Josh X Goes ‘Back To Basics’ For Next Steps In His Musical Journey
Twenty six year old singer, Josh X is a Brooklyn bred artist championing quality music. Since his emergence a few years ago, he’s been embraced by some of New York’s standard bearers and has found tons of support for his music and his talent. His mixtape and later his debut album, Can I Live? helped cement a fanbase, which has since led to him working on songs like “Ready to Go” co-written for FOX’s number one hit show EMPIRE and Pepsi-Cola and “Selfish” for VH1’s LHHNY breakout star Cardi B, a track that features Josh and will be featured on her new album. Josh also has a couple buzz singles out now, in addition to his new single “Taking Me Back,” which will be featured on his latest project, the soon to be released, Back To Basics.
We caught up with Josh for an interview with the widely talented singer. He talks about the new project, his success since the last album and what the industry has really been like behind the scenes. Read it all here…
Parlé Mag: The last time we spoke with you, you had just released a digital mixtape, Everybody Hates Josh X and preparing for your debut album, Can I Live? Can you tell me a little bit about that experience of releasing your mixtape and debut album?
Josh X: It was dope! A lot of people gravitated to it. I got a lot of raves from a lot of the big writes-MTV, BET. A lot of people embraced it, so it was dope and the same for my debut. Being an independent artist, it’s always great to see people support you when you’re doing it yourself. You have your own machine going. Everything that I got from that experience was a blessing and I’m looking forward to dropping another project and getting the same response and a bigger fan base.
Parlé Mag: Okay. Well, your debut album, Can I Live was compared to Usher’s, Confessions. How did it feel to be compared to someone as talented as he is and to have your debut album compared to an album as successful as Confessions?
Josh X: It was amazing. I’m a big Usher fan. Growing up, you know at that time we had CD’s. Confessions was in my CD player religiously. To even be mentioned in the same sentence as Usher is just a real humbling experience and a blessing. I’m very, very proud of that. Usher’s the man.
Parlé Mag: You should be proud. That’s really good. Can you tell us about your mixtape, Back To Basics?
Josh X: Back To Basics is something that I’ve been working on for a long time—for over a year right now. And, I’ve been really patient with this project, taking my time with it. I’ve released a few singles off of it, including “All For Love” featuring Jadakiss. {That} was playing all over the country, playing on The Breakfast Club and I had a lot of DJ’s like DJ Envy tweet out that was one of his favorite songs. That was really dope. I also dropped a song called, “Real Chick” from there. And, also that video from Jadakiss did 6.3 million views on WorldStarHipHop in 2 days. So, that was really dope to see that and MTV was playing it on MTV Hits and MTV Jams. Just off this mixtape, I’ve got to see a lot of traffic and a lot of people are starting to receive the songs well. I got 14 songs on there. You’re going to get a mixture of where I’ve come from, which is the piano—being a musician. You’re going to hear a lot of that incorporated in this project. And then you’re going to get some of the stuff that’s on the radio right now like, “All For Love,” “Real Chick,” “I Wanna Know.” I’m going to keep it pushing. I’m looking to drop this May.
Parlé Mag: Is the music industry what you envisioned it to be?
Josh X: Not at all (laughs). I laugh when you say that because I always joke around and say that, Man, if I knew what the business and industry was like I would have paid a little more attention at school and studied to be a doctor or something. But, my passion for it is what keeps me very driven and in love with the music. Now, the industry is a whole ‘nother level. It’s a beast I’m trying to learn and you know, you take the good with the bad. But, it’s not what I envisioned. There are a lot of fairy tale personalities in the business. You just fit in where you fit in and you build your fanbase and service to people that love your music and that’s why I continue to do it. {There are} people who gravitate to my music that are helping their lives in ways so, I can’t stop.
Parlé Mag: Do you believe that there are real friends in the music industry?
Josh X: I definitely think that there are real friends. I met a lot of good friends that I like to call. You just gotta watch people in this industry. They all have their own motives and intentions. You gotta just pay close attention to the people that you allow in your circle. A lot of people that are around me, are around me from when I first started and I very rarely allow people into my circle, but at the same time, yeah; I’ve met some good friends in this business.
Parlé Mag: What else are you working on now?
Josh X: Right now, I’m getting ready to release another single off this Back To Basics, called “Taking Me Back.” It’s actually in the studio getting mixed right now. We’re getting prepared for it. I’m looking forward to it. I shot the video… so that was exciting, with Picture Perfect who is a really big director right now. I’m getting ready to drop this on radio and pop it up on everywhere and you know, just hoping the people gravitate to it.
Parlé Mag: And, I’ll be checking it out. I heard your music when I knew that I would be speaking with you and you’re really talented.
Josh X: Thank you. I really do appreciate that.
Parlé Mag: Is there anything else you would like to add? And you can tell everyone where they can connect with you.
Josh X: You know, just looking forward to dropping, Back To Basics. Everyone can check me out on my Twitter. I’m real active on social media. Twitter.com/JoshXantus and same for Instagram-JoshXantus. And, check out my website. It’s gotta a lot of new merch that’s’ being created. www.joshxantusmusic.com.
