We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Hopkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The short answer to that would be: The first time I ever played a “show” in a band, I was Eleven; and after that playing music has been the sole focus in my life… The longer/more dramatic answer involves my band ALBUM, which has been the vehicle to express my creative and artistic ideas in and outside of music.
When ALBUM first started playing together in the Fall of 2007, it was out of pure boredom and fun. At the time there was no intention to play outside of the garage, let alone to other people in general. Each of us were freshly out of previous (and serious) bands, so all we wanted to do was hang out, catch a buzz and play Black Sabbath and Ramones songs. We didn’t even name the band until we got booked for our first show.
By the end of our first practice, we wrote 3 songs (that we sometimes still play to this day) and figured out 3-4 other cover songs. After that we knew we had something going on and we need to explore this new realm of music together. Within 2-3 months we played our first show and received a great response. After that we definitely knew we were on the right path and haven’t stopped since.

Josh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The name of the band is ALBUM, and we are a Heavy Metal/Rock n’ Roll band from Youngstown, Ohio. We have been together playing shows and releasing material consistently since 2007. In 2020 when the world shut down, we started ALBUM The Podcast; it’s really more of a Variety/Talk show than a traditional Podcast. Through this, the 3 of us really get to stretch our minds creatively, writing skits, homemade commercials for fake products and places, as well as having reoccurring ‘celebrity’ guests (which is just us doing bad impressions)… ALBUM The Podcast is what Wayne’s World would be if it was a podcast.

The band is made up of brothers, Jason and (myself) Josh Hopkins and childhood friend/neighbor, Winfield Dray. The 3 of us grew up playing music and playing in punk bands since our mid-teens. When we formed ALBUM, we wanted to be the band we weren’t seeing in the world- loud, fierce music with a live show that matches the intensity and raw power of the big rock shows of the 70’s.

What sets us apart from other bands is we have always been true to ourselves, never following trends of popular music, fashion or whatever hip current the world may be in at the time. We are 3 dudes who pride themselves on creating an original product that a lot of the world is not accustom to. We love all kinds of music, so we play all kinds of music- and some people don’t like that, they want their bands to play one kind of music, preferably in one style within a genre. During an ALBUM live show, you’ll hear metal, punk, rock n’ roll, and maybe even some jazz thrown in there. Recently we released a double disc CD, 1 disc all punk songs and the other disc is heavy metal. Same goes for our Podcast- we want our Podcast to be 100% us in every way possible.

We want all of our potential fans out there to know: ALBUM is for All people of All ages, and we hope for everyone to listen to our music and our podcast- and have fun while doing it.
Also, all of our music is for purchase and available online on all streaming services.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think what a lot of people who are “non-creatives” struggle to understand, is that money (making it or spending it) has nothing to do with the creative goal. We (and I think I’d speak for most artists) do it because we have to; we love it, we love the feeling it gives us, we love the feeling it can give other people, we love watching people experience it. There’s no better feeling than being able to step back and observe something; whether a song, a painting, etc, that was just an idea in your head moments before.

For me personally, I’ve worked months on projects, perfecting every detail from the packaging to the music itself- with absolute no intention of selling a single item. I did it because I had it in me, and I had to get it out… and make it look as cool as possible.

In this modern era, being in a band who plays original music is definitely not something you do because of the money. That’s why bars and clubs across America are filled with some of the best music and songs you’ll never hear.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A few years back we entered in to a Battle of the Bands type scenario. Since we grew up playing in bands we have each played these kinds of things before. Even as ALBUM we played a few competition style shows… never victorious. Only driving home defeated, unwanted, and super pissed off. So when we were entered into this Battle, we were determined to win, and not just win, we wanted to absolutely dominate in every realm possible.

The first thing we did was flood social media on all the platforms available at the time. We’d post constantly on our own pages, taking still images from our favorite movies, slap an ALBUM logo on it and post it. We’d go to the event pages set up for the Battle and post thing like “Hey we’re ALBUM, and we’re the future undisputed champions of this Battle of the Bands” while posting pictures of WWE wrestlers holding up their belts. It got to the point where our fans caught on and started making their own ALBUM posts, promoting for us! What really lit a fire under us was, no other bands (or even the event coordinators) were promoting at all! So if we were the only band doing it, it’ll most definitely get noticed. Needless to say, it did get noticed and after selling every ticket we had to sell, the room was filled with ALBUM fans, wearing their ALBUM shirts (some even made cardboard signs!), and we won the whole event. Gifts, prizes and all!

When it was all over, we were able to just sit back and laugh saying “we did it!”. We worked extremely hard and was on our phones way too much for a month or so, but it truly paid off and people still talk to us about it to this day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ALBUMtheBand.com
• Instagram: @ALBUMtheBand
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ALBUMtheBand
• Twitter: @ALBUMtheBand
• Youtube: @ALBUMtheALBUM
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/albumtheband
• Other: Bandcamp: https://albumtheband.bandcamp.com
  Podcast Links: www.albumtheband.com/podcast

Image Credits

Mollie Crowe