Joshua Radin

0:00Dry. The cycle lights on the stage will look cool. Thanks. Try to make it a little living rubbish. That was one of my questions with a living room atmosphere thing. Alright, let's do this. Well, yeah, so the living room atmosphere thing. Where did this idea come from? I'm wanting to make it like it's an intimate tour. They're smaller venues. They're just less shows. It's very like seated. You see it too in here, which you don't see too often. Yeah, we're doing everything seated because these shows are so stripped down and acoustic. I mean, I didn't even bring an electric guitar. Okay, so we just figured, I wanted to give the crowd, you know, the last few tours we've been getting bigger and bigger venues. And that becomes less intimate. And a lot of people after the shows have said to me, you know, like the super fans.

0:47You know, they've been with me since the beginning, right? They're kind of like, we missed when we were in the smaller places and it felt like a living room. And so I figured that might be good to do for this tour for just like the VIP package things. Is this like a little run that you'll do a full run for the record later? Is this way later? Way later. I mean, because I put out two albums in a year. Yeah, I just did less than four months ago or something. I was out for about six months headlining around the world. So it's too soon to go back to all the cities and do those big places again. But I put out this record so quickly that I needed to be out somehow touring it, you know, and promoting it a little bit. So we figured this would be a real good way to be out there talking about the album, but also

1:33giving the super fans, you know, kind of like that experience they can't telling me that they want it. So the few things I don't want to talk to them, the super fans think it's me thinking about, there's like, I don't know, 30 girls waiting up front. Is it typically 20 odd year old girls in the crowd? It's about 75%. I don't think that's a nice thing for about 75%. I would say, I mean, most of the songs that I write are about falling in and out of love. So, you know, anytime you do anything romantic, I mean, the audience is going to be more female. Right. So, yeah. Cool. No, it was nice to see them up there. Sometimes I get guys that don't even know my music from the show just because they hear that. They just start girls singing and all the girls. That's great. It must be nice for you and the band member.

2:19How many band members are there though? It's always changing. But this time it's stripped down and we're just a four piece. Okay. So still, but still enough to make the record sound like the record sounds. Some of the songs, you know, some of the songs we don't do because we don't have a full string and stuff on the record. Yeah. I mean, I didn't even bring a bass player. Really? Uh huh. So two guitars, keys and drums? I don't think I'm thinking. Yep. Okay. So is the keyboard player playing the bass lines or? Somewhat. Yeah. So I've got all of them to play them like really stripped down and acoustic. That's cool. Talking about rearranging. Do you write on piano because there's a couple of tunes that aren't guitar? Yeah, that's what I figured because there's some tunes that almost sound like they would almost have to be written on the piano.

3:04Yeah. Well, I wanted to incorporate a lot more piano in this record because I hadn't done that in the past. And that was another thing that a lot of people were asking for. So a lot of this record came out of a demand. This tour and this album. You just go on their own and people tell you what to do and then you make it happen? Yeah, usually I don't. But a lot of people when you hear a lot of the same things, please do a tour in small venues. Please put more piano on the album. More harmonies. So I listened. So when you write a song like with me, I assume it was written on a piano with someone. Actually, I wrote that on the guitar. Okay. But then I decided to make it a piano based song. Alright. Because it just seemed like one of those songs. You know, like that kind of beat. And then none of those harmonies were arranged at all before I went in and we just kind of

3:51did that in the studio where I sang all the harmonies and kind of wanted like a try to do my best Brian Wilson on some of those things. But it's just, you know, so hard. That's so hard. Wow. That's so hard. Wow. That's the same song. Yeah. When did you write these songs? Like you mentioned two records in a year where they were written on the road during the tour. Are you able to? So, I don't really write much on the road because there's not too much privacy. So you need to be alone. You need sounds. Yeah. I need to usually be in my house sitting on the couch with nothing to do. So that's your writing space on the couch in your own path? For the most part. There are other songs that I've written in certain other places. But for the most part, yeah. A lot of times I'll write the music sitting around on my couch. And then sometimes in order to be inspired for lyrics, which I always write after the music,

