Josh Berwanger has been rocking for twenty years, playing in The Anniversary, The Only Children, and now in Berwanger. We will be reviewing Berwanger's latest album, Watching A Garden Die, tomorrow, but for now here are five questions that Josh answered for me via e-mail.
When asked, I say the best concert I ever went to was Berwanger, The Hotelier and The Get Up Kids at the Hawthorne Theater in Portland, September 2015 . That was where I first saw you. To me, it felt like each act built on each other, and it brought the audience and the bands together. What makes a great show for you, and which ones stand out in your mind?
I think shows that are diverse in music but also gel with each other are the best. A few that come to the top of my mind that were life changing would be James Brown, I saw the Ramones 3 times, Beastie Boys, Ozzy, Guns n' Roses, the Dead Milkmen, who were one of the first bands I saw at a club, I think I was a sophomore in High School, definitely got in trouble that night for being out way too late.
Five years and three albums later, what has changed for you and what remains the same?
I try to keep on a path and not stray from it. Which means continuing to evolve and stay in touch with new music. I've definitely been in the boat of "why is this band/music popular" but the only thing that does is make me doubt what I'm doing. Embracing new music and focusing on creating my own new music is what I focus on. One could go on all day about what's changed in the music industry but I think that is somewhat focusing on negatives because we can always say "oh, it was so much better back in the day..."
I think every Berwanger album title and cover could work for a horror movie, but Watching A Garden Die seems like more of an existential horror. What does the album mean to you?
I've been very fortunate to work with a lot of great artists like Jay Shaw, Aaron Moreno and Mike Mitchell who did Watching A Garden Die. WAGD to me is a bit out of my comfort zone with a few songs being more personal then I tend to write. I tell myself it's a sad album that has a hopeful meaning behind it, but I might be lying to myself about that.
On the topic of horror, could you tell us a little about your relationship with the movie Troll 2?
Troll 2 is just a classic piece of cinema, if a person hasn't seen it I recommend them watching the documentary on it first called Best Worst Movie. The doc title alone gives you a little insight what you are getting into.
What are your hopes for the next five years?
I'm currently working on a new project with Carly Gwin on lead vocals along with my guitarist Ricky Salthouse and Jarod Evans (he produced my album The Star Invaders). I'm really excited about this and will be focusing mainly on that in this next year. I have two albums of Berwanger material written I just need to start recording it. I'd like to refer to my hopes more as my determination. So in the next 5 years I'm determined to get this new project off that ground and work to make it as successful as can be.
Berwanger will be playing with Soul Asylum and Local H tomorrow night at the Madrid Theater in Kansas City, Missouri.
https://www.bandsintown.com/e/1019500312-berwanger-at-madrid-theatre
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment