We were lucky to catch up with Josh Padgett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I work a regular job during the day, so I haven’t really been able to move into playing music full time. I have the thought of hanging it up pretty frequently in the past, if I’m honest. The last time I had the thought, I re-evaluated my expectations of what I get out of being a musician, and ultimately came to decide that 1. My life would be a lot more incomplete without it 2. A lot of why I want to hang it up often is because I dread doing cover gigs a lot of the time, and it’s often the most lucrative part of doing it at this junction 3. I often struggle with my age, at 29, almost 30 I guess I often feel very afraid of getting too old to do it. I guess the answer I give to all of those doubts is art is always valid, no matter who’s creating it or how, none of it needs to be compared. Nobody can be who you are, and vise versa. Everyone is entitled to peruse what their vision is. There isn’t any reason why anyone shouldn’t be allowed to.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into music at a really young age. In the 4th grade my father had acquired a bass from a friend and insisted I try and play it. I fumbled around for a few minutes on it and that was it until I asked him to show me a few chords on the guitar, then I was immediately into it.

Fast forward a few years I played in a couple of metal bands in high school, and didn’t really get back into it until I was about 22, when an open mic opened up by my house. I started singing and playing acoustic tunes there, and that’s where I met a few people in the Atlanta music scene, as well as joined a band called fairshake, playing guitar

Fast forward a few years and I’ve done vocals in a metal band, I’ve played guitar in a few other bands, and finally started writing songs, and started a shoegaze band called Canvas Ruin, and have been releasing music under that moniker since 2021

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Well I’ve always wanted to be a vocalist, but I never really let anyone in on that because I was embarrassed. I always practiced death metal vocals in my teens, and perused that first. When I began doing the open mics at coffee shops and such, even though I had no idea what I was doing, I just went for it, and stopped really caring, and that’s when I really developed my voice and interest really sparked. I was playing a cover gig at a bar a few years later and someone said they’d love to sing for my band and that I was such a fantastic guitarist and he didn’t know why I was wasting time trying to be a singer, and that really stuck with me, and forced me to grow thicker skin and understand that not everyone is going to like what you do or how you sound, and that’s ok, there’s no need to compare yourself to others if you’re happy with how you sound.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There’s always been a wealth of information available that I’ve procrastinated looking into. You can teach yourself almost anything online, whether it’s mixing, mastering, marketing, whatever skill you need, it’s there, and don’t put off learning those skills

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/canvasruin

Image Credits
Alphonso Whitfield