Q&A: GROOVY Drops New Single “KNO ME” and Announces New EP ‘Crying In The Club’
EMOTIONS ARE RUNNING HIGH — on GROOVY’S new single, “KNO ME.” Expressing the ups and downs and hardships of young love, “KNO ME” has gained over half a million views on the music video teaser alone and has received 240K streams on Spotify. The screwed-up filter on his smooth vocals, a somber string melody, and piano arpeggios on top of a Jersey Club beat, “KNO ME” shares the tragic story of a broken relationship that was built on a tower of lies in which nobody truly knew the other until it was too late. The Music video adds another layer to the track as it uses striking imagery as GROOVY and his lover try to work through their differences but fail in the end.
Known for his viral single “jersey luv” featuring BJack$, GROOVY has gained an international reputation and has performed in the UK and Toronto. His new EP, Crying In The Club, which dropped on May 24, follows a loose narrative of heartbreak as GROOVY transitions from hopeless romantic to a regretful lothario. Featuring collaborations with artists such as Kanii, Vayda, and R2R Moe, Crying In The Club will have you dancing in your feels.
Known for his unique blend of R&B and Jersey club, GROOVY is a New Jersey–based artist embarking on a new musical journey and reinventing his sound. Moving from alternative hip-hop to blending elements of R&B, Neo-pop, and house genres, GROOVY intends to leave listeners to his effortless and eclectic sound that is best for late nights on the dance floor.
Read more down below to learn about what GROOVY has been up to, his international performances, and the creative breakdown of Crying In The Club.
LUNA: GROOVY, welcome back! We love having you here at Luna. It’s so great to see the amount of success you’ve gained since “jersey luv.” Tell us, how has your 2024 been so far?
GROOVY: 2024 has been cool. I've been a little quiet thus far. Just laying low, working in the studio, and networking. I’ve been preparing to drop this project that I knew was coming this year. But I've been doing some shows … I did a couple of shows in Toronto and I've been doing a lot of stuff in New York City. So I've just been moving around.
LUNA: Nice! I know you did a couple of shows in the UK, which is in one of my questions, but I didn't know you went to Toronto.
GROOVY: Yeah, it was fairly recently. I performed at this festival that some of my homies throw called First Class Fest. It was a pretty big festival with a capacity of 1,300 people, and it was sold out. So it was a really lit show.
LUNA: I’m obsessed with “KNO ME.” Can you break down the creative process behind the track?
GROOVY: Sonically, my producer … Alejandro … employed some of his homies back from college to pull up… Alejandro … plays the keys, but his friends from music school are very classically trained. So Alejandro kind of executive produced the record. He had the melodies that he wanted them to play, and they came and played it on the piano. Then he structured it and added his Jersey club thing. So you get this really pretty melody with the Jersey club drums — that was kind of Alejandro’s big brainchild. And lyrically, as we were making the melody, I was like, “Yo, this is so somber.” So anytime you hear strings, I feel like the artist is always about to get honest. So I figured this was my time, to be honest. So that's why you get “KNO ME” being a song with an openness and reflection on things I might have done and me, maybe not being the best guy in a certain situation. It all just went together really nicely.
LUNA: It all blended nicely. I never would have thought of hearing the mix of Jersey club with very somber undertones to it.
GROOVY: Well, you know, the project is Crying In The Club — we really be doing that (laughs).
LUNA: Congratulations on the release of your new EP — can you share with us what you’re most excited for listeners to hear?
GROOVY: I'm excited for people to hear Jersey club music in a way that I feel like it hasn't been heard before. This is actual pop and R&B music. But in the show of Jersey club, these are fully fleshed-out songs with full production over a Jersey club beat. And it's … very nighttime, very late-night-drive. Jersey club is usually associated with a big crazy party and people dancing. I feel like it's interesting to hear it in a way where it's very mellow and has a calmer vibe.
Songs like “KNO ME” sometimes can even be a little sad. And I think it's interesting to be able to bend Jersey club in that way. So I'm excited for people to get a new take on Jersey club music.
LUNA: Were there any musical/life influences that inspired this EP?
GROOVY: My entire 2023 after “jersey luv” blew up … my life changed so much. This project is my reflection on how that changed a lot of my interpersonal relationships. You’re seeing new people, and then in certain ways you're seeing them more frequently. The dating scene changes once you really lock into being an artist. And this project is my reflection on that and how I've been navigating it. I'm a loverboy, and I make loverboy music so whenever I am put in a new dating pool, it drastically changes my inspiration and the creative vision.
LUNA: What two songs in the EP are your favorite?
GROOVY: I'm excited. Well, the intro, “SHOWMELUV,” is amazing and one of my favorites on there. I did an ode to the old house song “Show Me Love” and it's just really big and grand. It’s like a fully fleshed-out pop, Jersey club song. That song is a collaboration between Alejandro and my engineer DJ, Danny Verse. And Danny has a Latin background so there's even a little bit of a Latin swing in the percussion of the song.
