YouTube User Smooth McGroove Talks Quitting His Day Job

YouTube user Smooth McGroove quit his day job to make A Capella video game music videos full-time. He was recently interviewed about the transition to viral sensation.

Smooth McGroove is a long-time gamer whose real name is Max Gleason, and he was once a music teacher. He began on YouTube with only about a few dozen followers until his videos gained thousands of views daily from nostalgic gamers around the world. He is an extremely talented singer who does the same thing that made MysteryGuitarMan famous, except he uses his voice instead of a guitar. That and he has a beard that puts wheezywaiter and shaycarl to shame.

GamesBeat sat down with Max Gleeson to ask him about the transition from music teacher to internet phenomenon. The YouTube star started with, “[My videos have] rapidly become a full-time job. I recently quit giving private music lessons to pursue recording more seriously.”

Not many people can say their hobby has turned into their primary source of income and allowed them to simply give up their day job.

Max Gleason added:

“Since my videos [had] gone from reaching only a few dozen people to reaching an audience of tens of thousands, I wanted to start taking the process more seriously by spending more time on the creation of the videos. I still have tons of fun recording the arrangements, but I have become more of a perfectionist when it comes to the final product.”

As you can see in the video below where he literally sings Street Fighter II‘s “Guile’s Theme,” Smooth McGroove puts no shortage of effort into making his videos as entertaining as possible.

Max Gleeson says his break came when Nintendo took notice of his take on The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time‘s “Song of Storms.” Fans everywhere suddenly swarmed in as the Official Legend of ZeldaFacebook page posted the video for their thousands of fans. His channel went viral overnight.

YouTube user Smooth McGroove describes the process of recording:

“First, I load the song into Cubase to find the tempo. I then begin picking the song apart by ear into individual tracks. Once I get the scratch tracks — [a rough version of each part] — recorded and separated, I start to do serious takes until the song sounds like I want it to. After I finish recording I mix, equalize, and add space to the tracks if they need it.”

He makes it all sound easier than it probably is.

What do you think of YouTube sensation Smooth McGroove?