Grouplove: Made In Greece

“Grouplove is meant to be. Our story a testament to fate, and our music is something we are ready to share.” –Christian Zucconi

When the members of Indie-Rock band Grouplove met for the first time, they had no idea their fairy tale-like meeting would birth a rock band. It’s the classic tale of Person A meeting Person B and becoming best friends for life. But in this case, it’s between five people and the zinger is that they turn out to make an amazing rock band. The story of Grouplove starring singer-guitarist Christian Zucconi, singer-keyboardist Hannah Hooper, singer-guitarist Andrew Wessen, bassist Sean Gadd and drummer Ryan Rabin story began on an island in Greece called Crete.

“Hannah was in New York painting,” Zucconi explained to Sun Times. “She was visited in Chinatown by a guy who happened to be Andrew’s older brother. He mentioned he was putting together this artists’ residency for the first time with a Greek friend of his. It was very experimental. Would she like to come? We’d just met, and she invited me along. In turn, we met everyone in the band there. Andrew came because his brother was putting it on. The residency ended with a festival, and Sean came because his best friend was playing in it. Ryan was friends with Andrew, and he’d been studying abroad in the Czech Republic. Andrew said, ‘Hey, there’s this weird hippie commune thing, come out before you go home.’ We all just sort of found each other there, literally meeting over a campfire. We would play guitar and pass it around,” he said.

Their time in Greece didn’t end there, it was just the first chapter in this group’s history. Drummer Ryan Rabin added in an interview with BuzzineMusic.com:  “A year later, through staying in touch, everybody came to visit Andrew and I in Los Angeles, and there was no band or talk of a band yet, but they came and I have a little home studio set up, and I said, “Let’s just play some of the music we jammed on in Crete for fun,” and that’s all it was. And one song turned into seven or eight, and that became the EP.”

And that EP drew the group so close together that they decided to become an official band: Grouplove and were signed under Atlantic Records. Zucconi explained to AllThingsGoMusic.com that they came up with the name after, “driving around in my little Toyota Corolla in Brooklyn with the windows down and yelling ‘Group!’ because we hadn’t been together in so long, and it just kind of stuck.”

“And there was lots of love in that group too,” Sean Gadd added.

With their love and group connection intact, Grouplove produces music that makes a “big racket,” as the Sun Times describes. “But one that’s artfully arranged. Their melodies grind with grit and still manage to bounce. Lovers of new wave dance-rock and ’60s psychedelics alike find plenty to embrace in their Arcade Fire-meets-Poi Dog Pondering formulas.”

They released their first studio album, “Never Trust A Happy Song” in late 2011 that included singles like “Tongue Tied” and “Colours.” With their unique sound, it would seem like mixing three different cultures together would create a creative problem amongst the group. However, singer/guitarist Wessen explained that slapping the New York, LA, and London cultures together only adds to their creativity.

“I think we tried to capture those differences as best we could in our recordings and our eclectic styles of having everyone singing, and everyone has their own songs in the band, everyone writes,” he told BuzzineMmusic.com.

Now, with their connection, sound and first album all intact, Grouplove will be hitting the road this summer to headline their own “Nerve Trust A Happy Song” tour this April. where fans can expect “a Grouplove live show [to be] very cathartic, passionate and alive,”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Zuconni explained to AllThingsGoMusic.com.

Looking back on the band’s journey over the last few years, bassist Sean Gadd reminisced: “We never set out to be a band. We just wanted to hang out and play music because it was such a natural thing. And somehow we got lucky and we’re doing it now, and it’s amazing that we’re still hanging out and continuing what we started.”

-Alexandria Richard