2024 is shaping up to be a stellar year for Josh Ross.
After the success of his 2023 single ‘Trouble', the Canadian-born singer-songwriter signed with Universal Music Group Nashville as well as touring with the likes of Nickelback and Bailey Zimmerman and scooping the Canadian Country Music Awards Breakthrough Artist of the Year. He released his EP ‘Complicated' back in March and recently wrapped his own headlining tour in Canada, before crossing the pond to open for Bailey again on the UK leg of his Religious Tour.
Whilst he was over here for Highways Festival last month, I caught up with Josh to chat about his experience of UK audiences, latest single ‘New Me', how he approaches his songwriting and what's next for him this year.
This is your first trip over to the UK – how's it been going?
It's been great. Definitely took a couple of days to get acclimatised to the time change, and then really it's been awesome. The fans have been awesome, the staff at all the venues that we've played so far have really been incredible. And just getting to explore. The history is really incredible here. It's been enjoyable.
What have the highlights of your trip been so far?
Yeah, we got to spend a bunch of time in Glasgow which was awesome, wander around and explore some stuff there and go on hikes and stuff. So that's been really nice. But it's been a lot of quick travelling. We were in London just over a week ago with Bailey Zimmerman. We had a show here and then been travelling around and now we're back today, and then we go to Belfast and Dublin. So yeah, we're seeing a bunch of stuff quick!
Is there anything that's surprised you about audiences here – maybe songs they responded to in ways you weren't expecting?
Yeah, I have a song called ‘Red Flags' which has been a surprise in North America, just playing that song and what that song kind of does. So yeah, it's been really great to see here too that when I get out on stage, that they also know that one and it's been translating really well. Kind of catching me off guard. You guys all definitely pay attention here which is really exciting.
And for people who haven't seen you live before, what is a typical show of yours like?
So this performance at Highways is a little shorter than I would like to say I like. I like a longer set, you know, 45 minutes or an hour longer, because I feel like I get to show more of who I am or play songs that are more deep cuts for me. But in 30 minutes I try to give people a variety of who I am as a person and as a songwriter and as an artist, and it'll be a fast-paced 30 minutes, for sure.
You've just wrapped up your own headline tour in Canada. How do you find that experience compared to playing at festivals like Highways or opening for artists like Bailey?
Yeah, it's definitely different. I think you appreciate both differently. I think you learn a lot from opening shows with other artists. You learn from them, you get inspired by them, you figure out what you wanna do or what you would maybe wanna do differently. So that's been really great with any of the kind of opening shows that I have. And then, yeah the rewarding ones are definitely the headlining shows. Being able to take the amount of time that you want and make a set how you wanna make it. You build the show the way you want it so that's definitely the rewarding shows for me?
Are there any songs you're particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
‘Tell Me A Lie' I really love, that's off the EP ‘Complicated'. It's just been fun to play another song that just reminds me of ‘Trouble' but that kind of has its own character to it. Playing ‘Single Again' is really awesome, I really love that. And then we've been playing a lot of new music. I have a new song out that's called ‘New Me' and we've been playing that and teasing it over the last couple of months, and it's just been a lot of fun to play that one.
What have you learned from the experience of opening up for artists like Bailey and Nickelback?
Yeah, Bailey, it's interesting to see with his demographic and how his fans are engaged by him and what engagement means to him with his fan base. Learning all different types of venues – Bailey's playing all different types of venues right now so we get to explore all different size of rooms and what that means for the show, production, all kinds of stuff. And then playing the shows with Nickelback, we did a lot of really big rooms with them last year, arenas and amphitheatres and stuff like that. And a lot of the times fans weren't necessarily fans of me when they arrived, and my job was by the end of my 30 minutes there to have people leave as fans. And definitely learned a lot through that and watching, again, in that sense with such a large crowd, how to entertain a crowd from a band like Nickelback.
You've mentioned the ‘Complicated' EP which has been out for a few months now. How's the reaction to that been?
It's been really great. I got everything I think I wanted out of the project. The idea for me was to put a bunch of songs on there that were all tied together through me, obviously, but different sonically. And now I can go back and look at the stats and see what songs did well organically, whether there was social media moments with them. It was kind of a test for me. It felt like my first EP or body of work.
Is there anything that's come out of that where you've thought ‘oh I wasn't expecting people would gravitate towards this one'?
Yeah, I think ‘Burn Back' is one that's kind of exciting. It's exciting to see that's one of the ones that organically… it doesn't have as much support or playlisting, so organically that one's done really, really well on its own. Makes me excited for songs like ‘New Me' that are kind of in that same lane coming out soon.
