Connecting With The World: Joshua Radin Talks Songwriting, Intimacy and Searching for Honesty

If the last few years have taught us anything of value, it’s that life without connection is really no life at all. Combine our desire for kinship with a passion to explore everything this world has to offer and you have a recipe for a happy and satisfied life, as well as the formula that helped Joshua Radin become one of the most honest and relatable singer-songwriters of the modern era.

A native of Ohio, before catching his big break Radin was just another artist in search of both medium and audience. Having tried his hand at painting and screenwriting, as well as numerous other jobs, Radin finally found his creative north when his best friend Zach Braff suggested he send the song Winter to Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, who went on to use it in a pivotal scene in the show.

Propelled by more prestige exposure in high profile films and TV series, the amiable troubadour’s  diary-like ruminations have, thanks to a devoted cult following, sustained a near two decade career that’s spawned nine albums and allowed him to tour the globe many times over.

Released in the form of two EPs titled ‘Though The World Will Tell Me So’, with Volume One already out and Volume Two set to follow in June, Radin’s latest batch of songs offers an intimate and invigorating response to the world reopening post-lockdown. Textured, melodically charming and full of resonant reflection, they epitomise their creator’s search for answers to all life’s most enduring questions. 

Back in the UK and Ireland for a series of gigs this month, we spoke to Radin about the inspiration behind  his latest material, while discovering what drives him to keep making music and why, when it comes to being creative, fans should pray he never stops running.

You created 2021’s ‘The Ghost and the Wall’ remotely because of the situation the world was in at the time. How were the songs for these new EPs brought to life in comparison to that very different way of working?

Well, this was a lot more fun. A lot less lonely. That was with one producer, in my house, remotely, just writing each other texts, sending emails and files back and forth. I made these EPs in LA, London and Stockholm with several different producers and a lot of different musicians. All I wanted to do was work with tonnes of people all over the place. Even though I loved that last experience for what it was, you want to do something totally different when the world opens up. So they were complete polar opposite experiences. A lot of the songs sound pretty different from each other too. Whereas the last one was very acoustic, this has a more diverse palette when it comes to instrumentation. 

The songs are very warm sounding and full of reassurance and self acceptance. Is that what you were going for?

The title of the EPs is ‘Though The World Will Tell Me So’ because the common thread throughout both is me, in the last year, thinking about different people, different situations, different environments, but also different feelings and different ways of releasing music. Anything you can think of, I was like, ‘I don’t have to do this because it’s the way it’s supposed to be done’ and think that was a direct response to being locked away in my house during the pandemic and having all these rules. 

My whole life, I’ve had a real tough time with authority. I was always the kid who was asking teachers ‘why, why, why?’ Not to be annoying, just because I was curious. No matter what it was. Whether politics, religion, love, family, friendship, why do these things have to be this way? I guess when you’re locked away in your house for so long and the world is giving you rules ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘can’t do that’ I wanted to do so many things so badly and was thinking about these things all the time. That’s what I wanted to write about. 

My Father’s Eyes reminds me of vintage Simon & Garfunkel and epitomises the sense of comfort and belonging these songs deliver.

I wrote that for my dad when I was in Stockholm last year. I’d sold my house in Los Angeles, gave away most of my belongings, put a few things into storage that I really care about like family heirlooms, my albums, books, guitars. A lot of my friends are like, ‘Wait, so you don’t have a home?’ I’m like, ‘I guess I’m houseless, not homeless.’ I always have a place to stay, luckily, but decided I wanted to be more about experiences over things.

Locked away in my house during the pandemic, I had all these things and none of it brought me happiness. I was just like, ‘I don’t need any of this to be happy. I just want to travel and meet people and have experiences, make memories.’ That’s what I like to write about. That’s what inspires me. So when I got to Stockholm I was thinking ‘What is home and not having a home?’ and, when I closed my eyes, I’d see my dad’s eyes and my childhood home. That’s what that song is about. Reminiscence.

On Running from the Dawn, what do you mean when you sing about being at the moment where you give up your mind for your soul? 

If I go back to the common thread about the world telling me I’ve got to do this when I want do that, when I first came to Stockholm I remember being out very late one night with a bunch of friends. It was morning and we were still hanging out playing songs and having a few beers, just talking and having a good time. I remember thinking, ‘At what point do people say you have to be in bed when it’s dark and outside when it’s light?’ My mind was telling me I should be in bed by now, asleep, and tomorrow I won’t be so tired. Then I was thinking, ‘It’s my mind telling me that because my entire life that’s what you’re told, but my soul is having so much fun with all these creative people right now that I’m literally giving up my mind for my soul at this exact moment.’ 

Broken features a key line in the form of ‘I try to run away but there I am, again and again.’ Likewise, Man Of The Year – which boasts a sublime Tom Petty circa Jeff Lynne vibe - finds you saying you can’t keep running away. Throughout your records there are always plenty of references to running, so why is that a recurring motif?

I think I have been running, literally and metaphorically. I don’t know what I’m running towards a lot of the time and think that’s why I write, why I tour, why I keep putting out music and constantly questioning. If I had any answers about what I’m running from and running towards, I don’t know if I’d be inspired to write any more. But I’m so glad you love Man Of The Year. The producer I was working with is a buddy of mine. We both love that Tom Petty ‘Full Moon Fever’ album so much and were saying, ‘Let’s give a nod to that sort of production.’ But with regards to what you’re talking about, I’m still single and, romantically, have a real problem with intimacy, of really really really letting someone in. So I’ve passed up on a few women over the years, where I ran away, and then find myself, when I’m writing, sort of waxing poetic and thinking, ‘I don’t want to run away any more. I want that meaningful connection.’ That has to do with why I write.     

