Joshua Radin Takes You ‘Onward and Sideways’

While fans can’t get enough of Radin’s songs about love, relationships and life’s adventures, those not aware of his music might still find themselves humming one of his tunes in the shower or singing one of his numbers while driving to work.  That’s because Radin’s music has received a great amount of exposure through film, television shows and TV commercials.  Radin’s “Beautiful Day” is what you’ve been hearing on a Suburu commercial and songs such as “You’ve Got What I Need,” “Underwater” and “Brand New Day” turned fans of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and “House M.D.” onto the singer/songwriter. 

Radin’s latest album, Onwards and Sideways, arrived Jan. 6 and features the artist dueting with former touring mate Sheryl Crow on “Beautiful Day.”  But that’s not Radin’s first recording of the song.  He released it as a solo performance on 2013’s Wax Wings.

What’s the story behind Onward and Sideways?

It’s like an old-school wooing record.  A long love letter.  I tried to make it like an album version of one of those old, classic bundles you find tied up in a ribbon of love letters that soldiers used to write from far away.  It wasn’t necessarily set up to be that way, it’s just that I ended up with a bunch of songs written for a very special lady to try to make her fall in love with me.

Were you successful?

So far.  I’ve learned enough to know that if it’s the right woman, you have to continue to woo [her] forever.

Have relationships inspired a lot of your music?

Definitely the majority.  But I’ve never written an album like this before that was just unabashedly a love letter.  She and I were friends for five years before, I guess, I had the nerve to write something like this.

The song you recorded with Sheryl Crow – “Beautiful Day” – was also on your previous album, Wax Wings, as a solo performance.

What happened was … I never really thought that song got its due.  I always thought it could be bigger [and] get more exposure around the world than it did.  Especially when I would play it in concert and people would tell me that was the one they wanted to hear most.

Being a totally independent artist without a record label or anything like that, sometimes it’s difficult without a push. … About nine months ago … Subaru called and said they wanted to use it in a car commercial, but it was going to be about nine months away, or something like that.  I figured that would definitely get the song a lot more exposure.  Why not re-record the song and put it on the new album to draw more attention to the album?

I wasn’t going to throw it on the album as is.  I decided it would be a cool thing to do as a duet with someone and Sheryl was the first person who came to mind.  I had opened for her on tour years ago so she knew who I was, at least.  And I’ve always been a big fan of hers.  I asked her to do it, she said yes, and she nailed it. … That’s the only song that’s not in the body of work that was written for my love.

Several of your songs have appeared on television shows.  Was television always part of your plan or did it just turn out that way?

It just happened.  I’d be playing a show and a music supervisor from some show or movie would come up to me afterwards and ask for a demo of a song.  I’d run out to my car and get a CD, like a demo, and they’d put it on a show, something like that. That’s how I got my first fans.  And it still continues to this day.  I’m not a big radio artist.  I think, also, for a decade since I started playing music, that TV and film is the new radio and continues to be more so. You turn on the radio and you hear a 12-song rotation, over and over.  That’s why people are finding out about music in many different ways.  Whereas, 20 years ago, it was just the radio.  Maybe MTV and the radio 20 years ago but before that it was just the radio. … That’s one of the main reasons I continue to allow my music to be placed in TV and film.  It airs all over the world.  I’ve garnered a fanbase from all over the world.  I can go to Germany, Poland, Australia, play shows and sell them out because “Grey’s Anatomy” used seven of my songs and those episodes aired all over the world [and] not just on one city’s radio station.

Do you feel you did it your way rather than following the traditional pathway to success?

Honestly, I always feel that way because I’m always sort of shying away from more commercial success if I have to give up any freedom.  I guess, maybe, I’m more stubborn that way.  Also, I started playing music when I turned 30 so I was already sort of a fully formed adult with opinions, morals, ethics and all those things that 30-year-olds already have.  It’s not like I signed my first record deal and started playing music when I was 15 and I had all these people telling me what to do and I was just saying, “OK.  Sure.”  So, yeah, I’m doing it my way.