When you hear it, it's a high-energy track. It’s great, and it’s a love song that’s pushing Jersey club to its fullest boundaries. And then my second favorite song would probably be “laced luv” with R2R Moe. It’s an R&B take on the whole sexy drills scene, because R2R Moe is a big sexy drill artist. And it's very somber — it's a little sad — but you still got like the sexy drill beat in there. I think it's a great vocal performance from me and a great rap verse from him. And I really like it. I think it's gonna be a nice late-night anthem.
LUNA: Can you talk about some of the artists you collaborated with on the EP?
GROOVY: Yeah, absolutely. I met R2R Moe when I went to his shows in Brooklyn, I think Gabe P from On The Radar introduced us. And it was just a great mutual respect between us, and I had a song that I knew I wanted a Sexy Drill artist [on], and R2R Moe is one of my favorites. It just kind of made sense. I sent him the beat and he loved it. He sent the verse back and I loved it. We just hit it off.
Then I have a song on the EP that's upbeat and it's called “SUMN.” I would say it’s the most Jersey club–standard song on there. So I knew if I was gonna have this upbeat sexy song, I wanted a female artist on it. So I got Vayda from New York on the track and she did her thing. She gave us a super fun, super feminine, but still a rap-y verse. And it's just great. It’s overall a great and fun song. I just love it. I joined her Instagram Live and I told her that I wanted to work, and that's how we got connected. She was on Live just doing her thing and I was like, “Wait, I love you so much! Please be on my EP,” and she was down. It was so 2024 you know? So the internet.
Then Kanii is on the project as well. Kanii is also signed to Warner, so we got connected through the label… We had lunch in LA a few months ago when I first met him. After that, we ended up in the studio in New York. I think we [were] at Manhattan Beach, and he pulled up to the studio where we were playing demos back and forth to each other… He heard the song and was like, “Yo! I like this one, let me hop on it!” And it was just pretty organic like that, ’cause he's a great dude.
LUNA: Wow, that’s so nice! It's cool to hear how you met all of your collaborators. Making this EP come together seemed like it was very seamless. As if it was meant to be, almost.
GROOVY: Very natural, and I feel like that's always the best way to do it. Because if you have like two artist managers just talking to each other and there's no real connection, I feel like it's reflected in the music, right? So it's way better to just kind of hit it off with somebody. And with every artist on the project, I feel like we just kind of got along and had a similar vision for our song and we just knocked it out.
LUNA: So I saw that you went on a UK tour! How was that experience, and how does it feel to know your music has a fan base overseas?
GROOVY: The experience was cool! It was my first time as an adult in London, so that was an interesting experience. London is a great city — there's a lot of different cultures; where I was staying was a lot different from where the shows were, so we got to see a lot of stuff… It was just a blast. It felt like grinding again because I'm in a new area. So it was like, “I'm the new guy again; this isn't New York anymore. So I have to prove myself.”
But it was great, and to know how it felt that I had fans in other places was just surreal. Like, I can't lie, they didn't fully know me as GROOVY yet. I'm in London. But when “Jersey Luv” played, the crowd started to sing back to me. [And I thought,] “Yo, this is crazy!” that I made something that's traveled legitimately across the pond. So it’s just a surreal experience to see that your music can touch people so far away from you.
LUNA: What brings you joy these days?
GROOVY: What brings me joy these days... Sometimes I can be a workaholic. So it can be hard to have fun and be happy if I'm not working enough. But I noticed that the other day, we went to an event that we got invited to in Jersey City called “Jersey Creators Market.” They invited me and Alejandro, and everybody popped out. Afterward, we just went to this little rooftop vibe over in Jersey City and we just spent time together, and I was noticing like how important those moments are just for us to hang out get a drink or chill and do nothing with each other for a little while amid all the madness in the work that we do, because it's what helps us stay close together. So bonding with my team outside of music is important to me these days.
LUNA: Any other upcoming plans for 2024?
GROOVY: Yes, I want to go to Paris Fashion Week! We’re manifesting that. My stylist is Zay. He styled Vultures for Kanye and he's been helping me style things, and I want him to take me to Paris so badly, so we're manifesting.
LUNA: Well, I will help you guys manifest that as well because that would be dope!
GROOVY: Yes, please, please! I need all the manifestations I can get (laughs).
LUNA: Question for fun: If any, what new anime are you watching? If not, which ones would you like to get into?
GROOVY: So I’m currently watching Migi & Dali. It’s this obscure show about these two twin orphans [who] get adopted but they live as one kid because they're identical twins. And they're evil conniving kids with an agenda, but they pretend to be the perfect son for this older couple. And it's just a very bizarre anime, but it's super funny, and it kind of reminds me of Codename: Kids Next Door. It’s really silly, it’s really funny, and it's short if you want to watch it. The storyline is super strange, but it's just like a goofy anime that I've been watching now.
