Josh Rouse
Singer/songwriter Josh Rouse first hit the scene in 1998 with his debut, Dressed Up Like Nebraska, a lovely amalgam of Laurel Canyon pop, Brill Building wit, and midwest melancholy.
Two years later, when Cameron Crowe used Rouse’s song “Directions” in the film Vanilla Sky, his status as as adult contemporary radio up-and-comer seemed cemented.
But Rouse, never one to get too comfortable in one place, dodged both genre and major labels, instead beginning a string of standout records on Rykodisc, each with its own distinct sound seemingly defying the record that came before it.
In 2003, he released 1972, which was simultaneously a breezy, nostalgic pop romp and a middle finger to the expectations placed upon him as a rank-and-file singer/songwriter. And he followed that up with Nashville, which went in an entirely different direction.
Then he up and moved to Spain.
Some artists defy expectations as a kind of marketing tool, trying on different personas or sounds to make a buzz. Others, with Josh Rouse as a prime example, do it simply because they’re following a restless muse.
“I don't really plan things very well, or I don't really have a vision for it,” he laughs. “I mean, it always starts with doing some songs, and liking the direction, and deciding ‘okay, I'm going to continue in this direction.’ That's the way I've been working for the past decade. I moved to Spain and started playing with different people who had different influences, and got me to different things. So that's definitely that's all been there. And, you know, I've been lucky enough to travel around Europe, in the states a lot. Australia, you know, tour all over the world, and Brazil a few times. And taking all this stuff and put it into my computer and come out with things that I hope are my own, but that have a different twist on it.”
“I think it's been hard for record labels to sell me as an artist or creative, [because] I don't have an aesthetic that I just stuck to, like, ‘this is my sound, I'm doing this.’ I don't mind the musical tourism thing. I do definitely like playing with sound, and texture, and and genre-hopping.”
These days, Rouse and his family split their time between Valencia, Spain and Nashville, Tennessee, touring and recording throughout Europe and the U.S.
The pandemic threw a major wrench in his transatlantic lifestyle, and in 2020 he just barely made it back to Spain before the country locked down.
“I got one of the last flights into Valencia,” he says. “And it was a whole different scene. Helicopters flying around. You could only go to the grocery store. Children could not go outside for three months.”
As it did for many of us, the pandemic forced him to stop and take stock. “It's been great for for me to slow down and get some songs written and recorded,” he says. “And I definitely am grateful for that. And spending more time with my family — although homeschooling at the end of last year was a new challenge. We’re in an urban area in a small apartment. So we took the kids up on the roof a couple times a day because that's the only place they could go. I definitely missed being in Nashville and having a yard.”
The year of isolation produced a new solo project called Isla, with a brand new release titled The Mediterranean Gardener.
“The Mediterranean Gardner is a book that my wife bought me,” he says. “I think when she was in Nashville, she wanted an olive tree really bad. And it’s just not going to grow there. It won’t survive. But the project was something I could do … I just came to this little room here and worked on some songs. I played everything on it. And I wanted to make something really new-agey, almost. Not like soft rock. Something that was very meditative for the time that we were living in.”
The record, available from Yep Roc Records, begins with a gentle, meandering electronic track reminiscent of Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, and then proceeds to wind gently through a repertoire of extremely chill, electronica-tinged pop tunes — some would be right at home in a 1980’s film soundtrack (“12 Bars”), while others are gorgeous, ultra-modern jewels (“Until the Sun Comes Out”).
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The conversation turns to the pandemic’s impact on musicians who largely make their living from touring, and the strange new world that the 21st Century record industry and the prevalence of streaming and social media have foisted upon artists.
“[You have to] remember why you started,” he says. “I have to remind myself of that all the time, because I can definitely get caught up in even trying to continuing to make a living from this with the advent of streaming. And the amount of royalties that go to just the songwriter through that platform is minuscule.
“I have two children. I love touring, but as I get older, I see people that keep going around and touring, and I have a lot of peers and friends that are in their 60s. I don't know if I want to be 60 and still, like indie-rockin’ it, backstage at some crappy bar for my ego going, ‘Hey, there's 100 people that love it.’ But I don't want to have to do it all the time for a living. I have friends that have done that, and they're like, ‘I just can't do this anymore.’ The older you get, it's exhausting. But I do that — ‘remember why you started.’ I love creating something and recording it. And now I can do that more easily. So I tried to remember that before I think about, ‘I'm not really making that much money, dude.’”
He laughs and adds, “But, you know, I made it this far. It feels like every couple years, I question and I talk to my other friends too. And they do the same thing. It's like, okay, … keep going, taking trains and hauling my little suitcase around and my guitar around somewhere in Aarhus, you know. One more. I'll do one more year.”
“The commerce of art, as far as music making goes, has to change. And I know there's plenty of people, companies like BMI or people that are for the songwriter trying to change the laws as far as the way royalties are distributed on these streaming platforms … So, hopefully, I think it keeps getting better and better. Hopefully, there's legislation that gets passed to where it can even out a little bit more. And if you're just a songwriter, and someone else is putting out your records, or you're not even a performing artist, maybe you can make some more money from this. Because more people are listening to music now than ever.”
“I'm still excited about making music. I'm working on a new record right now. It’ll be done next month and it'll come out next year. So I'm still excited about that. I still love collaborating. I recorded it here with my Spanish group.”
“For me, art and culture still make the world move around,” he concludes. “I still love to do it.”
