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Smooth McGroove

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Smooth McGroove
Personal information
Born
Max Gleason

(1984-12-05) December 5, 1984 (age 39)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Occupations
  • YouTuber
  • Singer
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2012–2019, 2021, 2023–present
Genre(s)Music, a cappella
Subscribers2.7 million[1]
Total views635,9 million[1]
Last updated: February 13, 2024

Max Gleason, better known by his stage name, Smooth McGroove, is an American YouTuber known for recording re-arranged a cappella versions of video game music.[2][3][4] He typically appears in his videos in a Hollywood Squares-like split-screen featuring multiple versions of himself singing and beatboxing all the parts simultaneously, often complemented by a video of the relevant game being played.

Career

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Gleason's musical career began when he was eleven years old and began playing the drums. He eventually started teaching private music lessons to support himself.[2] In college, Gleason began recording some MIDI tracks and posting them on MySpace, but never got much recognition for them. Later, he and some friends of his started a rock band, and in addition to being the drummer, he was responsible for the audio mixing. The band fell apart, and a few years later, Gleason decided to do more music. He began rapping about video games, and he gradually moved to a cappella music.[4]

Gleason has recorded music from many popular video game series, including The Legend of Zelda,[5] Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy,[6] Mega Man,[7] Undertale and Street Fighter.[8] Gleason's videos have garnered millions of views, and he eventually left his job giving private music lessons to focus fully on his a cappella videos.[9] When asked about working with more modern tracks, he sided against it, stating that "music for video games today serve a more atmospheric role with less of a focus on memorable melodies". He noted that the Elder Scrolls series was an exception.[10]

A Starbound patch known as "v. Enraged Koala" released in early 2014 added a microphone feature including sounds by Gleason.[11][12]

In 2014, Gleason provided narration for an episode of the video game webseries Did You Know Gaming? covering the F-Zero series.[13]

Gleason's cover of the "Gardens" theme from the 2008 video game LittleBigPlanet was included in the 2014 sequel LittleBigPlanet 3 under the title "Secret Gardens".[14]

Across 2019 and 2020, Gleason was dealing with personal medical problems and had shut down his Patreon and produced no content, but returned to production of his a cappella covers in March 2021.[15]

Personal life

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Gleason was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was raised in Yukon, Oklahoma. As of 2013, he lived in Oklahoma City with his cat, Charl.[2][3][4] Charl is a black cat who has made numerous appearances in Gleason's videos.

References

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  1. ^ a b "About @SmoothMcGroove". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b c Grubb, Jeffrey (May 18, 2013). "How Smooth McGroove quit his day job to record acapella versions of classic gaming tunes (interview)". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Fenn, Mike (May 3, 2013). "Smooth McGroove: How a bearded gamer became YouTube's next big star". Daily Dot. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c Smooth McGroove (September 30, 2013). "Interview: Smooth McGroove on Becoming YouTube Famous". CraveOnline (Interview). Interviewed by Paul Tamburro. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  5. ^ Ponce, Tony (March 3, 2013). "Bearded dude performs amazing Zelda a cappellas". Destructoid. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  6. ^ Futter, Mike (October 21, 2013). "Smooth McGroove Leads Us To Final Fantasy VII Victory". Game Informer. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  7. ^ Vas, Gergo (May 4, 2013). "Mega Man X's Spark Mandrill Theme, In An Amazing A Capella". Kotaku. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  8. ^ Helgeson, Matt (June 19, 2014). "Smooth McGroove Tackles Street Fighter". Game Informer. Archived from the original on June 21, 2014. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  9. ^ Cornell, David (May 18, 2013). "YouTube User Smooth McGroove Talks Quitting His Day Job". The Inquisitr. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  10. ^ Hilliard, Kyle (September 9, 2013). "How Smooth Got His McGroove – The Introverted Acapella YouTube Artist". Game Informer. Archived from the original on September 12, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
  11. ^ Savage, Phil (February 19, 2014). "Starbound patch prepares for daily content updates, adds Smooth McGroove". Future Publishing, Ltd. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  12. ^ Hillier, Brenna (February 19, 2014). "Starbound updated, one more universe wipe expected". vg247. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  13. ^ Did You Know Gaming? (February 22, 2014). "F-Zero - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Smooth McGroove". Normal Boots. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  14. ^ Isbell, Steven (January 13, 2015). "LittleBigPlanet 3 Sackboy meets the Big Hero 6". PlayStation Blog.
  15. ^ Grey, Kate (March 24, 2021). "Random: Smooth McGroove Updates Fans On Where He's Been For Almost Two Years". Nintendo Life. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
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