Do you ever wish you had started playing music earlier in life?

Sometimes. But I certainly have no regrets.  I certainly wouldn’t have been able to write the songs I wrote initially at an earlier age without having gone through what I had gone through.  Most of my work is about interpersonal relationships, falling in and out of love, because that’s my experience.  I write what I know.  I’ve never been to war.  I’m not a very political person.  Most of what I think about is love.

So experiencing some of life’s ups and downs has shaped your music.

Most definitely.  I spent years and years in New York City as a starving artist, just working in other mediums.  Painting, screenwriting, when I was living on 10 dollars a day for food, for 10 years.  I paid my dues in that way as an artist. I always think of myself more as an artist than as a musician.

If you had begun your music career while in your teens or early 20s – what do you think you would have written about?

Probably love.  Or why I couldn’t find it.  I don’t know. I think the lyrics would have been a lot less mature (laughs), maybe more obvious and less subtle.  Who knows?  Maybe I would have been trying to be something other than myself, which is something I was definitely trying to do when I was 18.

[I wasn’t] just starting a music career at 30 but starting to play music at 30.

When was the first time you performed in front of an audience?

When I was 30.

Did you experience severe stage fright or did you take to it like a fish to water?

I was so painfully nervous.  I couldn’t open my eyes, I couldn’t stand and play, I couldn’t talk to the crowd at all.  It was horribly painful.

How did it go over?

I was playing songs to people who had already heard songs of mine on TV shows.  I didn’t get into music to be a musician.  I started writing and fell into it.  Three weeks after writing my first song, “Winter,” it was on a show called “Scrubs” … because I had some friends in the business from writing screenplays for six years. … The first fans I had were fans of that song.  Then I started writing more songs out of a demand. People were asking where they could find more of my music.  I was like, “Well, I guess I [should] look at this, not take this lightly.  This was the first thing I did creatively where an audience came to me rather than me seeking an audience.

Did you reach a point where you actively tried to place your songs on TV or in film?

I don’t do it.  Once you have a connection with all the music supervisors who used your songs before, you just put out music and they know where to look for you.  I try not to think about that so much.  I think it tends to corrupt the art form if you’re thinking, “I’m writing this song because it will end up in a TV show” or “This will be good for a car commercial” or something like that.  I’m not against writing that way.  I don’t think I could write my best songs that way.

Is songwriting a visual experience for you?

Very much so.  I think it comes from growing up as a visual artist.  It’s what I studied at university.  At Northwestern I studied painting and drawing.  After graduating I was an art teacher for little kids in Chicago.  Writing screenplays for six years, you’re supposed to think visually.  It’s a visual medium even though you’re writing on a piece of paper.  You’re always taught “show, don’t tell.”  I think that just naturally goes to my writing of lyrics where I’m constantly describing what I see.

Do you think you might have been even more successful if you lived in another era?

I don’t know.  It’s tough to say. I think about that, sometimes, but there’s no answer.  There are so many factors in how I got music out there. … I started getting my music out there with MySpace.  If I had been an artist in the ’60s, who knows what would have happened?

Radio has definitely been kinder to singer/songwriters in past decades.  There are those who have said that Bob Dylan wouldn’t be as successful if he started today rather than in the early ’60s.

I don’t know if I would say that.

But there were times when singer/songwriters dominated radio.

Right.  The ’70s. I think, also, there was a time when that might have been a reaction to disco (laughs).  But I would definitely disagree [about Dylan]. … He’s my favorite songwriter, so I’m biased.  Maybe he wouldn’t have changed music forever and been the voice of his generation if he had come along today.  But he certainly would be a force to be reckoned with, in any era.

What other songwriters have influenced you or, at least, are in your collection?