Tell us a bit more about ‘New Me'…
Yeah, it was just inspired – I kind of had this idea of the saying ‘you are who you are' and certain things either you can change as a human being and there are other things that you'll always kind of stick true to who you are, and sometimes there's not a new you or a new me. So that was what the idea was inspired by. I think I tied it into a situation that I myself or that people around me have gone through, in regards to maybe you weren't the right fit for somebody in a relationship because they wanted you to change, and maybe you weren't willing to change.
I also wanted to ask you about your writing process. How do you typically approach your songwriting? Or does it depend what the song needs?
I think it's different in all different situations, whether I'm by myself or if I'm with a group of people writing. But typically I'll just be inspired by a life event or say you were to say something and it kind of pops an idea into my head, whether that be a line or a word. And then I jot it down in my phone and I try to come back to it and remember what it was that I was inspired by in that moment. I typically used to write… I still do but write verses first and then the chorus. A lot of people write choruses first. And then yeah, just try to write to whatever the hook is of the song.
Are there any songs you found particularly easy or particularly challenging in terms of the writing?
‘Trouble' was probably the easiest one. I have one called ‘Trouble'. That or ‘First Taste Of Gone' were under 45 minute writes which is very quick and rare. I'm trying to think which ones took a while now that I'm thinking about it. ‘Complicated' definitely took a little while to write. I do remember that one taking a good long day to write. The rest of them were all within three, four hours of writing.
Speaking of ‘Trouble' – did you know that was going to be such a big song for you when you were working on it? Or has it surprised you with how it's taken off?
Yeah. I think it's hard to know. I had teased it on social media a little bit and I think I got a good judgement from that then, and it made me excited about the song coming out. But then it was one of those songs that still to this day, it's growing more and more every day which is really awesome to see. You know, sometimes songs get added to playlists and they get a bunch of streams or adds at radio, and then once all that support stops everything stops. But it's a song now that streams more now then when it was in its prime, I guess. So there's a lot of things that come together to make that happen, but that was definitely one of the ones. I never expected it to be what it is but I'm definitely very thankful for that. And it's also just a truly real, inspired story.
Is that personal element to your music something that's important to you?
I think so. I think to go out and enjoy singing, for me at least, the more organic it feels the more I'm inspired to go sing about it or watch what it does to people. That's what inspires me, seeing how the music affects people.
Is there a song you wish you'd written?
Oh, that's tough. Um… I'm trying to think. What's that Lewis Capaldi song that just came out that I love? ‘Strangers', right? Yeah, I thought that was just a really incredible idea. I've always just been a huge fan of his, so he's got a bunch of them. I'm trying to think of anybody else recently where I was like “I wish I would have wrote that”. There's been certain songs that stopped me in my tracks. I remember… what's that Gabby Barrett song too? [singing] “Like you did on me…” ‘I Hope', yeah. Certain ones like that you come across and you're like “dang!” Usually it's a really simple concept. It's just like, how do you get something so simple like that and kind of flip it on its head? So those are a couple of examples.
What's on the bucket list for you in terms of people you'd want to work with, places you'd want to play and so on?
I think today's definitely a bucket list, especially in London. I'm very grateful to be here and there's a lot of history, you know, walking around today I really realised. I knew how special it was coming here but being here today and actually seeing the pictures on the walls and all the years of history here, it's really incredible. And yeah, back in the US, I definitely have places. Like Madison Square Garden I think is a bucket list for me. And Sydney, playing there too – I'd be excited to go to Australia and be a part of all that there too. For me it's also just locations. I don't know if I'd necessarily have travelled as much if it wasn't for music, and I'm just very thankful that music's allowing me to travel everywhere.
What's next for you? Obviously ‘New Me' just came out, you've got some festivals in the US this summer and then you're on tour with Luke Bryan – is that the focus for the next six months or so?
Yeah, hopefully we're trying to map out a bunch of dates for myself, like a headlining tour, so I'm excited to see how that all pans out. And then just definitely more singles. More songs, so by the end of the year… I don't know if we'll do another body of work by the end of the year, like an EP, but definitely still working towards a long form or an album. And then, yeah, just lots of shows and staying inspired. That's about it.
And lastly – have you got plans to come back to the UK after this trip?
I would like to say yes. We don't have any solid plans yet, but I have mentioned that it would be really cool, I think next year at some point to get back here and hopefully do some headline stuff. That would be really cool.
Josh Ross' latest single ‘New Me' is out now on The Code Entertainment/Universal Music Canada.
