Going with the flow
Josh Garrels looks forward to playing for new audiences
Not everything goes as planned.
This is something singer-songwriter Josh Garrels is learning — and he’s rolling with the punches.
The musician took six months off this year to move his family from Portland, Ore., to Indiana.
But the house the Garrelses were going to buy didn’t work out because the deal fell through.
Now Garrels finds himself staying with friends in Indiana, while the family continues to look for a new residence.
“It’s wild,” he says. “I start my tour in a week and a half, and we still don’t have a home. I thought we’d be completely settled by this time, and it’s not the case. It’s getting close for me to leave for some more shows. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out.”
Garrels has been making music for more than decade as an independent artist.
He has released nearly a dozen albums over the course of his career. He is also known for cultivating his own version of mixing folk and hip-hop.
And the themes of his songs explore compassion, hope, longing and liberation.
Though he took six months off recently, it doesn’t equate into Garrels’ not actually producing music.
He’s finishing two albums.
The first is a re-mastering of his debut album, “Stone Tree” from 2002.
“I sampled a ton of other people’s work on this album, and I had to take it off market,” he says. “I’m going in now and trying to clear some of the samples. So it’ll be a rerelease of my earlier album.”
For the second album, Garrels is taking his time building themes and sounds.
“I’m trying to limit myself to that,” he says. “There’s a wave in modern pop music that is getting back to being minimal. I think people are longing for simplicity again. That’s what I’m trying to do is strip down what I’m doing.”
Garrels’ stop in Albuquerque will also mark the first time he’s played in the city.
He is looking forward to his current tour because it is taking him to new markets.
“There is almost an ease, and I can play a ‘best of’ set,” he says of performing in a new market. “I can play my favorites and see exactly who is feeling the music. It’ll be a great way to introduce myself to New Mexico.”