4:37I'll sit in a coffee shop and stare at people's faces before, you know, until I get ideas. I remember reading an autobiography, Dylan wrote. And... Crossel? Yeah. And he was saying that's what he did when he first started out. Let's go down to the University of Minnesota and sit in coffee shops all day and write lyrics. And it helped me. Talking about Dylan, I can't remember what interview I was reading. You talking about trying to write from other perspectives other than your own. Like Dylan and being a storyteller. Yeah, trying to evolve that into your songwriting. How tough is that? To try and put yourself outside your phone. I find that the most difficult. Some of my friends who are songwriters find it, you know, the exact opposite. They find it more difficult to be honest, to be vulnerable. I find that much easier because it's like writing what you know.

5:26You know, that's what I know is what's going on in my heart and my mind. The topical songs are tough for me and that's something I'd like to get better at in the future. I think there will be more songs like maybe on the next record that are maybe that have me in them. But... But... But... Finley veiled. Yeah. Whereas most of the songs I've written thus far are really just... Here I am. You know, it's completely exposed. Um... Wax? I'm trying to... So are you writing already for the next one? Like is this gonna be a year-like thing? I'm always trying to go back to the 60s idea of we're gonna put out three records a year? Oh, I'll never be able to do that. I shouldn't say never, but I don't think I would ever... I'm not that brilliant.

6:11But you'd like to do like a consistent stream, not wait. I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. Usually I go every couple years I've been doing a record and this one was like two in a year. So not only was it not one in one... one every year, it was two in a year. So that's a pretty furious pace of songwriting. Um... For me. For me. I'm a little drink. You said you had the same time. I'm really planning on taking... I'm pretty much June 6th when I do... I'm gonna do like five UK Europe days. Right. Um... And then I might just stay in Europe and take trains around and bum around with a backpack and a guitar and... That's what I'm... I don't meet people and write songs about them. That's my plan. Take like four months off and do absolutely nothing but travel and drink and write songs and... Do the...

6:56What is it? It's like... What most writers do though isn't that what some... It's not like a writer thing. Like a sabbatical almost. Yeah. Where they just sit in coffee shops and like Paris and just kind of write their great novel. Yeah. I mean that was certainly the 20s. Yeah. You know all the American authors. That's a guess that was a good way. That's a good way. It's Gerald and... You know doing that sort of thing in Paris and... I don't think it happens as much nowadays but... Um... I'm sure there's... At least for me... I'm sure a lot of artists feel that way that... Well Paris is... I don't know if it's as Bohemian as it once was. You know it's so expensive now. You probably don't get the starving artists as much. It's uh... But... Yeah I mean I love going to Spain. Um... I love Paris.

7:43Um... In the summertime I like hanging out in certain places in Scandinavia. Sweden, Denmark. Yeah. Why there? I love the people up there in Scandinavia. They're very American friendly. Um... They love everything American. You know the music. Um... They love to party. I mean not that I'm a big partier but they're very... They know how to enjoy life. Um... There's not a lot of guilt involved in terms of lifestyle. So it's fun to travel there. Hmm. Yeah that's not a good question. I don't know if you asked me it anyway. What are the shows like comparing those audiences to these audiences?

8:30Pretty much. My audiences are really similar wherever I go. You know they all found out about me in a similar way. By watching like Grey's Anatomy. Yeah exactly. Or TV shows or films or something like that and they went and found me on their own. Most of my audiences are... It's really a cult following. It's not like a... I haven't been shoved down people's throats 30 times a day on a radio station by you know the machines. So most of the fans I have found me doing a little bit of work. You know? Like they made Google, Aliric at least. You know what I mean? Like something where they heard something and they had to like shir-vam it. Or you know do something where they put in a little bit of effort and then they always feel a little more ownership of me and my music because they put in a little work.

