Josiah Jorgensen plays thoughtful, soothing music that incorporates the sounds of nature. He has a new release coming out June 28 and he was good enough to tell us more about it.
Please tell us more about yourself and what brought you to music.
I grew up out in the country in the small town of Cokato, MN. My early musical influences were bluegrass bands and artists like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash as well as hearing my dad play the guitar and sing to me and my brothers and sisters. Me and my family would play local nursing homes and small bluegrass shows as well.
Around the time I went to college I started to hear music from more progressive folk bands like Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, and Bon Iver. I immediately fell in love with that sound and connected with it more than I had with anything else. I started a band with a couple of friends, and we played coffee shops, churches, bars, weddings, etc. Since then, I’ve slowed down on playing live shows and have transitioned my focus to creating my own content from my home in South Minneapolis. All of my songs are handwritten, performed, recorded, and produced. Writing songs is the best way that I’ve found to process through themes like family, love, and God.
Northern Pine is coming out soon. The lyrics paint a picture “with your hands in your pocket” that evoke an immediate understanding. What inspired the song?
I wrote this song back in January. At the time I was reading a book called “Attached”, which is about different attachment styles within relationships. It really clicked for me and helped me understand why some people act anxious or avoidant within relationships. This song is about someone who fits more into the avoidant category. I really liked the imagery of someone keeping their hands in their pockets while loving someone else. For me it evokes such a strong emotional and even physical response. I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of that, and have come to realize that it really says more about that person’s own insecurities than it does about the person that they are trying to love. For me, there’s a lot of freedom in that realization.
The sounds of nature in the song bring a soothing undercurrent, which along with some of the lyrics, pays homage to Minnesota. I love it. What is the process of adding in nature sounds? Where do you find them? Which comes first, the song or the nature sound? Or do you have a library of collected sounds?
In this song my mind is in the north woods of Minnesota, walking down old logging trails, hunting grouse. It’s the type of place where the woods are dense and heavy. Sound is dampened, and the air is thick with tension waiting for a grouse to flush and scare the hell out of you. I pull some of my nature sounds from free audio libraries, but I also love to take a microphone out and record some sounds myself. For example in one of my previous releases (Icarus) I recorded the outdoor sounds in the backyard of my childhood home, since that song focuses on family and the process of growing up. It was very meaningful for me.
Will there be more songs coming soon? Maybe an EP or album?
I plan on releasing 2x more songs at the end of July! These 3x songs were all recorded at the same time with a friend of mine, so they all feel like one project. I’ll likely group them into an EP.
Are you playing shows? If so, where? If not, where would you like to play?
I haven’t played shows for a few years, and I’m really enjoying just focusing on writing and recording right now. I did submit an entry into a cover contest my favorite band (Trampled by Turtles) is having. The winner gets to play with them at Red Rocks, so everyone should like and comment on my video, so that I can play there:)
Mostly Minnesota 