He burst onto the local music scene with his debut EP ‘Midnight Ship’ back in 2015 and now, after signing to a major record label, Josh Kempen has finally released his debut studio album. The record includes the hits ‘The River’ and ‘Pistol’ and is a refreshing take on indie pop. This week, the singer opens up to us about his new record, his latest single and how his musical journey began.
You’ve just released your debut album ‘The Morning Show’. What inspired the title?
Watching my girlfriend wake up in the morning and do her thing. It’s a good show.
How different was it creating this piece of work compared to your ‘Midnight Ship’ EP?
I got to put a lot more hours into making this record, and it felt like it really came together at the perfect time. The songs were the right balance of well-rehearsed and new, my sound was quite refined, and the band was very tight and comfortable playing together. I had also built great relationship with the producers. All those factors came together and made the recording process quite effortless. Working on Midnight Ship was wonderful for its own reasons, but definitely a different experience.
Why, in your opinion, should people buy the album?
I feel like I’m in such an inspired place, and making the album was an incredibly inspiring time. I think that energy permeates the album and it’s bound to rub off. II think it’s important to fill your life with that sort of energy. Secondly, I honestly think these songs are good. And I don’t think there’s too much out there that sounds like what I’m doing.
You released ‘The River’ as the lead single off the project. How was the song a perfect introduction to you as an artist?
The River shows a lot about me. What my voice can do, how I like my guitar to sound, and the way I write lyrics. It’s not a conventional single by any standard, but that wasn’t the intention.
Your new single ‘Leave Me If You Can’ is one of our favourite songs right now. What inspired the song?
Thank you! It was an argument actually, which ended with my girlfriend saying to me, ‘you know there’s so many people out there that just stay together for years and years because they’re too scared to face the breakup and being alone, and I don’t want that’. Something about that struck me, it was an angle of a relationship that I hadn’t heard mentioned very often in music. I wrote that song the next morning.
The video is accompanied by a hilarious music video. Tell us a bit more about the video.
The video is about me being dumped by a sort of robotic orange girlfriend, and then deciding to drown my sorrows on a whole lot of fancy cocktails. It was conceived and shot by a company called DOLPH. We’ve worked together for a few years now and I trust them a lot. I think they’re the best out there.
How did your musical journey begin?
I used to write poetry when I was little, and I was obsessed with “performing” my favourite songs in my bedroom but never really thought more of it. And then one day a friend taught me a few chords after school and I was honestly hooked. I couldn’t believe I could play these chords and they actually sounded good. I wrote my first song probably a couple of days later with those chords. It was the first of hundreds!
While your recorded music is great, it’s when you perform live where you shine! What can the public expect from a Josh Kempen show?
Before I was into music I wanted to be an actor, but what frustrated me about it was that I didn’t feel I could really practice it the way I wanted to. Learning monologues at home left too much to the imagination. Music was so different, I could write the whole song and perform it right there in my room, the only thing to imagine was the audience. To this day, I still write songs mostly to perform them. When I get on stage it feels like the most important place I could be, the most important thing I could be doing. I give everything I have to the songs and the audience because it feels like the most natural and honest thing I could possibly do. I think the audience can sense that they’re witnessing a big moment in my life when I perform, and that makes it a big moment for them too.
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