Josh Mease

Describing his music as “dreamy/catchy/poppy,” the 28 year old Houston-born and Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, Josh Mease first got into music as a child. “I wanted to play drums when I was 9 or 10 but my parents thought it would be better for their sanity if I tried guitar instead,” Mease says while reflecting on his first forays into music. Mease had also tried taking piano lessons but quickly discovered that he wasn’t into it as much. “I ended up really taking to the guitar and just kept practicing.  I went to a performing arts high school, where I studied jazz.  I eventually came up to the New School to continue studying jazz, but I lost interest about halfway through.  I decided I liked writing songs and singing them more, so I just stuck with that,” he continued. He met his bandmate Alan Hampton back in Houston and they both came to New York around the same time. Alan knew Bill Campbell through some a series of random gigs they used to play together and Alan introduced Bill to Mease. Josh met Frank Locrasto (keyboards) while they were both studying at New School. Each member of Mease’s backing band plays with him live and on the record. “They’ve been playing with me live for a while now,” Mease said of his backing band.

Perhaps the difference between Mease and his influences is how he went about the writing of the Wilderness album. “For Wilderness,” Mease explains, “the writing and recording were done in two separate stages. Aside from making up parts, there wasn’t really any writing on the fly as I had the songs and arrangements kind of mapped out beforehand.” Most of the basic tracks – including drums and bass – were done in Echolab Studios in Texas with Matt Pence as the session’s engineer. The rest of the record was finished at a friend’s small studio in Connecticut and in Mease’s bedroom closet in Brooklyn. “This was mainly due to budget constraints,” he says. “Trying to record in a closet in the middle of Brooklyn is no easy task but I think it turned out well.”

Currently, Mease is touring in support of his new release and I recently caught his live act down at the Mercury Lounge a few weeks ago and Mease showed a playful sense of humor in his stage banter and adds not just a sense of levity and joy to the material while displaying an inherent love of what he’s doing. Admittedly, he says that during the tours he’s been on that he has a “special place in his heart for the south and southwest. I also love California. I haven’t played my stuff abroad yet so that answer my change soon.” Catch Josh on tour across the country as he’s a unique and captivating experience.

Josh is playing a show at rockwood music hall, 196 allen street (between east houston and stanton streets) on august 27th at 11:30. there’s no cover but there is a drink minimum.