Joshua Speers Living Out Loud in "Long Way Down"
Photo Credit: Gus Black
Rising talent Joshua Speers debuts a fresh record titled “Long Way Down” via Warner Records/Let Me Know. The track follows up his release of “The Runaround” which became the soundtrack for ZARA’s digital ad campaign this spring, in which Speers was also selected to model the new ZARA MAN collection. The two tracks are an appetizer to the new music Joshua has planned for the year.
The buoyant electric guitar, pulsing drums, and dreamy synths create a rather upbeat feel on a rather dark topic of death, but that’s the point.
“Like a lot of people I think I’ve spent more time thinking about death recently, and this song developed out of that. How blind death is and also how certain it is. It’s not a morbid headspace necessarily, more just a factual one. There’s this other conversation about death where people romanticize the “flash in the pan” or the young rebels that burn out in their prime! I’ve never bought into the romance around dying young and instead think wanting to live a long life is kind of the ultimate rebellion. I’m so thankful that some of my heroes have taken the long way down and are old and grey and more badass than ever.”
Along with the track, Joshua drops a video with frequent collaborator Gus Black (Phoebe Bridgers, Gary Clark Jr.).
Next month, Speers will perform on the popular virtual concert series "School Night At Home” on May 12th. Fans can tune in for free at www.twitch.tv/itsaschoolnight.
A renaissance man in the most classic definition of the term, Delaware-raised Joshua Speers has spent the past year on lockdown in Los Angeles making pottery—he moved a wheel into his house just as quarantine started –fly fishing, riding his motorcycle and co-hosting an Instagram Live book club for fans and followers. A hopeless romantic, he studied poetry and pottery at Skidmore College, traversing the Northeast with a small library on his dashboard while working an assortment of odd jobs before moving to LA to pursue music full-time. He made his major-label debut with Human Now (2020), which V Magazine called “a soul-searching project,” followed by most recent EP Summerland, built on a guitar-heavy, 80s-inspired sound that Speers describes as the lovechild of Bruce Springsteen and Carly Rae Jepsen.