Earlier this month, when we stumbled across the surreal hip-hop sounds of Joshie P, we were immediately immersed in his unique concoction of sounds.
On his latest album A Little Less Darker, the artist stomped through his signature brand of hallucinatory, story-driven rap tracks that’ll pull you in and leave you hanging on each word. So we caught up with the man himself to chat the new album, influences, and what’s next.
After falling in love with his 2017 album A Little Less Dark, we caught up with hip-hop artist Joshie P to chat about his unique sounds.
HAPPY: Hey Josh, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
JOSH: Hey mate I’m great thanks, yourself? I’ve been working on an awesome new track with some acoustic guitar played absolutely amazingly by one of my friends.
HAPPY: We’ve been really loving A Little Less Dark… could you tell us a little about the album? Were there any specific themes you were trying to navigate throughout it?
JOSH: Thank you so much. Basically I wanted to take some common things from life, look at them completely differently and then turn those into stories. I also wanted to try to get people to realise some severely wrong things with this world. As well as sometimes just being a cocky prick.
HAPPY: The album came out last year… how are you feeling about it now that you’ve some time to sit on it?
JOSH: Really happy with how some of the songs ended up and not as happy about some others.
HAPPY: A Little Less Dark was the follow up to The Ups And Downs of Purgatory… how do you feel you sound developed on the new album?
JOSH: I felt a lot of my previous album’s songs had more of a sad vibe and tried to steer away from that a little bit in A Little Less Dark. Which is essentially where the name came from.
HAPPY: Do you find you approached the writing of these two albums differently? If so, how so?
JOSH: Not really, I can’t really write too well when I’m not feeling it. I can rhyme just as well, but don’t love the message as much. Because of this I wait for inspiration to strike and then go crazy with it.
HAPPY: We’re picking up a massive range of sounds in your music… are there any particular artists that have influenced you?
JOSH: As far as rappers I love Machine Gun Kelly and Yelawolf because they have a lot of acoustic music in their songs, but my musical tastes span from classical to screamo type songs. I like to try to include bits and pieces of a very wide range of things in my songs.
HAPPY: If you could describe your music in one sentence, how would you do it?
JOSH: Witty, satirical lyricism over beautiful melodies and dope drums.
HAPPY: What’s next for Joshie P? Any new music in the works?
JOSH: Absolutely. I have enough songs ready to record for a new bigger album, but I’m thinking I’ll record a mixtape first. As well as covering a few popular songs, but rearranged for hip hop.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
JOSH: Cheers mate, have a good one!
A Little Less Dark is available now.