On your last album you said you wanted to explore why you’ve always struggled with intimacy. Is the opening song on Volume Two, Over The City, a result of working through that?

Again, it has a double meaning. I woke up as the sun came up…and I’d had this amazing conversation with a woman the night before at a dinner party. I remember thinking, ‘That was such a great conversation, I really liked talking to her, I wonder if everything she said was true?’ As the sun was coming up over the city I was also thinking, coming from Los Angeles where I’d been living and had gotten so frustrated with so many people, as you guys say in England, talking bollocks, that was the double meaning of the title. Being so fed up with people putting masks and costumes on and not being their true selves. So it was sort of a wondering moment of, ‘I wonder if I’ll ever see her again, and if I’m idealising this person, or was she just like so many other people I’ve met in my life where a couple of glasses of wine and she was just telling me what she thought I wanted to hear?’ And that has a lot to do with true intimacy and people being really honest with each other.

In terms of people being like that since you became famous, how good a resource was your friend Zach Braff, who had a similar experience when Scrubs took off, at helping you through that time?  

If you asked him I don’t know if he would say he actively helped me, but I have told him in the past that watching him go through it really really helped. There were certain things where he gave me a bit of a road map. He’s really good at keeping the people he trusts close and accepting constructive criticism from those people. Kind of tuning everything else out, because it’s all noise. If you don’t know and trust someone it’s not worth getting upset if they’re critiquing you. There’s always gonna be criticism, but it’s only the people you know and trust and love and who care about you that matter. Those are the people I write for. It’s amazing when other people love the work but if my parents, sister, friends, if I write a song and I play it for them and they love it, that’s where I get the most energy from. That’s something Zach’s really good at and I learned that from him before I even started writing music.        

You only knew six chords when you wrote Winter and were still learning your craft when that track exploded. So were you ever concerned you might be a one song wonder and how did you zone out from that to keep making music in the same authentic way?

Every song I’ve ever written, at the end of writing it, is the best I ever feel. Then, every single time, I think I’ll never be able to write another. Every single time. It never changes. It’s very odd. But then time passes and I sit around with the guitar and am like ‘oh maybe I want to write a song about this.’ Then another feeling comes. I don’t know how that happens, or why, but I try to stay as open and curious as possible, have as many experiences as I can, and hope doing that creates a lightning rod effect for inspiration.    

You’ve worked really hard to keep your integrity and make your creative process as organic as possible. Yet, for all that, you’ll never be able to create music quite as purely as you did when you wrote Winter, when there was nothing circling you in terms of expectation, career or thoughts about reception. Do you ever wish you could create music from that place of complete freedom and comparative innocence again?

It’s a good question. I have thought about that quite a bit. There’ve been so few times in my life I’ve written a song thinking, ‘People are gonna like this.’ Because when I’ve done it a few times and they didn’t like it I felt so disappointed, like a failure, and was like, ‘I don’t want to feel that way. I just want to write a song and if I like it, and need to express this feeling, if people like it they like it and if they don’t, they don’t.’ There’s quite a few songs over the years that I thought, when finishing them, ‘This is one of the best songs I’ve written in a while’ and then no one ever thought twice about it. It made me realise it only matters if I want to play the song. That’s what it’s about, the catharsis. If you’re creating for yourself and you like it then, okay it’s easy to say that’s all that matters, but 95% that’s what matters. 

Looking back on your career, with all the wisdom and perspective you have now, what were the benefits of becoming a musician at a later stage in life?

Well the first advantage that comes to mind is connection. I always felt, as a kid, quite alienated and like I didn’t fit in. The last 18 years I’ve been doing this, since I picked up a guitar and learned a few chords, I’ve felt so much more connected to the world. There are so many advantages. Like the fact it’s the most fun job ever or I get to travel the world, have so many crazy experiences and meet amazing people that tell me a certain song of mine has affected them or helped them, in some way, get through something and make them feel connected. So if I had to pick one thing it’s definitely an overall connection to other human beings.    

You’re back over here on tour this month. What can fans look forward to seeing from you this time around?

I’m going to play old songs, new songs and it’s just me and my best friend Brandon.  I’ve never been one to walk out with a set list and, no matter what happens, I’m locked into this order of songs and what I’m gonna say, things like that. I used to do that when I first started out and had a set list and a full band but got to the point where all I wanted to do was walk on stage in exactly what I’m wearing that day and just hang out with the crowd. That’s true intimacy for me. Probably because, as I told you before, it’s very difficult for me to have intimacy in my personal life with romance, so I strive for intimacy more than anything when it comes to writing songs and performing them. I like to walk out on stage, read the room, kind of get a vibe and try to make it a symbiotic relationship between me and the audience.

Joshua Radin Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Wed April 12 2023 - LONDON O2 Academy Islington
Fri April 14 2023 - MANCHESTER Factory251
Sat April 15 2023 - GLASGOW Broadcast
Sun April 16 2023 - DUBLIN Pepper Canister Church
Mon April 17 2023 - LIVERPOOL Phase One

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