Josh is a rad guy. He's one of the youngest music-nerds I've ever met and he knows his shit. His passion for the shit is seemingly limitless and he's even managed to set down the path of Music Promoter, helping with the curation of the Studio CMCT Stage at this year's Rifflandia Festival. Actually, I met Josh at Rifflandia a couple of years ago when I overheard a conversation he was having with the mighty Dane -the fearless head of the Victoria Ska Society- about Reggie Watts. Reggie was set to play later in the day and Dane hadn't a clue what Watts was all about. I couldn't help but chime in and Josh wholeheartedly agreed with all of my gushing. See, good people like Reggie Watts. You can't deny that shit!
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Josh kicking it with badass Colombian reggae cats Providencia.
Usually I end with the question from the last person, but I’m going to ask this one first because of the nature of the question. Alain Williams, comedian who used to be around town and now he’s in Vancouver, he asked this question and it’s simply…“Sup?”
Sup?....WHAT?! Ummm…wow. Oh my god. Nothing much, I guess. Not much. I feel like I should answer more but the fact is just…wow. I was not ready for that.
What was the first album you bought and how old were you?
My mom showed me a lot of music growing up and it took me until I was about 7, watching MuchMusic or MuchMoreMusic to start getting my own idea of music. I was coming from jazz and 70s music and then I discovered Outkast. It was right around the release of Idlewild, their last album before their huge hiatus. I went in and I bought the album. The next thing I knew I was going back to Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and Stankonia. I also remember that year I bought Sam Roberts’ Chemical City.
I was finishing high school when We Were Born in a Flame came out. Oh no…Okay, Sight vs. Sound, which would you take and why?
In grade 8 we were asked the same question and my whole my class chose sight. But because of how into music I am I chose sound. It’s the fact that if I lost sound and music and all of that I don’t know where I’d be today. I can’t imagine what life would be like for me. It would be horrible.
What one piece of culture would you take from the Earth as you escaping its inevitable doom?
This is tough. I’d just bring back something to keep a culture alive. I’d bring back of ton of albums to show people what used to be so that music never dies. Some things will die, they have to, but music will never die. It will just keep going and evolving. Even music that gets hate today is getting way more hate than it should. It came from music before it. So it’s going to give way to something new. That’s why I’d want to take a bunch of albums, so music could keep evolving.
You only get to take three, quickly, which ones are you grabbing?
Outkast – Stankonia, Doomtree – No Kings…ummm, just off the tip of my tongue…oh! Run the Jewels 2. Killer Mike seems like he would be the nicest guy.
Yeah, he’s a rad dude. He was high-fiving and hugging people at Rifflandia. And he’s got that whole community organizer background, so he knows how to connect with people. So, the most influential movie in shaping your life philosophy?
The thing is, I don’t watch many movies. There is one, that I got to see last year in Victoria the Rifflandia HQ and it’s called What Difference Does It Make? It was through the Red Bull Music Academy. It had Brian Eno, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and all these other people just talking about making music, what they were doing that others weren’t. And it made me look at stuff, not just in a musical aspect but outside that also. It got me thinking, “What am I doing that’s different from someone else?”
Immortality. Do you think you’d like it? Do you have any thoughts about it?
I don’t think I’d be into immortality. With everything I’m doing I don’t want to be that immortal figure and if I die people still remember me because I don’t to have to go above and beyond to hit immortality. Like, if I’m going to do something and somehow someone goes, “Oh god, this dude, out of nowhere was amazing. Look at the things he did in his life. This guy should be immortal,” then that’s cool and thank you, but I wouldn’t do something to try to hit that.
Check out Josh's instagram page. He's a man about town always updating with fly pics.