Josh Fix Speaks – Interview pt. 2

Here, as promised, is the continuation of a conversation I had with Josh Fix a few weeks ago…

If you squint, it's almost like I'm holding my arms around a giant 'fro.

I’ll be in SF this weekend. Tell me about your favorite restaurant.

Izzy’s Steak and Chops! Enough said.

Powerpop artists are notorious (not saying that’s a bad thing) for wearing their influences on their sleeves. Some of your songs from “Free at Last” trigger an immediate “influences” response in me. Tell me what you think…

“Whiskey & Speed” — Brian May guitar choirs

Guilty as charged.  But let me explain: it’s not that easy to get the sound like that. So, I’m really proud that I got some of them to come out that way. The key actually lies in getting a rather small and shitty sound out of each individual guitar, so that only together do they conjoin into a megarrific “guitarmy.”  Same with the vocals- It’s a counterintuitive process, but sometimes less really is more.  I think all the guitars for that song were done in my closet, and then “flown-in” during the main mixing sessions.  Damn, I love computers sometimes!

Josh Fix Speaks – Interview Pt. 1

The more I listen to “Free at Last,” Josh Fix’s recent powerpop opus, the more I think it’s probably the best album I’ve heard all year. But man can’t live on liner notes alone — I needed to know more.

So I asked.

Give me "pensive."

Hey, Josh! On my iPod, you are sandwiched directly between Jools Holland and Journey. Care to comment?

Well… simply BEING on someone’s iPod is awesome in and of itself, no matter whom you’re sandwiched between! But your question prompted me to check where on MY iPod I was: between Johnny Cash and… Journey (and I didn’t even know I HAD Journey on my iPod, haha!)! If you do it by album, “Free At Last” is between “Franz Ferdinand” and “Fresh” by Sly And The Family Stone. Either way, pretty cool. Jools Holland is a badass, by the way.

Josh Fix, my latest powerpop obsession.

Josh Fix. Oh, man.

This goes back to my musings on one-man-bands… I’m just in awe of these guys who can pull off everything with aplomb. I first heard about Josh when he released his EP “Steinway the Hard Way” a while back (2004?) — but I didn’t buy it (dumb-ass). Now it’s OOP, of course.

Live and learn.

Jesus, as I sit here I’m listening to it on his site and I’m wondering why I don’t yet own it… let’s rectify that, shall we?

So I see a mention of him here and there… his new album drops, and NPR makes one of his tunes “Song of the Day” back in July. And then a friend shoots me an email about his video on YouTube. Sweet Christ, this is good. Like a slushy, sugary blend of Elton John, Spirit, Jellyfish, Ben Folds, Owsley, and lots and lots of Queen (the latter part of “Jethro” just oozes that swaggering Mercury/May/Taylor vocal arrangement, and “Whiskey and Speed” ends with a May-esque layered guitar mini-symphony coda). What more could this blogger want? Umm.. the bass chair in his band?  OK, asking too much, I realize.

Free at Last