On the last day of Austin City Limits, festival goers held onto the chance to listen to new artists on festival grounds.
Music has always been a part of Joshua Jensen’s life. The singer-songwriter has been playing music since he was 5-years old and after working with other artists, at 26-years-old he decided to pursue a career as a solo artist.
The Arizona native released his first song “Hoping” in July and his second single “People were singing” on Sept.22.
After performing for the first time live, Space City Frequency sat down to chat with Jensen.
Q: You come from a musical family. Tell me about the journey of growing up in a musical family?
Jensen: I love my family so much. I feel like they’ve given me a really solid musical foundation. We always treated music as something we were called to do, and we grew up just singing as a family, almost every night… My grandpa would come in and bring his guitar and we would just sing all these folks songs and I never really thought early that I would do what I’m doing now, but I did start playing classical piano. So for a while I was like, I’m just gonna play the piano my whole life…But then I transitioned into trying to combine that with all these other things, you know? But yeah, that’s kind of the story.
Q: How many instruments do you play?
Jensen: I’m still finding out. I love guitar and piano, play a little bit of drums. I would love to learn the violin.
q: Are you going to learn the violin soon or is there some time for it?
Jensen: I play a little bit just in my production. Sometimes I’ll like to pitch correct it. I’ll auto tune it because it sounds so bad. And then I’ll call my friends and have them do it instead.
Q: As a solo-artist you have two songs out right now. Tell me more about what’s coming next.
Jensen: At the end of this year, we’re gonna have a project out in the world. So we’ll have a few more songs. I’m gonna put out another song next month and then probably four or five more after that. It’s gonna be exciting. And then after that, the sky’s the limit. Find the magic.
Q: You worked with other artists and bands and everything. So how does it go from being in constant collaboration to being a solo artist?
Honestly, I feel like it’s not solo at all in the best kind of way. I love writing with other people. I love performing with other people, and I think my band and my friends and my community will always be the biggest part of my work. But it is a scary thing to look inside yourself and ask what you have to say and do you have something interesting to say?
Do you have a calling? And I think I’m finding it. I feel like I’m finding my voice and a little bit more [of] what kind of artist I want to be.
Q: Your sisters came on stage with you too. What was that like for you?
Jensen: It was awesome. We sang a song that I grew up singing with them all the time. And they’re the best, I had to have them be a special guest for my first festival.
Q: You also sang that song with your grandpa. Tell me what it feels like to sing it at a larger stage now.
Jensen: Yeah, it’s really special. I think the whole process of music is always starting something a small seed and watching it grow into a big tree. And sometimes you can’t control that tree. Sometimes it’s smaller than you’d hope, sometimes it’s bigger. I feel like a lot of people came to the set, and everyone heard it, and it’s really cool. I think there’s magic in it for sure. And I’ll continue trying to develop that. I would love to have my grandparents out for a song.
Q: Tell me about your songwriting process? I know you write your own songs and you’ve written songs for other artists. What’s that process like? And has that process changed, now that you’re writing for yourself?
Honestly, no. I feel like I write from the perspective of my own soul for sure. But the more I write, the more I realize, everyone’s so linked. We all go through such similar things that I feel like sometimes I write a song and I don’t feel I experienced this at all. And then sometimes it happens in the future to me or I’ll meet someone and they’ll say, “Well, that was my experience,” and I’m like, well, I think I channeled something for you.
Q: What’s your inspiration, books, movies, other artists? Where do you get your inspirations from?
People watching. I love watching people in a park or even here in this room. I think people are so fascinating. I think everything… that we can learn is like already within us, you know? …It really inspires me. You can do it anywhere, too. As long as there’s people or being isolated, being in nature alone. Nature inspires me a lot, to me, that’s, almost the same as people watching. It’s just like nature watching.
Q: You’re from Arizona. That’s your hometown. And now you’re in New York. How does the change in scenery, uh, change the way you think about nature and people and how’s that change been for you as an artist?
I definitely miss the wildlife and the nature of Arizona and the ability to go to Sawaro Lake on a weekend or up in the mountains where I am at, like a hike to Humphreys Peak or something, but New York’s kind of its own wild west in a way.
I feel like New York has its own character that has to be wrangled, you know? It’s like a wild feast sometimes. And that’s been a fun adventure to kind of dive into.
Q: Are you prepared for the cold?
No, I’ve actually been thinking I might come back here to Austin for a month or two. We’ll see. I love it here, it’s pretty cool.
Q: Is this your 1st time in Texas?
I passed through, but never, really stopped and gotten to stay here.
Q: Tell me what’s your first impression of Texas?
Jensen: I love walking by and seeing cactus’s. The nature is similar to Arizona. The people here are great. I think they’re so fun and I love how… you go into a restaurant, everyone’s smiling, everyone’s laughing.
In New York, everyone’s like, move, get out of the way, I want to get along with my day. But here, strangers come up to you. I landed and some guy was like, I love your shirt, man. So,I think it’s a very friendly place.
Q: Tell me about how it feels like to play this stage, then going back and writing, again, like you’re kind of like out now with like people and you’re like meeting new people and you’re in a new place, but then you’re going to go back to writing and like singing your songs of producing them. How’s this experience gonna impact your writing?
Jensen: I think it’s going to change everything, honestly. I think playing my first show live has made me think, how can I keep people on their feet? Keep people dancing? I love dancing and I’ve written a lot of slow songs and I’m ready to pick up the pace for myself too. I wanna dance and have fun.
Q: You wanna dance number?You know how Chapel Road created a hot to go because she wanted you to dance with people on stage?
Jensen: Exactly. Yeah. So I’m gonna create my own version….Hot barbecue.
Q: A lot of your songs are folks. What other genres do you want to venture into? What kind of genres have you been writing about so far?
Jensen: I’m so inspired by the blues, and I think, jazz. I played… in a jazz piano school program for a few years, and I would love to write some Chet Baker-esque, like Bill Evans tunes.
Q: Before I let you go, tell me something I have not asked you about your songwriting and your journey as a musician.
Jensen: I think it’s all about tapping into like the universal consciousness and whether that’s God or whether that’s spirit or soul. And I feel like I wish I could say I’m just super chill and I don’t think about that, but I definitely do, because you can feel it sometimes in a song, like so many artists that inspire me. My dream artists to work with are like BonIver. I love him. I love this guy, Max Scripture…I think people are tapped in right now. I think there’s so much good music and we all just need to be there for each other in the world. There’s a lot going on.
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