Joshua Radin Whatever Joshua Radin is putting out there, people are craving; he can’t seem to make his music fast enough for his ever-increasing fan base. You’ve already sampled his first full-length album We Were Here if you’re into shows Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy, where his lullabies have been in constant rotation. As he moves his couches to his new home in Los Angeles, the art teacher-turned-singer/songwriter takes a moment to educate us. Eager to discover the secrets behind the effortless songster who wrote his first song “Winter” a mere two years ago, we take notes...
When did you realize you had a good voice? Well, I sang all the time in the shower (laughs) and in the car. When I was a little kid, I did plays and theater and summer musicals. I went to a musical theater summer camp, actually, as a child (Stage Door Manor), and got an agent there and started doing voiceover jingles for commercials. Who inspired you to sing? Well, I guess growing up it was all around my house. Not that my family were musicians, but they were always playing good music in the car and in the house. My mom would sing harmonies with me in the car on the way to school and stuff. I was always happiest when I was singing. So in college I would always be like, ‘Oh, I wanna sing in a band,’ but I didn’t play any instruments, and I didn’t write any songs. It was tough to just find a lead singer gig, because I’d meet so many people and there would be egos involved. They’d write the song and they wanted to sing it. So I finally just said, ‘You know what? I’ll just write my own songs and learn how to play the guitar.’ Are you self-taught? Yeah, I never took a lesson.
So do you know how to read music? No. (laughs) Not at all. I just learned a bunch of chords on the guitar by playing some Bob Dylan and Beatles songs. And that was it, basically. Once I knew those chords, I just started writing songs. Where’s your favorite space to create? Do you have a place where you feel most inspired or creative? Definitely. Always in my living room on my couch. That’s where I write all my songs. That’s boring… I’m usually in my underwear. (laughs) In airplane bathrooms, that’s where I write my lyrics. (laughs) No, but I have written lyrics on vomit bags on airplanes. I hate to fly, and it’s just the tension, I need something to do. If you could sing one song with Stevie Wonder, what would it be? Wow! I don’t want to make the wrong choice! I’ve never thought about this before... probably, “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever).” Aside from music, what are you passionate about? I write screenplays. That’s how I was paying the bills before the music. So you were able to pay your bills with your screenplays? Yeah, not a lot of bills, not expensive ones! (laughs) I optioned a couple and they never got made, and I started playing music and that sort of took off and I focused on that.
How was your experience working in the movie Garden State? I just had a cameo. Zach Braff, who made the movie, is my best friend. I was on the set the first day of shooting in New Jersey. I was living in New York at the time. I came up to say hello and he was like, “Why don’t you just get in?” So it was fun. We had to do fake drugs all day in that scene.
Have you lived anywhere exciting? I moved around everywhere. I went to Berkley, California and then I went back to Chicago and I was teaching art to 5th through 7th grade. Then I moved to Capetown, South Africa for a year. I was teaching an American Cinema class for the high school there and working on my first screenplay. It was called Purple Paint. It was about a prodigy artist, a little kid who sorta takes New York by storm. Then I moved to New York, with little bits of London in between. I made the permanent move to New York and was there for quite a few years before moving to Los Angeles last year.
What were the fake drugs that you used? Let’s see, there was fake cocaine that was vitamin B, and fake marijuana that was some sort of ginseng, fake alcohol, fake beer that was apple juice.
Did you enjoy teaching? Probably the most fun I’ve ever had. I’ll definitely go back to doing that when I can afford to not have to live on a teaching salary.
Your song “Closer” was first of a couple now to air on Grey’s Anatomy. That must have been exciting! Yeah! I got so many calls from that one, from people I hadn’t
PLAYING FAVORITES Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio College: Northwestern, Degree: Painting and Drawing Last book he read: The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse Favorite book of all time: The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Favorite American Idol this year: Taylor Hicks Favorite movies of 2005: Crash, Walk the Line, The Squid and the Whale Favorite movie of all time: Annie Hall Favorite sound: The sound of two beautiful voices singing harmony Simon and Garfunkel, The Everly Brothers, Dylan and Baez, Johnny Cash and June Carter. Least favorite sound: Women crying, I’m a sucker for the tears. I just can’t deal with it. I give into anything when women cry. Favorite City: New York City heard from in so long, just saying, “Oh, I love that show!” What has been your greatest accomplishment so far? The day I finished my first record, which was about a month ago. What did you do to celebrate? I think I went home and slept for about two days! What do you hope to achieve with your music? I just want as many people as possible to hear it. And hopefully, at the end of the day, if I could just have written one song that’s sort of meant so much to a lot of people, helped them out in some way, or given them something to relate to, then that would be really cool.
