wimitla. interviews: Joshua Speers

Summerland EP, West Coast living, and all things inspiration

By Kenneth Tse

PC: Shervin Lainez

Joshua Speers is an LA-based artist who is a testament to hard work and creative energy. After years of playing bass for bands across the world, the singer/songwriter has just released his newest EP, “Summerland”, through Warner Records. His journey as a solo artist got off to quite the start in 2019. “Happy Birthday, You’re Alone”, an indie-pop song with crafty lyrics, was met with significant streaming success; 785k Spotify plays and spots on the platform’s curated playlists are just some of the recent acclaim. The “All-American hero” has also shown off his fluidity as an artist in recent weeks as well, with songs like “Other People” and “Manic. Magic. Messed Up” serving as a showcase of his diverse music taste. We recently spoke to the artist about his songwriting journey, the difference between East and West Coast living, and more!

Kenneth Tse: It’s rare for an artist to debut with a song like “Happy Birthday, You’re Alone” and see the early success that you have. I want to know about the years leading up to this. Was music something you’ve always been interested in?

Joshua Speers: Yeah! So, it’s actually been a lot of years that have led me this way. Two years before moving out to Los Angeles and signing a record deal, I was working as a bass player for other artists. I had a handful of songs including “Happy Birthday, You’re Alone” and “Bad Night”, and was sending them around through connections and mutual friends. I figured that no one would really have interest as I had not released any music up until that date. I was really just doing the whole bar band East Coast circuit thing. Then, I had gotten a call from my dream managers that I had met in Los Angeles the one day I had off on tour in Switzerland. Once they told me they were all in, we finished up the tour and pretty much after that, I hopped in a car and moved out west. It really just started to go from there. 

KT: What groups were you a part of in Switzerland?

JS: A couple of groups. The last one that I was seriously touring with was an artist named Caroline Rose. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet. She actually just put out a record in March called Superstar, but I had toured with her for the previous one, Loner. I miss that band! Caroline is such a huge influence on me. It was great being able to see how you put a band together, how you treat your musicians, how you present yourself in interviews. Just to see how gracefully she did it was huge. 

KT: You describe in your Spotify bio that you're this “All-American” guy; you like riding motorcycles, baseball, etc. At least where I’m from in New York, a professional music career and those interests don’t always go hand and hand. Was there ever any timidness when you first started making music? Did you have a supportive group of people around you?

JS: That’s a good question. I’m here in my apartment in Los Angeles and I’m staring at a picture next to my stairs of the first show that I ever played. It was from my sixth grade talent show-- the photo is kinda hilarious honestly. My grandmother had taken it, and you just see all of these kids, like third graders, sitting quietly in their seats while we’re playing Dead Kennedy songs. So it was pretty ridiculous. I guess that’s to say I had a supportive upbringing. My grandmother paid for me to take piano lessons as a kid and guitar lessons when I got a little bit older. She was super supportive. I also always had friends that were into music, so it made for this really lovely competitiveness. Not trying to be better than each other, but the feeling that “I don’t want to get left behind”. We all went on to form different bands in high school and college and ended up playing shows together.

In terms of having different hobbies and passions, I’m still not terribly successful. I was, however, pretty unsuccessful for around 7 years. I had to do other s***, work other jobs, and keep myself occupied. I enjoy getting bored because it forces me to do something. I don’t stray bored for too long because I have a lot of interests. I think criminally bad advice to actors and musicians is: “If you can picture yourself doing anything else, you don’t have what it takes. You have to have one, singular focus and that’s the way you make it.” I think that’s bull s***. That only breeds artists that have no depth. I want to know what you do as your own person, as  opposed to just binging on Netflix and stuff. Where do you go to do the thing where you feel like time completely stops?

KT: Talking about other musicians, you describe your own as a mix of Bruce Springsteen and Carly Rae Jespen. I wouldn’t say that those are opposite sides of the music spectrum, but I feel like they target a different kind of person. How does one acquire such a music taste? 

JS: Definitely a different type of person, but I feel like these days, the genre of music and personal identity has been totally dissolved. Before, you somewhat had to dress the part and that was your type of music, your identity. Coming up on the East Coast music scene and touring in bar bands, everyone had this mentality like, “Oh yeah, pop music sucks”, never giving credit to artists like Carly Rae Jepsen. But when it comes down to it, a great song is undeniable. It’s like standing in the face of a tidal wave; there’s nothing you can really do about it. And that's the way I feel about her songs. She is so good as a pop writer. That’s the same way I feel about Bruce Springsteen songs, too. In each of their generations, they were like masters of pop songs. I feel like I’ve learned so much about writing music from them.

KT: As you said before you moved to Los Angeles around two years ago. But prior to that, you were born and raised in Delaware. There are obviously some huge differences, but what is the biggest change from living on the West Coast as opposed to the East Coast?

