Josh Groban‘s new album Harmony, out today, includes his versions of well-known tunes and two original songs. But as Josh tells ABC Audio, it would have been a different album had the COVID-19 pandemic not hit in the middle of the process.
“A song like ‘Impossible Dream,‘ I said, ‘I have to record this again,’ because…I started looking at that lyric and looking at where we are right now, and it became far more meaningful and relevant than I even expected back when I recorded it before all this happened,” Josh explains.
He also included different songs, like “Both Sides Now,” which he sings with Sara Bareilles.
“I didn’t think I had enough life behind me to sing that song,” Josh explains. But he says after he and Sara discussed their experiences this year, “We just kind of said, ‘You know what? It is right, because it’s a song about perspective’…And so the [song selection]…evolved as this all went on.”
And while he and Sara were able to record together, most of the album was done socially-distanced.
“I’m in a vocal booth in L.A., the orchestra’s playing strings in London and my producer is in Nashville,” Josh laughs. “And I’m just thinking, ‘Wow, technology pulls us apart so often…to be able to use it in a way that actually brings together this harmonious feeling was just wonderful."”
Josh is promoting the album with a virtual concert series; the next one’s on November 26.
“You go online and you see the thousands of people from all over the world that tuned in and how much it meant to them,” he marvels. “You don’t get the clap in real time…so it’s different, but in many ways even more powerful for us right now.”
By Andrea Dresdale
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