Josh Backwell profile picture

Josh Backwell

If I had a tail I'd wag it!

About Me

AUDIO &nbspLYRICSPHOTOSVIDEOVLOGs

I grew up in the small Victorian surf coast town of Breamlea and picked up a guitar at an early age when I fell in love with music. Early punk rock influences came from the Fat Wreck Chords school of NOFX, Bracket, Mad Caddies, Propagandhi and the like, as well as the vastly different folk sounds of Paul Kelly, The Waifs, David Hosking, Loren and The John Butler Trio. After playing a few small punk rock gigs at and around school, I began to feel the pull of the acoustic world and started writing politically charged folk songs. I even wrote and performed a song as part of my Year 12 English assessment on the stolen generations.
Education has been a long running competitor for time with me, but after 5 years of various studies including Physics and Electronic Engineering in Melbourne, I've finally completed my thesis and got my degree in Renewable Energy Engineering in Perth. Although the split between the East and West coasts of Australia has made for some interesting inspiration, its wreaked havoc with taking music to the next level, but at least now Ive satisfied the rational part of my brain sufficiently to allow my intuitive mind to fully concentrate on music!
Recently, Ive played gigs around The Surf Coast at venues including The RipCurl Pro, the Torquay Hotel, Surfrider Cafe, Growlers, The Rose, Ripe lounge, 38 Degrees South in Anglesea and The Empress in Melbs as well as the annual High Tide Festival. I've supported artists including James Reyne and Beau Young. On the other side of the continent, Ive played at Mojos, The Norfolk Basement and The Swan Acoustic Lounge in Fremantle.
I try to maintain honesty in my lyrics, drawing inspiration from social, political and environmental issues around the world, blended with my own personal experiences to create a unique, powerful sound varying from upbeat reggae/dub to the raw, emotional sounds of folk/rock.

FACEBOOK FANS!
visit me on my Facebook Page &nbsp where you can find more music and pictures, become a facebook fan to receive notifications of upcoming gigs and other music news!

NEW SONGS NOW AVAILABLE
IN THE AUDIO SECTION
Alpha Female and It's Just Me now available for free download!
click below to rate my tunes on Triple J Unearthed!

the songs get lonely there bereft of the warming envelopment of reviews! If anybody would like to review my songs, I would be greatly appreciative! just click the link below, Thanks!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/19/2006
Band Members:

Josh Backwell - Voice, Guitars, Pen, Paper


Influences:

I started off playing punk rock at school, influenced by NOFX, Bracket and all those Fat Wreck Chords and Honest Don's bands. Towards the end of school I crashed on a friend's couch after a party and fell asleep to Ben Harper's "Welcome to the Cruel World" album, his amazing lyrics and great guitar sounds steered me towards the acoustic side of things. These days I listen to pretty much anything from hip-hop (Cypress Hill, The Herd, TZU, spearhead etc.) to the incredibly honest lyrical genius of Bright Eyes. I am a huge fan of Dub as well and love the music of Sublime, Long Beach Dub Allstars, Salmonella Dub and of course Fat Freddy's Drop.

My favourite songwriters of all time include Loren, David Hosking, Glenn Richards, Greg Arnold, Paul Kelly, Connor Oberst and Ani DiFranco - all of which blow me away every time I listen to them. My favourite song of all time is the bonus track at the end of David Hosking's "Sleeper" album, the lyrics are amazing, he's such a brilliant storyteller.

Lately I've been blown away by the freakishly emotive stuff from Antony and the Johnsons as well as Sigur Ros and CocoRosie (Beautiful Boyz....holy shit!).

Check out these links:


Sounds Like:

Chicken


Type of Label: None

My Blog

Fair Trade Fiesta

FAIR TRADE FIESTAThis Friday 9th of May is Fair Trade Fiesta! come along to Federation Square for fair trade Tea & coffee, clothing, sports gear, chocolate, bags and loads of other goodies! Also I...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Sun, 04 May 2008 05:14:00 PST

A picture says a thousand words...

They say that a picture says a thousand words, here are several thousand words... Maybe I could've written my thesis using pictures... (enjoy)          ...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Wed, 24 May 2006 12:43:00 PST

Download more of my MP3s here

I’ve purchased a few good mics, so I’m recording all the time these days, most of the new stuff will be going up here, so keep checking! If you really like any of these songs, it’d b...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Mon, 29 May 2006 02:24:00 PST

Live in the living room

Hello out there all you wonderful pairs of ears!Just wanted to thank all the people who turned up to Live In The Living Room on Sunday night, I had a great time! Thanks to Lela and Mark for organising...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:49:00 PST

New songs recorded and up

Hello all, Before I go on a bit of a tangent, I'll tell you about the new songs, well they're freshies, written, recorded and vacuum packed for your convenience. I hope you like them, if not, the old ...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:48:00 PST

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

Well that's it! I'm just about ready to head off from Freo.The year so far has been the most incredible experience for me. It began with a totally different set of circumstances to what I am living n...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:40:00 PST

Elephants, Unicorns, Ligers (& the 38 degrees south gig)

Hello all!! This is just a quickie to say thankyou to all who came along to the Sunday Sesh on the 27th! It was a lot of fun! It was fantastic to catch up with all of my wonderful friends and to meet ...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:57:00 PST

What an incredible journey!

Wow! What an amazing trip! It was really quick in the end, but I stayed at some of the most beautiful places along the way!!! The South coast of WA is just spectactular. I was accompanied by an almost...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:36:00 PST

I'm FREEEEEEE!

My thesis is complete!!! I handed it in, I am now free, free, FREEEEE! Such an incredible relief. I am now going to hibernate for a couple of days, try and get over this cold that's trying to get me a...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Tue, 04 Jul 2006 11:34:00 PST

My thesis has consumed me

I am a musician trapped in the body of a farmer, who is trapped inside the body of a rusting 1963 Falcon station wagon, whos trapped inside the body of a final year Renewable Energy Engineering studen...
Posted by Josh Backwell on Sat, 24 Jun 2006 11:07:00 PST