JS: Well, it's been a while since I’ve lived in Delaware since I moved out after high school. Before I was on tour with Caroline Rose, I was living in western Massachusetts. When I was living there, I worked for a small arts magazine and was an apprentice to a ceramic artist, a potter that lived out in the woods. I would work at both places each day; wake up, go to work at the magazine, have lunch, fish in a river on the way to the pottery studio, make pottery, fish some more on the way back home and stop at a farm stand to pick up some veggies for dinner. That doesn’t happen in LA haha. That lifestyle isn’t really possible out here. I had all these misconceptions about Los Angeles people and stuff like that. But I got lucky when I landed out here. I fell in with such a good group of people, such a sweet community of other artists, and friends that are lifelong friends. It feels like one of the first times to me to feel so surrounded by people all working in the same discipline. I love it. 

KT: Does living in Los Angeles, surrounded by these musicians, make your songwriting easier for you? 

JS: So, when I’m on the East Coast, the problem is that I have zero ambition, almost none. I just completely check out. And that's a beautiful thing. It’s important to find places where your brain can just shut off. I like being in Los Angeles because it keeps me working, keeps me pushing myself to write the best songs that I can. And to get surrounded by friends who are also writing the best songs that they can. It’s that lovely sense, kinda similar to what I went through in middle school and high school with my friends and bandmates. It was all about pushing each other to make the best and truest art that we possibly can. 

KT: Summerland EP comes out on the 18th, this Friday. How long have you been working on the project and how do you feel that it’s finally coming out?

JS: It feels great, I’m excited! I recorded two EPs at the same time. We got into the studio and recorded everything in August of last year. The songs had been around for at least a year before that. When I got out to LA, I wanted to write as many songs as I could. I ended up writing around 70 songs and from that, we pulled out 9 to separate into two EPs. I’ve been living with them for a while. I think the Summerland EP has more “sonic diversity” compared to the previous EPs. The song “Thunderblanket” is just me with an acoustic guitar and a beautiful string arrangement from Rob Moose who's worked with Taylor Swift, Bon Iver, The National, and Paul Simon. Just allowing myself to spell out different corners of my sound is why I’m most excited for this one.

KT: The pandemic has definitely changed a lot of things for us, but I want to know how it’s been for you in terms of songwriting. Has it made it better or worse?

JS: In terms of songwriting, it’s presented many challenges. In the beginning of the pandemic, I really didn’t want to do any Zoom sessions. I was intimidated and found it to be really exhausting. It didn’t really feel like songwriting for me. It came to the point where I didn’t really want to get left behind here, so let’s figure out how to make it work. Since then, it’s been about adjusting your expectations and changing your perspectives that you have on trying to hold it to the standards that are no longer possible. I find so much inspiration just being around other people, whether that's hearing other conversations, someone saying something that could work as a really great hook or chorus. Not being able to do this has created a struggle on how to overcome this and have fun. I’ve been doing these nightly drives. I get into a car and drive for like an hour to other parts of LA, listening to music and putting on someone's record with a notepad on my lap. Ideas just start coming. I need to keep my brain occupied to silence my inner critic. If I can do that, then the ideas start coming. I’m so grateful to have the change to readjust and learn some new ways to find inspiration. It gets dangerous when you wait around for it. Inspiration has to find you when you’re working.

KT: We obviously can’t get together in large groups for the time being, but when we can, what is the one song that you’re most excited to perform live from the new EP?

JS: I think the song “Manic, Magic, Messed Up” has a really great extended bridge where I’m kinda ripping off the guitar part from “Reeling In The Years”. That’s what that is based off of, if you listen closely to it. I played that song a couple of times with the band I formed when I first moved out to LA. The song was still coming together, and that bridge came from playing it live, and just wanted to extend that section. It’s also a nice, loud song. I like loud songs. 

KT: Lastly, who do you owe your biggest thanks to?

JS: So, as I was saying, when I was in Western Massachusetts, I was working for a potter named Mark Shapiro. I had stumbled into his studio because of the bands that I had played with in college. They had all fallen apart and I was feeling really disinterested with music. I kinda totally quit music at the time. And then I got a call from Mark’s studio asking me to join. I figured that pottery was something that I might want to do. He really took me in for about a year and a half and I became super close with his family. Learning how to make wood-fired stone functional pottery for him was  a great experience. After that time, he very lovingly kicked me out and said that I had to go back to playing music. I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently and how special of a moment that was. Giving me the responsibility of going to do it, that “kick in the ass” that we all sometimes need, I feel especially thankful for Mark. 

KT: Joshua, this was a fantastic conversation. Hopefully we can do this again soon. 

JS: Let me know, anytime! I’m always around.