Music interview: Steve Grozier

12 December 2016

A male musician with short dark hair playing an acoustic guitar on stage, singing into a microphone with closed eyes. The background features blurred musical instruments.

Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with Glasgow artist Steve Grozier to find out more…

How did you first get into music?
Well, I wasn’t the most confident kid, so playing open mics was kinda out of the question. I used to just sit in my room and write these little sad songs over three chords (somethings don’t change). Finally, once my brother was old enough to learn a little guitar we’d go out to local open mics together and play a few of our songs, badly. I became pretty disillusioned with the whole scene after a few years and retreated to playing at home.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
My dad had a lot of vinyl and cassette tapes, for playing in the car. So, I’d get to hear Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Band, Rory Gallagher, The Police, The Faces, The Rolling Stones…

Now, I’m influenced by a lot of different music, but the genre I listen to most is the one I work in; Americana or alt-country as it used to be called. People like Ryan Adams, Jason Isbell, Sturgil Simpson, Cale Tyson etc.

How would you describe your sound?
That’s the journalist’s job.

What’s your local music scene like?
Wonderful. Productive. Energetic. Not into home-grown country music, but will happily go see American artists in the same genre. Weird.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months? Any albums or festivals?
Two more EPs planned for 2017. A number of festival appearances, probably. And hopefully a UK tour. Nothing concrete yet. I have a show at King Tut’s in Glasgow on Monday 12th December.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
There’s a lot of people. If I had to choose one. I’d go to Pax-Am in LA and work with Ryan Adams. I can meet his cats and he can teach me to play pinball cause I suck.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
They’re all pretty serious affairs given the context of the songs, sad. I do have an excellent cat joke that I tell on stage. Want to hear it? What do you call a large pile of cats? A Meowntain.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
I love cats.

You can find out more about Steve via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify or YouTube.