Reader Profile: Josh Belville

Hello all!

Our first Reader Profile is up, and the artist we’ve chosen is Josh Belville.  Josh wrote a guest blog earlier this week about Viewing Piracy in a New Light.  It’s a great read, so be sure to check it out.  Besides being a great writer, Josh is also talented musician and actor. 

Check out the interview below, and while you’re at it give his song She Never Told Me a listen.

MP3: She Never Told Me

How did you get your start with music?

I was born into a musical family with no intention, originally, of playing music.  My father was a country-western drummer in the 60s and 70s, traveling across the country with my mother and my two older brothers.  They eventually settled in Nampa, Idaho in the early 80s, when I was born.  My brothers both play rhythm instruments — Russ, the oldest, plays a six-string bass and Matt plays drums, and my dad stopped playing drums and took up bass himself.  My mother, however, plays no instruments but was an actress in high school and did community theatre afterwards, so I caught the acting bug instead of the music bug.  I did theatre in high school and then waited a semester before going to college to study Theatre Arts at Boise State University — which is when I first picked up my father’s dusty Telecaster and started to teach myself how to play guitar.  This was 2002.  I received a few impromptu lessons from my father’s friend Henry, who is an excellent guitar player and teacher.  He also bought me a book of chords and said, “memorize these.”

The first song I ever learned how to play was the Stray Cats’ “I Won’t Stand in Your Way” which, if you know the song, is a little more difficult for someone who could barely switch chords!  But I persevered and eventually learned to play at lot of the early Beatles catalog and other simple songs.  Then one day my father took me to a pawn shop and I purchased a Yamaha acoustic guitar and a beat up soft shell case for $150, both of which I still own to this day.  The strings were really high off the neck, making it extremely painful to play for longer than fifteen minutes at a time.  I’m really glad it was painful, though, cause it built up much needed callouses.

And that’s really about it.  I don’t remember the first song I wrote, but I can guarantee you it probably wasn’t good.  But I kept writing and singing and eventually thought about putting songs together into albums, and the next thing you know it’s suddenly become more than just a hobby!

You submitted the song “She Never Told Me.”
Could talk some about the song? 
What was the recording process like?

I was pretty low-fi to begin with.  My original recordings are me, guitar, a computer microphone, and an old copy of Cool Edit Pro that I pirated off the internet.  I probably shouldn’t say that here but I’m all about honesty.  Eventually I bought a preamp and a nice cheap acoustic-electric and my father let me borrow a good microphone, and I was dabbling with a drum program called Hydrogen.

So when I recorded Songs for Summer, which is the EP where “She Never Told Me” is located, I decided to strip away all the new fangled stuff I had bought/received/stolen and start from an organic place.  But I also wanted to experiment with layers of sound, and the sensation of an entire band or group of people on the album — even though it was just myself.  So I doubled vocals, and recorded several different guitar tracks, playing the same chords at different frets, with capos.  I also included a $12 tambourine and $3 egg shaker I bought at Artichoke Music in Portland.  My idea was no bass, no drum machine, only percussion and guitars and “organic” sounding instruments.

“She Never Told Me” was the climax of this organic process.  I truly love that song. When asked “What’s your favorite song?” by people I tend not to answer directly, because I find it somewhat narcissistic to talk about one’s own music like that, but if asked I will almost always say “She Never Told Me”.  It just sounds good.  It sounds fun and bright and like a group of people are at a bonfire, just jamming. And juxtaposed with the lyrics, which for me are simultaneously very honest and heartfelt while also being a bunch of things that have never happened to me … I think it all came together wonderfully.  It’s deliciously low-fi and comes straight from my heart at that moment.  I only have a handful of songs in which I feel this way.  So it was a special process for me.

What are some of the things that you do to “Get Social”?

I’ve had a website for years now, zornog.net.  I’ve been on myspace for years. I’ve generally spent a good portion of my teenage/early adulthood years on the internet, so I have a good grasp of how to get myself out there.  If you Google my name you’ll find it’s all over the damn place.  I have a Twitter, I have Facebook. I’m dabbling in other music sites like ReverbNation but right now I’m just establishing my fan base through my website and myspace because they are where people know me first and foremost.

I also make it my personal mission to not be one of those “mysterious” artists who shrouds themselves in secrecy on the internet.  I do the opposite — I used to use my real name back in the day when people were terrified of privacy online (this was ten, twelve years ago — the America Online days, when the internet was still a jungle).  I have a LiveJournal, where I regularly complain.  I like to be known as someone you can be friends with, because it’s true.  When I write blogs it’s not as someone who is “better” than the fans/friends reading — it’s just me writing to you.

The only thing I haven’t gotten into yet, but must, must, must, is YouTube.  I have an old computer and the logistics of setting up a webcam is difficult.  I just need to own up and buy a Macbook already!

Where have you found the most success promoting your music?

Myspace and Twitter.  Hell, I wouldn’t have known about Artists House Music without Twitter. And the connections I’ve made just through a simple micro-blogging site are staggering.  I almost didn’t join, it, either — my friends had already thought of it as a “passing craze”, but I figured if a guy could get out of an Egyptian jail by texting “arrested” to his Twitter account, then that was a service I needed to be a part of!

(Editors note: I saw that article too… here at CNN.)

But really, outside of touring — which is and should be the number one way to promote yourself — Myspace is widespread enough that you can get your name out there, and Twitter is just very cool.  I’m still trying to figure out the whole “SEO” concept, though.  I hadn’t even heard of that term until someone used it on Twitter!

What is your plan for the future?

Right now I’m establishing a name for myself in Portland, having moved here just a couple months ago from Idaho.  Since I’m an actor as much as a musician, I have two different artistic ways of doing that, which can get kind of confusing at times.  But really, it just boils down to auditioning for shows and going to play open mics around town, until I establish a fan base.  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s the most fun kind of work!  :D

——————————————————————————————————

What do yall think?  Have any questions for Josh?  Leave them here in the comments section, or go check out his website. If you’d like to be featured here in the future, submit your music to us using the drop box to the right!