EP Focus: Josh Johnstone

After a successful career playing in numerous bands and touring the world, Fremantle-based singer/songwriter Josh has released his debut solo album, Call In Whispers. Tim Mayne chats to him ahead of his show at Ellington Jazz Club on Wednesday, April 20, and official album launch on Friday, April 29, at The Odd Fellow.

Josh Johnstone relocated back to his home own of Fremantle after spending 10 years in Melbourne, something the artist says is an old and new beginning for him at the same time.

"I guess a big part of my inspiration for this new album was from when I was living in Melbourne for 10 years. My family is here, so moved back when I was 32 so I have been back for a few years. I think Perth is a great city and has a great music scene.

"It was a new beginning and an old beginning for me at the same time, with a new career as a soloist and I also missed being in a band and am currently in a band called Vida Cain.

"I still wanted to do some harder rock music and it is a project I work on when want to do hard rock.

"Due to the move back home, I had to break up with someone, unfortunately, as we had careers we had to follow, mine was over here and hers was over there, so there is a lot of that on the new album of new beginnings - happy and sad."

The new album follows on from Johnstone's previous six-track EP, Half A World Away, which met with critical acclaim. Johnstone says the new album was a gruelling 18-month process, but also a uniquely creative and enjoyable one.

"The new album is ready to go and I have been working on that for 18 months and during the last three months we have been getting it ready to release the artwork and tours and bookings and making music videos.

"I am currently making four videos at once with really good creative people. I have met with them a couple of times and have pitched ideas and they are bringing me the briefs, so I am not trying to coordinate all four of them myself.

"You make sure you are overseeing things to make sure you don't look like a dick, but it is great to work with creative people and use their ideas as much as possible. I have been co-writing on two of the songs with local musician Steve Parkin, of Basement Birds fame, and also with Joel Quartermain, from Eskimo Joe, who works with a lot of local acts, writing and producing.

"It was great to do a record with other people. In the past I have been in bands and self-produced our material but this is one where I worked with others."

There are some great melodies on the new album, including melancholic, almost Bob Dylan-like tracks, Brave Tin Soldiers and Rain Dancer, something Johnson says came about when he a took a hiatus from touring.

"It was really enjoyable to produce the album, I had been on tour for a year around Europe and America and regional Australia. I got to Broome and had a good week-and-a-half without a gig and pretty much wrote the album during that time.

"I work-shopped those songs with Steve Parkin and polished them up and then took them to Joel and he started producing the record.

I felt inspired by how they were coming together and started tracking them - it was a burst of inspiration taking the time out, relating to experiences and writing them into music."

Originally published in X-Press Magazine