When I was at T in the Park there were plenty of times I was left to wander from tent to tent between the acts I was wanting to see at this point in time I decided to at least get out of the sun and maybe try and catch American rock act ‘Trash Talk’ as my brochure suggests that every venue they play turns out to be total carnage (It wasn’t far off). After this everyone decided to sit down and chill out after the excitement before the next act. I decided that I would slink backstage for nosey, seeing no one I was about to walk back before bumping into a girl called Steph Fraser who had apparently had just been signed to Island Records and had been supporting the guy who was on next, “I’ll introduce you if you like?” I said that would be great. Not long Steph is shouting someone over “Josh…JOSH!”. Moments later someone is crouching between us and introduces himself, this is Josh Record. He shakes my hand and engages me in polite chit chat about T in the Park and how he was enjoying the festival to which he mentions how he’s seen one or two acts today but doesn’t like to watch to much as it makes him nervous, this is before he shows me a selfie of him, Steph and his friends backstage on the main stage all smiles. Over all a genuinely nice guy and I was very curious to see how he was going to follow in the loud footsteps of ‘Trash Talk’. Before long the moment of truth arrives and as Josh takes the stage we all huddle to the front to watch we seem like the only people standing as everyone is either still exhausted from the previous act or passed out from heat stroke.
Josh and the band take to the stage and plays the first track of his set ‘Bones’ which just bowls me over with this sensation of melody and bombast. It’s a unique sound I’m hearing and finding it very hard to describe but loving every minute of it. The songs that follow ‘Belief’ and ‘Common Folly’ are equally sublime, along with ‘The War’ which is the title track of his new EP out now with ‘Common Folly’ also being included as one of the tracks on the EP. The atmosphere is one of melancholy during this track but I can’t help but notice that the passed out rabble from before are now wide awake and mostly on their feet as they are drawn in by the unique sound emanating from the trio onstage. He introduces band member Alex Montague before playing my favourite song of the set ‘Dead Tree’ which has a pounding drum beat as the opening and comes off as the most energetic of the songs played thus far. ‘For Your Love’ is a more gospel affair and would turn out to be the penultimate song of the setlist before finishing with a song that Josh claims “Has not title but, if you have any suggestions come see me at the end and let me know.” I took a sneak peak at the end of the show of the setlist and on paper the song was called ‘Finally’ this may have just been a working title as it was the final track of the day. Either way it was a tremendous closer to what was a very brilliant show. I waited to catch him quickly to just say what a great show it was as he was busy saying hi to everyone of the crowd that had no gathered at the front to do pretty much the exact same thing. I assume at this point his nerves have now settled. His new EP as I said is out now titled ‘The War’ along with the stunning ‘Common Folly’, and two new tracks ‘House’ and ‘Skin’. It was recently played on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show and is definitely one to watch.