So many.  The classics.  Neil Young, Tom Petty, Paul Simon.  I never went through a big Randy Newman phase, but I’m starting to. … I just bought Sail Away on vinyl and I can’t stop playing it.

You’re working with Little Kids Rock.  How did that come about?

I was looking for a charity to become involved with.  After I started my career, I felt it was time to give back a little.  I was looking around at different organizations and that one just jumped out at me.  Probably because Paul Simon is on the board.  I had read somewhere that he and Bruce Springsteen were on the board, and I admire both of them a lot.  So that brought my attention to Little Kids Rock and I started looking into it. I fell in love with the organization.  Now whatever I do, when it comes to charity, I do it for them.

I’m not involved with Little Kids Rock because of who is on the board.  That is just how it came to my attention.  I love working with those kids.  If I’m going to put my time in volunteering somewhere it’s going to be where I can inspire kids, where music programs have been cut and bring the arts to schools in the inner city where there is no funding for instruments.  Music is the cosmic dance.  There’s nothing I’d rather do than bring music to people who wouldn’t have been exposed to it before.

What do you think about school districts making budget cuts by dropping music and arts classes?

Being an ex-art teacher for little kids, I’m even more passionate about it.  Everyone thinks “science and math” which, of course, are very important.  But working on the other side of the brain and being creative, you don’t have to become a professional artist in any media to have that effect on how your brain process data and stimuli.  Being a more creative person will help you no matter what you do in life.

Does it sometimes amaze you that your music has opened doors and given you opportunities to appear on stage with people you have admired?

Yeah.  I would say one of my most favorite experiences was getting to meet Elvis Costello in London.  I played right before he did in Hyde Park.  Paul McCartney was actually the headliner.  It was like me, then Elvis Costello, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crowded House and Paul McCartney on the main stage.  I’d never been that humble before in my life.  I’m looking across the stage as I’m about to … finish my set and Elvis Costello is there.  We both played this old Gibson J-45 and I got to hold his instrument a few times, the one he wrote “Alison” on.  It’s all beat up with duct tape on it, the way it should be.  It was a really cool moment.

Another time I was in London, I had pizza all night and three bottles of champagne with Morrissey. Just me and him in a hotel lobby … Getting drunk and talking about everything and [listening to the] crazy stories he had.  I grew up as a Smiths fan.  I think the first song I ever covered and released was “Girl Friend In A Coma” on my first CD. There have been a few moments like that.  He [Morrissey] was so cool and not arrogant at all.

Those moments are just amazing.  It makes you want to do that for younger artists.  Obviously, I’m no Elvis Costello or Moz, but every now and then I meet a kid who’s just starting to play and he’ll tell me he picked up a guitar because of one of my songs. It doesn’t happen as much as it should happen (laughs) … but even one or two guys telling you that, them bringing their guitars to your show and asking you to sign them, or something like that, it makes you feel a part of the circle.  That’s one of the reasons I love music. It’s that community that I never got to be a part of growing up, that I joined as an adult. 

I would go to see concerts just as a fan and look up at that stage and think, “Wow! That’s some magic trick they’re doing.  I have no idea how they’re doing it.”  I just wanted to hang out with people like that. Not just be one of those guys, I just wanted to hang out with them.

During this upcoming tour you’re going to have kids join you onstage to perform “Beautiful Day.”

I’ve done that a bunch of times so far with my song “Brand New Day.”  But this is the song I’m promoting that’s my most hopeful [and] it’s great to have kids sing it with you on stage.  What’s even more fun is that it brings more attention to [Little Kids Rock] whenever the kids come out on stage.

The most fun thing is watching these kids who have never been on stage before, and the crowd goes nuts for them, and seeing their smiles when they walk off stage.  They are on Cloud 9.  It’s unbelievable.  It’s by far my favorite part of the show.

How do you coordinate the performance with the kids? Do you go to the schools and rehearse with them?