9:24Knowing that that's I mean the bulk of the I assume bulk of the income over the years is through these sync licensing and placements and everything. When you're making a record are there ideas that like some of these songs, they fit into the record whatever you're writing an album. But they're gonna go elsewhere too. Like it's a single driven marketing. Yeah. But I'm an album artist. So you write with the concept in mind. I'm not even a concept. I just write songs. I never really think about... Well this album in particular is probably the first album I thought about as an album. Like as a concept album. I mean it's really all about love. You know? A lot of my records before have been... There's at least a few songs in there that haven't been about a breakup or falling in love with a girl or... This one is about the one X.

10:12You know? My one X girlfriend. When they got away? When they got away. And that was five or six years ago that we split up. So a lot of the songs I'd written previously about her or about my experience with her... Might have been a little more sorrowful. And now I have a different perspective on it. And so I figured since this was the one love of my life thus far, I wanted to create this album that was like... Now this is how I see it. Five or six years later. Looking at it from a different perspective. I talked to a lot of people who say that they need to... They almost put themselves in bad relationships to be able to write. I think a lot of artists do that subconsciously.

10:59Do you find yourself self-sabotential? Yeah exactly. I think it's subconscious. I certainly don't do it consciously. I'd much rather be happy than be a songwriter. Okay. You know? But I don't know if that's in the cards. No, it's actually working out pretty well so far. Well, I mean happiness. I don't know if that's in the cards. I mean I'm relatively happy. Don't get me wrong. I'm really not a morose type of person. It's a happier record though. At least a lot of you. Yeah, because I see that relationship now in a different light. There's a lot of nature things like moon, sun, rain, mountains, water. They're almost... They're in California now. Now? Not ever. Not before. I lived there once before for a few years.

11:45Where did New York? Yeah, I lived in New York for like ten years. And you moved there when? I moved to New York. No, sorry to California. It was like I did six years in New York. Then I started... I did six years in New York and I started writing my sixth year in New York. Okay. I started playing music. Right. Like right when I turned... That was about 29 and a half. I was about to turn to 30. And I'm 38 now. So you pick up a guitar of mine. That's crazy. Is that you? I'm 30. Yeah, yeah. That's when I started playing music. Yeah, I didn't grow up playing music at all. That's a long time. And I wrote my first song maybe about six months after that. And then it got successful, which is insane. Yeah. So then I just started writing songs out of demand. I didn't set out to become a musician. And for me it was out of demand.

12:30Yeah. Well, no. I believe me. I spent years and years in New York as a star. I'm an artist painting, writing screenplays. Doing so many things creatively where I was looking for an audience searching for an audience desperately and couldn't find one. Um... It's not all about that. This was the first thing I ever tried. Where it was a hobby. Yeah. And right away the hobby I fell into it into this profession. Not thinking at all that I had. At all that I had talent enough to do it to make a living at it. And not thinking that I really had the drive to do it for years and years and years without making money. You know? So luckily, this was something I stumbled upon and loved it. It felt like when I picked up the guitar I felt like home for the first time. You know?

13:15I loved doing many, many things artistically, but this was the first thing I felt like I could sit on this couch and play this guitar and write songs about what's going on in my head. It was like therapy. You know? Like everything I was going through, it was very cathartic to just get it out. And I was thinking to myself, like, my inner monologue was basically saying, no one ever has to hear these songs. This is helping me. I will do this forever, whether I make money or not. I didn't even try to put my first song out. Like to try to get it in a TV show or movie or anything. You know, to a label or anything like that. My friend was on a TV show. He heard me play the song and he was like, make a demo of it. Maybe we'll get it on the show and three weeks later he did. So then I was like, and they sent me a check that paid my rent for the month.

