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And So It Begins Joshua Bartholomew's first full length double album artfully establishes his place among contemporaries while validating his vision for the music. Offerings of raw intimacy, stunning vocals and a distinct fresh sound serve to underscore his extraordinary gifts.
Playing guitar, drums, keyboards and bass on his album And So It Begins, as well as producing, engineering and mixing all 20 songs himself, the Ontario native is a self-contained wunderkind with a vision and focus for his music and career. Indeed, it is also true that he turned down a major label deal shortly after playing his first live gigs because he knew he still had to grow as a performer and songwriter, at his own pace.
And grow he has. His 2005 eponymous EP was just a teaser, released after his newfound fans demand something to purchase at his shows. For And So It Begins he rerecorded three of the cuts from the EP, the other 17 songs are all new, culled from a catalogue of even more material. "I'm always writing" he says, "It's what I do when I'm happy, sad, whatever; I write."
The double album exemplifies the sheer productivity coming from this young up-and-comer. It's an emotive collection, whether he's tearing it up on the powerful rocker "Little Bit Long Way" or unloading his heart on the gentle ballad "On The Shore." Plaintive and pleading, monstrous and commanding, Bartholomew does it all with equal conviction.
"I have two sides to the way I write songs -- there are more than that, but if you had to draw a line down the middle, there's the singer-songwriter side and the rock band side," he explains. "They're both equally important and both relevant to what I do as an artist, so I wanted to put the two together."
Of the 20 songs on the discs, Bartholomew cites a half-dozen songs of particular lyrical interest. "Little Bit Long Way" is an impassioned song about change. "I'm not a big fan of pretense," he says, "Sometimes we don't realize how simple it is to be honest and sincere."
"Love Like A Stone" and "Miracle" are two songs he wrote on piano after touring with Burton Cummings. "Being that I'm not really a piano player, I kind of just moved my fingers around until it sounded like music. It was liberating to be so non-technical," he confesses. On a lyrical note the two songs come from two different perspectives, "Miracle is about needing to be rescued from fakery, needing something real," he pauses, "And 'Love Like A Stone' is about finding it."
Of "You Would Do The Same," Bartholomew says, "I'm a huge fan of Americana music, something about the vibe that always makes me feel like I'm home. At the end of the day, it's an old fashioned love song."
And "On The Shore" is an emotionally raw song written at the end of his rope. You can hear the vulnerability in the recording. "I ended up doing it live in one take. I'm laying it all out there on this one," he says.
On the other side of the spectrum is "One By One," a song about his love/hate relationship with his own sleeping patterns. "I get a lot of email about this song," he laughs, "Apparently, I'm not alone."
Born into the military and well traveled from an early age, Bartholomew's childhood playlist suggests he's older than his 23 years. From The Beatles and Led Zeppelin to The Eagles and C.C.R., The Guess Who and The Doobie Brothers to Elton John and Bob Dylan, everything worth listening to made it's way to his ears. "My father was a musician and my mom had an incredible album collection. I thank them all the time for having good taste in music!"
At the age of three, he began singing and recording himself with his Fisher Price tape recorder. Three years later, in Florida, he found himself playing drums with the Walt Disney World Christmas Brass Band. Though he didn't receive his first drum kit until age thirteen, this experience was the catalyst for his life as a multi-instrumentalist.
Performing in school plays and choir throughout his school years, singing in church and teaching himself to play the drums, Bartholomew's seemingly innate musicality started connecting its own dots. It wasn't long before he got the songwriting bug and began to teach himself to play his dad's guitar. "I loved to sing and I loved writing poetry," he says, "Playing a melodic instrument was the missing link to putting it all together." When he wasn't practicing or performing he spent countless hours assembling his "little den of creativity," in his home studio, Royal Rebel Sound.
In summer 2005 while performing at a Toronto Street Festival, Bartholomew caught the ear of CBC Radio producer Kai Black, "I stopped dead in my tracks," Black says, "He had such command and control of his voice, it was like he was singing into the stratosphere," he continues, "People need to hear this guy!" This chance encounter translated to an invitation to perform live on CBC national radio. Within months of its release his debut EP landed him a radio single, "What Happened To Our Love" which earned the 2006 Annual Songwriting Award at Toronto's 99.9 MIX FM. Not long after, he scored coveted spots supporting such artists as Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, and Ron Sexsmith.
Shortly after turning down the major label deal, and following a brief stop in Los Angeles, Bartholomew set down in New York City to record his album with an outside producer, but after a couple of weeks changed his mind. "It's a long story," he explains, "But in the end, so much time had passed and I had developed such a strong vision for the record, that I knew in order to be happy with it, I had to do it myself." Instead, he immersed himself in the local scene playing shows, collaborating and writing at a prolific pace.
Upon returning home he began work on his much anticipated debut album, And So It Begins. Remaining true to his earliest recordings, Bartholomew writes and performs virtually every track on the 20 song album that is equally as accessible as it is enigmatic. He has taken what he's learned over the past 23 years and poured it into a meticulous yet organically crafted work of art. "I admit I struggled with the idea of a double album for a little bit, but it became apparent that it was the only way to accomplish what I had in mind." What does he have in mind? One thing is clear, playing by his own rules and allowing himself the freedom to do so are definitely on the list.