Patrick Joseph - Singer/Songwriter
3/22/10
Patrick Joseph is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hailing from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Joseph got his start in music performing in and out of various bands in the Pittsburgh area and collaborating with different songwriters before finally finding his own path as a solo artist at the age of twenty-one, playing acoustic gigs in and around the Pittsburgh region while writing and recording demos of his original material.
With the help of social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, Patrick Joseph’s self-recorded demos circulated the internet, receiving positive reviews and gaining a steady internet fan-base which inspired him to release a compilation of these demos in 2007 entitled The Basement Tapes EP. The Basement Tapes EP was distributed through indie music site CDBaby.com where it received top-ratings from fans and is now sold out and out-of-print. “I never intended on putting those songs out there as prematurely as I did,” he explains, “But it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Those songs were all just sketches of my early moments as a songwriter, the first steps of exploration.” Joseph plans on adding re-recorded, remixed and remastered versions of select songs from The Basement Tapes EP to his upcoming full-length CD currently under production.
After nearly two years of playing shows and writing in the Pittsburgh region, Joseph decided it was time for new horizons. “There’s a certain ceiling you feel that you hit in the smaller cities,” he explains. “Even if you don’t actually hit the ceiling full-on, you can see it and become aware of it and it makes you anxious, nervous, a little antsy. I saw the ceiling of Pittsburgh from below and thought maybe I should plant my roots someplace a little bigger, a little brighter.” Taking his own advice, in the fall of 2008 he replanted himself across the country in Los Angeles, California and currently resides in the neighborhood of Los Feliz.
During August of 2008, Patrick Joseph’s song “Arsonist Blues” was featured in an online contest at indie music website musicnation.com. Sponsored by Spin Magazine, Hennessy, Epic Records and Gibson Guitars, the contest was based on fan voting and boasted a recording contract as top prize. Amongst two-thousand entries, “Arsonist Blues” won first prize in the fan head-to-head competition, receiving praise from both fans and judges such as acclaimed singer-songwriter Butch Walker and current editor of Spin Magazine Doug Brod. This prompted an offer to sign with budding indie label Original Signal Records (Ingrid Michaelson, Butch Walker), but after careful consideration Joseph declined to sign. “It wasn’t the right thing, the right time. I was just in the process of moving cross-country and I really wanted to keep my options open.”
A gifted composer, arranger, songwriter, performer and producer, Patrick Joseph even adds recording his own material to his list of tasks. “I never really wanted to be my own recording engineer or producer,” he muses. “It just kind of fell on me and now I’m stuck under it, it’s something I’ve always done though. I guess it just came out of necessity. Once you get the reigns of a certain degree of power it’s hard to get used to letting go though, manipulating the songs and not having to run ideas through another filter before they hit the tape. There’s only a certain amount of processing, a certain number of tasks that can travel through the human brain at any particular time at once and if you don’t delegate or organize those tasks then you’re due for some kind of a meltdown.” When asked about the idea of collaborating with a producer in the future he responded, “Oh absolutely yes, that’s the goal, I suppose - to find someone I really respect musically and can operate on the same page with. I look forward to the day when I can bounce ideas and create a chemistry with someone in the studio. Or having someone to hit ‘record’ would be a nice start, too.”
Joseph lists his influences spanning from classical composers to folk songwriters to the modern-day, otherworldly production stylings of producers Nigel Godrich and Jon Brion. “And the Beatles, Bob Dylan of course,” he adds. “I don’t think anyone would who they are without those guys, but those are obvious. Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley. Anyone who can turn a heads of slobs, snobs and shy souls alike in an unpretentious, effortlessly beautiful way is pretty good in my book.”
Patrick Joseph currently has his sites set on performing in the Los Angeles area and finishing up his debut solo album, of which a release date has yet to have been set. “I keep hacking away at it, little bit at a time (laughing). It’s coming though, and soon. In the meantime though I’ll be playing live, that’s the most important thing to me right now. That’s the most important thing to any performer, really.”
Look for show dates and the release of new recordings to come.