I go to the schools. Sometimes they come to me.  They want to see the venue or the tour bus, things like that. I’ve done a lot of school visits in different cities where I bring my guitar … and they learn my song or I’ll teach them the song.  Or sometimes they ask questions about what it’s like to be a professional musician.  Sometimes they get star struck and want to know what it’s like to meet Ellen [DeGeneres]. They’re kids and they want to know what kids want to know.

Usually, the [schools] are in inner cities so there are always kids who are underprivileged. A lot of the conversation from their end usually starts with an interest in money, unfortunately.  So my motive is usually to steer the conversation into talking about the art in it and the craft and doing things not for the money.  Which is easier said than done when you’re an underprivileged kid.  That’s totally understandable, of course.  But what I want to leave them with is, “Never try to be a musician to become famous or to make money.  Do it for the love of it. Do anything you do for the love of it.” I tell them over and over again, “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met with so much money that are not happy.” 

Upcoming shows for Joshua Radin:

Feb. 5 – Boston, Mass., The Wilbur
Feb. 6 – Northampton, Mass., Pearl Street
Feb. 7 – South Burlington, Vt., Higher Ground – Ballroom
Feb. 9 – Montreal, Quebec, Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre
Feb. 10 – Toronto, Ontario, Virgin Mobile Mod Club
Feb. 12 – Cleveland, Ohio, House Of Blues
Feb. 13 – Munhall, Pa., Carnegie Library Music Hall Of Homestead
Feb. 14 – Pontiac, Mich., The Crofoot
Feb. 15 – Indianapolis, Ind., Deluxe At Old National Centre
Feb. 16 – Columbus, Ohio, Newport Music Hall
Feb. 17 – Cincinnati, Ohio, 20th Century Theatre
Feb. 19 – Milwaukee, Wis., Pabst Theater
Feb. 20 – Chicago, Ill., Thalia Hall
Feb. 21 – Minneapolis, Minn., Mill City Nights
Feb. 23 – Winnipeg, Man., Garrick Centre
Feb. 25 – Calgary, Alberta, Knox United Church
Feb. 26 – Edmonton, Alberta, Mcdougall United Church
Feb. 28 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Rio Theatre
March 1 – Seattle, Wash., The Neptune
March 2 – Portland, Ore., Roseland Theater
March 3 – Boise, Idaho, Knitting Factory Concert House
March 4 – Salt Lake City, Utah, The Depot
March 5 – Boulder, Colo., Fox Theatre
March 7 – Los Angeles, Calif., The Fonda
March 8 – San Francisco, Calif., The Fillmore
March 10 – Solana Beach, Calif., Belly Up Tavern
March 11 – Phoenix, Ariz., The Crescent Ballroom
March 13 – Houston, Texas, Fitzgerald’s
March 14 – Dallas, Texas, Granada Theater
March 15 – Birmingham, Ala., WorkPlay Soundstage
March 16 – Atlanta, Ga., Center Stage Theater
March 18 – Raleigh, N.C., Lincoln Theatre
March 19 – Washington, D.C., 9:30 Club
March 20 – Philadelphia, Pa., Trocadero Theatre
March 21 – New York, N.Y., Irving Plaza
April 21 – Glasgow, Scotland, Oran Mor
April 22 – London, England, Koko
April 24 – Paris, France, Cafe de la Danse
April 26 – Copenhagen, Denmark, Lille Vega
April 28 – Oslo, Norway, Rockefeller Music Hall
April 29 – Goteborg, Sweden, Tradgaarn
April 30 – Stockholm, Sweden, Gota Lejon
May 2 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, Paradiso
May 3 – Hamburg, Germany, Fabrik Hamburg
May 4 – Berlin, Germany, Heimathafen Neukölln
May 5 – Cologne, Germany, Gloria
May 6 – Antwerp, Belgium, Arenbergschouwburg

For more information, please visit Joshua Radin’s website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, Google + page, Instagram account, YouTube channel and SoundCloud page.