By Brendan McNerney
Synthesis – Feb 19th, 2007
“I have this name that people assume I made up, and it is my real name. Josh Funk is my real name…believe me, I would have picked something much cooler.”
Besides having a name that is just begging to be on stage, and a good sense of humor, Josh Funk is backing up his presense in music with creative, pop-driven songs that can easily be related to and enjoyed by the masses. Born and raised in Chico, Funk has pursued a lifelong love of music, being involved in multiple bands throughout the years, although he has found a calming and more personal escape in creating his own solo music. Now with a third album of his own and a CD release party at Has Beans on February 24th, Josh Funk is jumping headfirst into making a name for himself as a singer/songwriter. Synthesis met up with Funk during his busy schedule to discuss his new album, The Face You Show Your Enemies, as well as his music career in general.
{What made you get away from your previous band-based music and pursue your own endeavor solely as Josh Funk?}
I was doing both of them at the same time, and I was entering songwriting competitions on my own. I used to kind of split them up in my head; the more upbeat, thicker, rock stuff was my band stuff, my softer ballad stuff was my own and I didn’t see them as the same. So I entered them in the competition under my own name and started to see that they were more popular and people were responding to it more and I was getting better feedback from it. I fought it for a long time… but it was just for me.
{Now I know that you have a new nine-song album coming out (The Face You Show Your Enemies), where was recording done on the album?}
I have a partial setup at my house, so I started out most of the tracks where I was set up with a grid and did acoustic guitar, vocals and some electric guitar and then the majority was recorded down in Hollywood and L.A. I was kind of doing a long distance thing, so I was working with a couple of producers, and then a good friend, Ryan Sanders, who actually plays bass for me [and] works at Roland, he recorded and tracked a lot of the album at Roland, the drums and the bass… I did play bass on one song, because I recorded that song at a studio called Swing House in Hollywood and I played everything but drums on it. I put a lot of weird stuff on the album. I actually played a fishing pole at one part; I recorded the reel, because I was trying to get this little cranking at the beginning. So I played a fishing pole, handclaps, shakers, and I made a recorder and played that too.
{So would you say that you are getting into a different genre or exploring different areas of music?}
It’s a little further away from the emo/pop/rock stuff I was doing. Some really big influences are Weezer, and they definetly shine through. A little more quirky and experimental, but I’m still keeping the songs catchy.
{Living in Chico, do you ever have a difficult time getting your music to the masses?}
I’m trying to be as creative as I can about getting my stuff out there. I’m trying to do less of the grunt work, less playing shows for five people, and more of trying to just expose it in the time I do have. So there’s a couple of ways I’m promoting it. Myspace is huge; it’s really helped me out. Also I have songs on a few DVD’s.
{Yeah, I know that you did a compilation a while back.}
Yeah, I was also on a compilation for Swing House Records and I’ve had some people all over the country write me about that. In fact, that’s how I learned I was on it. Some girl from Arizona wrote me and told me, “I really like your song on the Swing House compilation,” and I had to make some phone calls and had forgotten that I had agreed to that like two years before. But I’m going to be recording a live concert DVD with a friend of mine…and release it worldwide soon.