14:03And I was like, ah, so that's never happened to me before. And then all these people started writing me on my space saying, where can we find your music? And I was like, I don't have any songs. I don't know. So it really came out of demand and I started writing songs and learning how to play music on the road. I really started touring about a year after I started playing music. Is that an overload when you have that much happening right at the beginning? Is it a conference boost enough to say, I don't know what it is. That's what I needed. I needed the confidence boost because I always thought there's no way I'd, who would want to listen to me do this? I really had no confidence at all about it. And I still don't, honestly, like if all of a sudden all the fans went away and no one wanted to buy my records and my career just ended, the record business is very fickle. So if that just happened all of a sudden, I still don't think I'd have the confidence to, I mean I'd still write songs around my house and you know, just for fun.

14:56But I don't think I'd have the confidence to bounce back and be like, all right now I'm going to put this comeback record, or anything like that. It's really not me. Would you go back to writing screenplays? Is that something you missed doing? I feel like I'm a writer. I would maybe do that or I would... Not if it all went away. I've always wanted to make a film. I always wanted to make a film. Not necessarily just write a screenplay now. If I went back to film, I would write the screenplay. I would want to star in it. I'd write it about music. I'd write all the music. I'd want to play the music in it. You know, I'd want to direct the movie. Like what? One answer. That one film that he did? Similar, but he didn't direct that. No, right then. Right. But he started being wrote music. Exactly. But something that was music based like that, very cheap to make like that.

15:41Yeah. And something that I would write and direct and star in and do everything. You know, because I don't like a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Which is why I'm not, which is why I'm still releasing this record for the first time. I was up. My contract was up with every label I was in. No matter what country I was in. Right. And it was just a perfect opportunity to say, all right, I'm going to make this record exactly the way I want to make it. I made it for 10% of the cost that any of my other records were made. Now, how does that happen? Because I paid for it myself. No, no, no, but I mean, you. Yeah, okay, fair enough. There were no deep pockets being like, let's look at this producer. Let's look at this studio or this band or whatever. I was like, I paid for everything myself.

16:27I produced some of the songs. My friend Brandon who plays in my band produced a couple of songs. Another friend of mine produced for, you know, I kind of farmed him out to a few people and did it totally differently. And so we'll see how this goes. It's an experiment, really. Is it a good experiment so far? So far. Like two weeks. Only a week. Yeah, well, Tuesday. Yeah, whatever. Maybe a week and a few days. Yeah, but the experiment so far. Yeah, it's going great. I mean, it recouped in presale. So like, you know, Zanz I'm not losing any money making albums. It's very different than most people that it is. Yeah, very different. And most labels, most major labels, artists don't ever recoup and then just get dropped.

17:15So, you know, most of the time major labels spend so much money the wrong way. You know, it's actually so much useless. Yeah, okay. And then I have to pay for it. You know, it comes out of the artist's royalties. It's not like the label just pays. Most people don't understand how labels work. They're really just a non, a no interest loan. Like from a bank. You have to pay everything back. It's not like, you know, they're just giving you this money and you're like, Ooh, I'm rich. Like you could get a $500,000 advance and they're just taking it out of those royalties as the record sells. And if the record doesn't sell and you don't make that $500,000 back, they drop you. And that's just how it goes. Yeah. So a lot of people have no idea how that works. And so anyway, it's not that interesting.

18:02Back to the California thing. It was way longer ago. We were talking about when did you make that vote and how did it change the songwriting? Well, the first time I lived in LA, like I lived in New York for six years. Right. Started writing songs that last year. Moved to LA for three years. But that entire three years I was on the road. Okay. So I didn't really move to LA. My stuff, my storage was in LA. Right. Then I moved after that. Broke up with that girl. She was in LA so I moved back to the east coast to get away. Yeah, fair enough. Lived in New York for three years. Of course I was on the road for most of those three years. And then a couple of years ago I moved back to LA. Kind of, you know, I bought a house and I set some roots. So has it influenced? That sounds like it's sunny or the nature. It's also because I'm living in LA hiking all the time.

