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We spoke to Josh when he came to play at the Studio:
Was guitar your first instrument?
I
played violin for 13 years. I could never learn how to note read, so I
had to learn by ear when I would learn a piece of music, like classical
music. I would have the books there, I would just learn it by ear and
then play it. It always frustrated me because I heard stuff I didn’t
like, it wasn’t to my taste.
When I found the guitar it was such
a relief because everybody plays the guitar differently. I never felt
that I should play something note for note. There’s people that do,
they’re usually guitar teachers. I just love the freedom -
it’s such a democratic instrument. The idea that if you just sat down and played something, then you wrote the song.
You started playing out, then what?
I
made my own CD in college and I decided that I was going to take it to
Boston started playing the open mics there – I played all the open mics
I could.
I saw all these people that were looking for record deals.
I decided I wasn’t going to wait around, I was just going to do it, not wait for someone to tell you you’re good enough.
That’s about the time I met The Frames (they came to play in Boston) and started playing in Ireland.
Where do you call home these days?
Well
for the last two years I didn’t have a home base, I was just on the
road. Because the record came out in Ireland, and then the U.S., then
Canada, then England and Australia. So, at different times I was all
over the place. I started to go crazy by the end, with no place to go
home to.
I had a slingshot and I was shooting vitamin pills
and creamers out of the hotel room into the ocean, in Brighton,
England, and I kept thinking ‘This is crazy.’ We just started going a
little nuts. That’s the folk way of going crazy. Shooting vitamin pills
with a slingshot.
When I got back in May I moved out of Boston
and I got a place in Idaho, my hometown. It’s great, it’s where I’m
from, I’m off the road. I wanted to be close to my folks when I was
home.
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You're on the road a lot. Would you say that’s the biggest challenge to what you do?
On
the road, you have to figure out when to eat, you have to figure out
when to sleep. You have to figure out when you’re drinking. So you’ve
got to learn to be disciplined and that’s hard because discipline
doesn’t go very well with an artistic temperament. But that’s the
hardest thing to learn.
It’s good to have hobbies outside of
music. If you don’t have a hobby, then you have nothing to get away
from music for. And that’s so important. I took up running - it keeps
you healthy on the road.
When have you had to pinch yourself?
Anytime
I go on and the place is filled. It doesn’t matter how many people are
there. Small places, small things. When I write a song. That’s a big
moment. I’ve done big shows, Dublin Castle, or playing with the
Counting Crows, getting to sit onstage with Bob Dylan playing, those
were all “pinch me” moments.
When you get a chance to be
playing for people who actually want to hear you. That’s such a rare
thing in the world. People taking the time out to listen to live music.
It’s amazing.
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