Interview: Josh Naujokas Talks About His Brand New EP "Music to Drown By"
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“I feel like I don’t have to try and sound like anyone or be the next whoever. My sound comes out so naturally and I don’t have to fight with it. I’ve created something new with this EP, and I am going to really hone in on that accomplishment.”
Congratulations on the completion and release of your new EP; it's incredible. Describe for us your creative process for the development of the project's six songs, and who provided the production?
Thank you! The creative process with this EP is basically the same as how I write my other material. I come up with a basic structure for a beat, switch it all around to add originality, then I just freestyle words and melodies several times until I come up with a song.
I did all of the production except Lightminds Entertainment produced "Ron Burgundy's Weekend" for me.
How did you come up with the EP's title "Music to Drown By", and what does it represent?
It's actually a quick line from the movie Titanic when the ship is sinking and the quartet is continuing their performance even though they see what their fate is moments away. Super gnarly.
Tell us about the visualizers (watch HERE) for each of the six songs that are on YouTube, and how you connected with Lightminds Entertainment.
I just wanted to have something appealing for people who don't have streaming platforms such as Spotify.
Visualizers look better than the basic album art playing the audio. TarekTV is someone who I reached out to like 2 years ago about doing a feature and I ended up finally going through with it last year on my first project "Deceptive Conscious", and he has a media production company that does, mixing, recording, editing, etc. Super cool dude to work with.
Were there tracks that you recorded planning to put on the EP that didn't make the final tracklist? If so, why not?
Yeah haha, literally "Mona Lisa Is Just a Stage Name" Is the only track that was on the original tracklist for the project. I just kept coming up with a better song like every week. I basically cycled through 20 or 30 songs to choose these 6.
With the EP now released, what are some of your goals musically for the rest of the year?
I just need to get better at marketing, to be honest. I feel I have a genre of music that can be very popular in the underground scene and I could accumulate a strong fan base. So basically, I just want to keep growing is my goal regardless of the distance.
What are your most proud of with this new EP release?
The fact that I have finally found my sound. I feel like I don't have to try and sound like anyone or be the next whoever. My sound comes out so naturally and I don't have to fight with it. I've created something new with this EP, and I am going to really hone in on that accomplishment.
Stream and Share “Music to Drown By” on Spotify
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