Patrick Joseph is currently unsigned.
www.patrickjosephmusic.com
www.facebook.com/patrickjosephmusic
www.myspace.com/patrickjosephmusic
Patrick Joseph is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hailing from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Joseph got his start in music performing in and out of various bands in the Pittsburgh area and collaborating with different songwriters before finally finding his own path as a solo artist at the age of twenty-one, playing acoustic gigs in and around the Pittsburgh region while writing and recording demos of his original material.
With the help of social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, Patrick Joseph’s self-recorded demos circulated the internet, receiving positive reviews and gaining a steady internet fan-base which inspired him to release a compilation of these demos in 2007 entitled The Basement Tapes EP. The Basement Tapes EP was distributed through indie music site CDBaby.com where it received top-ratings from fans and is now sold out and out-of-print. “I never intended on putting those songs out there as prematurely as I did,” he explains, “But it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Those songs were all just sketches of my early moments as a songwriter, the first steps of exploration.” Joseph plans on adding re-recorded, remixed and remastered versions of select songs from The Basement Tapes EP to his upcoming full-length CD currently under production.
After nearly two years of playing shows and writing in the Pittsburgh region, Joseph decided it was time for new horizons. “There’s a certain ceiling you feel that you hit in the smaller cities,” he explains. “Even if you don’t actually hit the ceiling full-on, you can see it and become aware of it and it makes you anxious, nervous, a little antsy. I saw the ceiling of Pittsburgh from below and thought maybe I should plant my roots someplace a little bigger, a little brighter.” Taking his own advice, in the fall of 2008 he replanted himself across the country in Los Angeles, California and currently resides in the neighborhood of Los Feliz.
During August of 2008, Patrick Joseph’s song “Arsonist Blues” was featured in an online contest at indie music website musicnation.com. Sponsored by Spin Magazine, Hennessy, Epic Records and Gibson Guitars, the contest was based on fan voting and boasted a recording contract as top prize. Amongst two-thousand entries, “Arsonist Blues” won first prize in the fan head-to-head competition, receiving praise from both fans and judges such as acclaimed singer-songwriter Butch Walker and current editor of Spin Magazine Doug Brod. This prompted an offer to sign with budding indie label Original Signal Records (Ingrid Michaelson, Butch Walker), but after careful consideration Joseph declined to sign. “It wasn’t the right thing, the right time. I was just in the process of moving cross-country and I really wanted to keep my options open.”
A gifted composer, arranger, songwriter, performer and producer, Patrick Joseph even adds recording his own material to his list of tasks. “I never really wanted to be my own recording engineer or producer,” he muses. “It just kind of fell on me and now I’m stuck under it, it’s something I’ve always done though. I guess it just came out of necessity. Once you get the reigns of a certain degree of power it’s hard to get used to letting go though, manipulating the songs and not having to run ideas through another filter before they hit the tape. There’s only a certain amount of processing, a certain number of tasks that can travel through the human brain at any particular time at once and if you don’t delegate or organize those tasks then you’re due for some kind of a meltdown.” When asked about the idea of collaborating with a producer in the future he responded, “Oh absolutely yes, that’s the goal, I suppose - to find someone I really respect musically and can operate on the same page with. I look forward to the day when I can bounce ideas and create a chemistry with someone in the studio. Or having someone to hit ‘record’ would be a nice start, too.”
Joseph lists his influences spanning from classical composers to folk songwriters to the modern-day, otherworldly production stylings of producers Nigel Godrich and Jon Brion. “And the Beatles, Bob Dylan of course,” he adds. “I don’t think anyone would who they are without those guys, but those are obvious. Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley. Anyone who can turn a heads of slobs, snobs and shy souls alike in an unpretentious, effortlessly beautiful way is pretty good in my book.”
Patrick Joseph currently has his sites set on performing in the Los Angeles area and finishing up his debut solo album, of which a release date has yet to have been set. “I keep hacking away at it, little bit at a time (laughing). It’s coming though, and soon. In the meantime though I’ll be playing live, that’s the most important thing to me right now. That’s the most important thing to any performer, really.”
Look for show dates and the release of new recordings to come.
Patrick Joseph is currently unsigned.
www.patrickjosephmusic.com
www.facebook.com/patrickjosephmusic
www.myspace.com/patrickjosephmusic
