Interview: Josh Fudge – Garden of Eden

Discovered via submithub.com

Hi Josh, where are you based and how does this affect your writing?

I am based in Oklahoma City. I was born and raised here, and I think that it’s affected me in a lot of ways. Oklahoma City isn’t the biggest or best city on paper, but it’s actually rather charming once you spend some time here. It’s music scene is actually growing pretty rapidly, which has allowed me to meet with some really cool people who have influenced me in a variety of ways. It has inspired my creativity by being so accepting of me and my music, regardless of my age.

Where did the idea for ‘Garden of Eden’ come from?

Garden of Eden was actually written fairly late in the game when it came to ‘Flora’. I was originally going to have another song as the opener, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind, so I wrote Garden of Eden! Flora is meant to represent the life cycle of love, and how it grows, dies and repeats just like a perennial flower. Each song transitions into one another, and then at the end it transitions back into the beginning, like it is an endless cycle. In this cycle, Garden of Eden serves as a twisted sort of honeymoon stage. It is meant to be the start of a love affair, where you are infatuated with someone (not necessarily healthily so) and want to achieve some kind of perfect intimacy with that person. Garden of Eden is supposed to encapsulate that.

What inspires you the most right now?

The thing that inspires me most is a hard question for sure, but Flora is inspired most by nature and love, and those two things have inspired a lot of my music. Love is a beautiful and indescribable thing, and nature is absolutely beautiful, so I thought why not combine the two?

How long have you guys been making music?

I have been making music for the majority of my life. I started on keys at about 4 years old, being mostly self taught. After that, I picked up guitar, bass, and just about everything else. I have been singing for most of my life too. Music has always been a very integral part of my life, and I don’t know what I would do without it. By “you guys” though, I’m assuming you’re talking about Logan (my producer) or the drummer featured on Flora, Jhakobi. I don’t know how long either of them has been playing or producing, but I’m sure it has been a while.

If you could tour with anyone in the world, who would it be?

If I could tour with anyone… another tough one. So many artists have shaped and inspired me. I would love to go on some sort of tour with Billy Joel, Still Woozy, Boy Pablo, The Alabama Shakes, John Mayer, Conan Grey, there are too many inspiring artists for me to just choose one! I think that I would fit very well with Boy Pablo’s audience though.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

My plans for the rest of the year are to make as much music as possible before I move for college. This year is my senior year of high school, so I am going to be making as much music here as possible before I move to Nashville for university. I have been accepted into Belmont University in the songwriting department, where I will go and make even more (and hopefully better) music. Belmont is an amazing place where I hope to work hard to hone my craft.