Groovehaus

Groovehaus: We like the groove.

The band got it's early beginnings in 2004, when Bill Hebert started drumming for Leslie's vocal trio, which included Leslie's college age daughter and Bill's college age daughter. It was the simplest of bands with the three vocalists, the drummer, and Leslie playing piano.

After three years of performing the two daughters moved on to other pursuits. Leslie still wanted vocal harmonies, and one of her choir students, Heather Hagen, was just right for the job. She also provided the instrumental bonus of violin. Very soon, Bill invited one of his music associates', Sean Wilson, to sit in at one of the group's gigs. This seemed extremely agreeable to all parties, and Sean kept showing up at any of the gigs he could work in. Before a year was up, Leslie had started having her son, Graeme, sing back up vocals to fill out the harmonies.

In June of 2007 the group, still unnamed, was preparing for playing Moscow's Art Walk, and decided to get a bass player for that gig. Tony Burt was referred by a friend, and easily stepped up to the task. For that gig, Bill came up with a name for the band; Leslie Wilson and Heartless. Tony had a definite musical connection with the band and asked if a permanent bass player was wanted. What a dumb question!

With the band filling out so nicely, it seemed only right that it should have a guitarist. A couple of people were tried that didn't quite fit the niche. In November of 2007 Leslie got a tip from an old friend that his son, Ian Tracy, was good on the guitar. He was from Boise, but was in Moscow, attending the University of Idaho. Anything Ian didn't know at his first audition/practice he quickly figured out and perfected by the second practice, showing the band that he was the right fit.

The name, Leslie Wilson and Heartless, was intended to be a twist on the band Heart in which the lead singer was Ann Wilson. We also had a Sean Wilson and a Graeme Wilson but nobody ever got the connection. People mostly thought the name was kind of negative so we decided we needed to change the name. We brainstormed for a couple of weeks and came up with Groovehaus. It just seemed so obvious: We like the groove.