18:47And now I've taken a little bit of time off here and there between tours and records to hang in my house and sit on my couch and stare out the window. And I read a lot about the mountains and the rain. Well it's almost visually like you're saying you're changing almost the summer lyrics. I think that actually is a lot to do with a background in screenwriting because you're always told, show, don't tell. When you're writing a script because it's a visual medium. It's film. Even though you're writing it on typewriter or computer, whatever. Were you writing on typewriters? No, you know what I mean? On a keyboard. Yeah. You're writing. It's not visual. It's not like you're shooting it. But you're thinking about, you're writing so that when someone's reading it they're, you're always,

19:35like if a character's sad, you don't write, Stan is sad, you write like Stan Christ. You know what, tear falls from Stan's. You know whatever it is. Yeah, yeah. It's not very descriptive. But you'd show it, you know, in the words. And so a lot of times when I'm thinking about songs I think that comes through. And I think that also has a big part in why a lot of people have tapped a lot of my music to use a score in TV shows and films and things like that because it might match up somehow to some scene that they're driving down the coast. And you know what I mean? And there's something I describe in one of my songs like that and they think about that and they go, oh, you know, and I think visually when I write. Have you thought about scoring movies?

20:21You know what, I'd love to, well there's a difference between scoring, obviously scoring. No lyrics. Yeah. I'm not really a good enough musician to do that. Those are usually people who can play every instrument and kind of do it all themselves. And they look at a scene and they hear the string parts and they see the piano and the guitar. You know, the drum, you know, everything is, they do it all. I have friends that do that. And those are real, real composers. I'm more of a songwriter so I would love to, like I said one day when I make my own film all the songs. I would love to do something like that for somebody though, like a great filmmaker, like a graduate type soundtrack or a herald and mod. You know, like get one of those, write a bunch of songs for one film I would find that fascinating.

21:09Yeah, that'd be cool. Five quick questions, one more answers. Go. Roto Studio. Roto. Lennon or McCartney? Lennon. When you hear a song what usually hits you first, lyrics, melody or rhythm? Melody. I mean, song you've written your most proud of. You got growing up to do. In one word, Josh, written. Josh or Josh? Either one. One word to describe myself in one word. Yeah. Pensive. That's good. I like that. I was talking about before about names. I go by Matt. She goes by Baff. You're saying either of them. My friends call me Josh, but everyone. Are the records Joshua? All the records are Joshua. Why? Because initially, when that, when that, when that, when that, when that, when that, when that when that first song, winter, the first song I wrote was on scrubs.

21:56A few weeks later, I had to get a MySpace page and a domain. I had to buy like, JoshRaiden.com, but it was taken. So I bought Joshua Raiden.com. Okay. So then everyone in music based, you know, fans and, you know, business type people would call me Joshua. So now I just respond to either a, it's actually kind of nice. It's like, I remember seeing an interview with Robert De Niro once. All his friends call him Bobby. Yeah. But it's nice because like, if someone walks up to him and goes, Robert, he knows, he knows that they've never met him before. They're not friends and he doesn't have to feign. Oh yeah, good to see you again. Yeah. So when someone walks up to me and says, Joshua, I'm always like, oh, okay. I don't have to pretend. Yeah. Like if we met, you know, or, because you meet so many people and a lot of times people are so shocked that you met them once for 10 seconds and shook their hand.

22:43They're like, you don't remember who we met three years ago in the, in the merch line after whatever and you're like, I'm sorry. You know, I, oh, you don't fake it. You just say it's quite horrible. Yeah. Sorry. No, I'm just like, now I, sometimes I'll just like, if I shake people's hand, I'll be like, nice to see you. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Like no matter what. That's very interesting. You know who, no. Works it out of the way. Yeah. No one, I, I learned that in Hollywood. Unfortunately, it's a horrible thing, but every time you meet someone in Hollywood, like an actor or something, like they're always like, nice to see you. Yeah. You know. That's so true now that I think about it. Cool. Thanks, man. Sure. Sure. Good talking to you. I've been to the songs that I like and I will continue to talk to you.