Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I was born and raised in New York City and relocated to South Florida in my teens. I grew up, for the most part, in the 1980’s, in the heydey of hip hop. I loved the vibe of early rap and the sounds of the old school drum machines. I discovered heavy metal and, later, progressive rock, which always gets me in the mood to make music. I never intended for this project to become a career, but I reached a point in adulthood where I was able to build a studio in my home and move beyond just jamming on synths to digital recording. If I profit financially from my music, that’s a bonus. The biggest profit is in the feedback from listeners, the excitement they share of waiting for a new release or stories of how certain songs accompany them on their daily activities.
But at the same time, I listened heavily to Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden – the bands that defined the sound of early heavy metal. Players like Jon Lord were my first introduction to keyboards as a hard rock instrument. I started playing keyboards as I approached my teen years, but didn’t take it very seriously. I was content for a long time just learning Pink Floyd parts note by note, rewinding the cassette over and over again. I discovered Rush (still my favorite to this day) when I was 16, which led to further exploration of progressive music. Bands such as Genesis and Yes introduced me to shifting time signatures and virtusic playing like that of Tony Banks and Rick Wakeman. I left hip hop behind as I grew later into my teen years, finding acts like Primus and Tool to broaden my horizons. I developed quite an affinity for rhythm sections. Despite being a keyboardist, I would zone out on Jones and Bonham, Lee and Peart, Claypool and Alexander. Programming rhythm parts is probably my favorite part of the creative process.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: I listen to a lot of progressive rock – Porcupine Tree is a favorite (and PT drummer Gavin Harrison’s other band The Pineapple Thief). Some days you’ll find me cranking Opeth or Animals as Leaders, and others I go back to my first love of prog – Rush, who I was fortunate enough to be introduced to about 35 years ago. Releasing my music has introduced me to other independent artists with whom I’ve established friendships and great respect for genres I never explored.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘The Jupiter Experiment’?
A: Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath were favorites when I was still of single digit age. I had the glow-in-the-dark velvet Number of the Beast poster over my bed and I was sent home from elementary school for wearing a graphic t-shirt with Sabbath’s Mob Rules album art on it. When I discovered Rush in 1989 (yes, I remember where I was and what song it was!), I realized that lyrics didn’t have to be cheesy poems professing love for underaged girls (every hair band), and that led to a greater appreciation of bands like Genesis, Tull, and Yes. Of course, those bands gave me a love for shifting time signatures and complex rhythms, and their early releases woke me up to the sound of analog synthesizers.
I am a science buff, constantly intrigued by subject matter I don’t understand…I try, though! I like to dive into deep topics, listening to lectures from brilliant minds such as Sam Harris, and Professors Brian Cox and Brian Greene. I am fascinated by the cosmos and have a love for the biggest planet in our solar system – Jupiter! Perhaps coincidentally, I live in a town called Jupiter, and the name just sounded “spacey,” so I ran with it. Besides, it sounds better than “Todd Grossman Music.”
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Homesick’. Is there a story behind it?
A: I have listened to many lectures from the late Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh. I find him really quite interesting and would love to be so accepting and tolerant as he was of the stresses of everyday life. I came across the particular lecture that is featured in Homesick and, since he refers to space and the astronauts of Apollo and the beauty of living on this planet that we take for granted, I thought it fit my theme perfectly.
I had envisioned a concept of a lone astronaut who had volunteered to be the first to travel to Jupiter’s orbit, adding a story to the name The Jupiter Experiment. (Notice all of my song art featured my astronaut “mascot.”) The song title Twelve Years actually refers to how many Earth years are equivalent to just one on the gas giant, and Broken tells the story of how our astronaut finally made the 6 year, 500,000,000 mile journey, but at the expense of his sanity, enduring extreme isolation and abandoning all he knew just to be the first at something. Homesick was a sort of continuation of that story. Using Hanh’s spoken word, I was feeling the character’s intense need to return home, which gave birth to the title, Homesick. I wanted the melody to be a little haunting.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: As a small, independent artist, I’m going to keep cranking out singles. I release them as I finish them because I can’t wait to share them with everyone. I have about 25+ “almost” finished tracks. As my following grows, I will start holding out and releasing albums instead of single tracks. And I would love to add keys to other musicians’ projects, so collaborating in this digital environment would be a lot of fun.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: I hope that my music may be interesting and appealing to fans of different genres. I am not a good lyric writer, and my singing is even worse than that, so I will be sticking with the instrumental format. I rarely, if ever, think about format e.g. intro, verse, chorus, etc. I just make music that I think sounds good and hope others will like. I love the sounds of synthesizer filters and envelopes changing shapes and the landscape of the music. The stranger the sound, the more I want to find it a home in a track. And there’s something about a pedal tone (when the bass note stays constant while the chords and melody shift) I find irresistible. I honestly don’t know how to describe or accurately categorize my music.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: 100%. I’m old enough to have had a fulfilling career and I have a beautiful wife and son – the pinnacle of success in my opinion. To even have just one person that wants to hear what’s coming next is worth all the effort. I have no expectations and I’m floored that I have the small following that I do. If it grows, that would be simply amazing. But if it doesn’t, then I’ll keep making music for those that stick around.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I tend to start with unique synth sounds and crafting a melody. Almost always, the drums/groove follows. I’ll make some unique sounds (I don’t want to repeat sounds from song to song) that fill the voids and catch the listener’s attention, and I hope that they will hear new things the tenth and twentieth time they listen! Then it’s a matter of putting it away for a few days and coming back to it. Like every artist, I will either love it or wonder what the hell I was thinking in the first place.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: Like very human, I’ve had to endure personal tragedies of varying size and shape. I broke my neck at C1-C2 in my late 20’s and spent several months in a cervical halo after surgical repair. That was tough enough, but the years that immediately followed really brought on the physical pain. That was about the time I met my (now) wife, so I could say it balanced out. She tolerated a lot of mood swings and irritable behavior as I navigated through my new normal. But, you can either waste away in misery or move on, and I chose the latter. We’ve been together 21 years, married for 18, and have an amazing son who is turning 15 and can hold his own on the drums. My music career is essentially just beginning, and I’m quite pleased that I have even just one fan.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: I guess I could turn the previous experience into a win. I managed to get back to work and finish out my career with a pretty young retirement, allowing me to spend more time focusing on music and tinkering with cars. And I think any parent feels their greatest accomplishment is their child(ren), and I’m no exception. My wife and I have raised a sweet, empathetic, hilarious young man that has an amazing future ahead. Watching him grow and learn through life is like reading the greatest book or watching a fantastic film, except I’m in no rush to see how it concludes – I just want to enjoy the chapters.
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