Interview: JOSHUA Chats About His Latest Single, ‘Liar’

Sydney based Dark Pop maestro JOSHUA recently unveiled his new single ‘Liar’, which we had the joy of exclusively premiering just last month. We sat down with JOSHUA to get to know him a little better, find out more about the track and heaps more!

Tell us a little bit about yourself? 

Hey! I’m a singer/songwriter/producer from Mandurah, WA making dark pop tracks that explore my emotional landscapes over gritty bass lines and sparkling synths.

Congratulations on your new single ‘Liar’! What inspired the single?

Thank you so much! I’m really proud of this one as it’s the first song I wrote about opening up about my sexuality. I’d been in denial for a long time but I was watching that scene in Bridgerton where Jonathan Bailey is pulling himself out of a lake and I thought, “Damn, you could turn me into a liar…” I had a writing session the next day and smashed it out in a couple of hours!

You recently played your first show. How was the experience? 

Oh my god, it was so much fun!!! I finally felt confident enough to get myself up a stage and do the thing. The crowd was so supportive and I felt so welcomed and held. I learned a lot too!

READ MORE: Nick Cunningham Captures Intimate Storytelling in New Single ‘With You’

Are you looking to tour in the future? 

I would love to!!! No plans just yet but I definitely want to build my audience and get more experience performing. I love the idea of applying for support slots, opening up for some cool artists and growing my network.

How does your songwriting process work? 

I absolutely have to write from personal experience, which is why it’s taken me so long to write love songs!!! More often than not, I have a title in mind that comes from there and something that happens to me and I go from there. I produce a lot of my songs so I find the sounds I want, build a scratch track and then write lyrics and melodies over the top. Recently I’ve been loving vocal production and stacking harmonies and backing vocals.

Who is your biggest musical inspiration and why?

Right now it’s Tate McRae. The sounds and rhythms and melodies and visuals she’s coming out with are absolutely immaculate. She is pop supremacy for me. I caught her live show recently and it was incredible.

What is the highlight of your musical career to date?

Ooo that’s a tough one because there’s so much I want to do! Most recently it’s probably doing my first live show. I was really blown away with how rewarding it is to perform these songs in front of people and see such a positive reaction. The music industry is so hard to be seen in right now so it was so validating.

What is the hardest part of being an independent musician?

Being seen. There’s such a saturation in the market right now it feels more difficult than ever to break through the noise. And it goes beyond building an audience, it’s being seen as a peer, someone other artists and writers and producers want to work with. As an independent artist, you do everything on your own and when the people around you say how good your songs are but then they don’t get picked up anywhere, it becomes very confusing. Thoughts like “Am I actually good? Can I really do this? Or am I one of those poor people on singing competition shows who put on air to be humiliated?” It’s just a lot… Sorry, that one got dark!!!

If you could collaborate with any musician, who would it be and why?

Julia Michaels is my songwriting hero. I love her emotional vulnerability but her recent foray into being independent and being more experimental with her songwriting is hugely inspiring. I would also pick her brain on what makes songs catchy for her, she’s incredible.

What is next for JOSHUA?

Well! I’ve been releasing singles for a while now, I’ve put out an EP, I think it’s time to make a body of work. I love world-building so crafting a sonic language, writing lyrics that contribute to a narrative arc and then putting together the visuals that encapsulate it all is so exciting. I used to love buying CDs and opening up the lyric booklet and seeing how everything fits together so it’s time I did that my own project!