never stops. I also constantly deal with the challenge of learning how to live in a musical pocket. Classical music tends to be very rhythmically straight-ahead, and funk is most definitely not. I'm re-training my ear, and it's hard work.AD: Along with the two original songs on your release, what encompasses the rest of your repertoire?MG: It's hard to label my composition style. You can hear the influence of my varied background in a lot of my songs, but in general, they share these common traits: they are lyrically driven, with the words being just as important as the music in almost every case. You'll hear a lot of my musical theater background in my melodic lines, and my compositions tend to enjoy denser, jazz-based harmonies, and I love to use alternative time signatures and rhythmic patterns.I've been listening to a lot of folk music lately, trying to branch out my style to more of a storytelling one, but to date, all of my songs have come out of my as personal expressions of who I am in a particular moment --- a kind of healing self-therapy. They tend to come out all at once, at the kitchen table, or climbing the Middle Teton, they just pop into my head, and as soon as I get them out and onto paper, I feel this sense of delirious peace. It's addictive, really. The musical aspect of my songs ranges in style influence from Victorian Burlesque and Beethoven sonata to rocker chick meets '60's funk. Whatever works, works. I try to let the music out however it wants to come!AD: There’s been rise in women performers in Jackson in recent years. What do you think accounts for this and what does it mean for our local scene?MG: I think this pattern probably reflects our changing global landscape. Women are rising in positions of visibility and influence around the world. As technology, accessible education and a changing public perception of gender roles in our modern culture continues this trend, I think it will bring more balance to our shared existence in Jackson and beyond. Yin and yang, female and male, winter and summer, it's all about balance. I think more female performers in this historically male-dominated town will make our Jackson music scene a more powerfully positive place (as equality always does), more reflective of the way the world really works, in fluid diversity, with many voices singing at once to creating a greater harmony in the whole.