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

Joshua, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Recently, I chose to take on a traditional job in an industry that builds heavy equipment. I did the job because it utilized strengths that I have in building, hands on construction and material handling. The job paid very well and was secure in that there were lots of positions to advance. The hours were steep and long, leaving little to no time for creativity. This wasn’t the first time that I’ve attempted a traditional job, and it wasn’t the first time I had realized the importance of music as my work.
After the long hours of working a job that made me content but unhappy, I would get home and grab my guitar and attempt to play for just a short amount of time. It was only when I began to play professional gigs after work that I started to realize the weight of choice and indecision.

It seemed so important to have a job that was secure, especially after the strangeness of the Year 2020, though the security seemed hollow in exhaustion. I would get home after a 10-hour day and use my hour at home to shower and clean up, pack and travel the one hour journey to my evening gig. I began to get myself into a corner in which I would only have about 3 hours of sleep. All because I wanted to maintain a prideful integrity of continuing my art.
As it turned out, my pride came in doing a job that felt traditionally acceptable.
Finally there was this means to quiet those that would say, “when will you have a real job?” I had the real job, I had some money, though I had no time to either spend or enjoy the money or the assets that I was working to create.
It was only after juggling a 60 hour a week job with two to three gigs in the evenings that I realized I didn’t have enough hours in the day for rest and health to be a part of my life as well.

I experienced a major life threatening car accident due to exhaustion one night on the way back to my house from a 1 hour drive from downtown Charleston. It was only after this accident that I realized the importance of my choice to be an artist rather than to be a traditionally accepted laborer.

It dawned on me that everyone in the industry that I worked with would listen for 10 hours a day to headphones containing music from their favorite artists. Artists like myself. Finally, I realized that being an artist such as those is in fact a real job.

This is my real job.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Unfortunate enough to have begun music at the age of seven and have been considered a lifelong musician since. It was very important for me as a youth to have a hobby that was continually engaging and allowed me to grow to the furthest extent that I wished. Many of my friends were engaged in sports at the time, but with no interest in such things I am very fortunate that my parents found music as something that I would cling to. Since, I’ve been able to create a career out of music, a hobby, and a passion that has helped guide me through experiences and wonderful new things in my life. Many of the stories events and things that I like to share with the world are the result of having been a musician. The art that I like to create is both reflective of my own experience and on the way that I see the world. Commonly I write poetically and in ways that leave mystery and openness to interpretation. In this way my art can be heard by many an interpreted by many different belief systems, ideologies, and understandings. Ultimately songwriting and poetry are means for me to practice therapy with my mind as well as create a relationship with the world, and greater yet spirit.
It is my hope that the music I create, though often melancholy and minor, may allow the listener to relate and relieve the burden of being alone. I’ve learned over these years as a songwriter, one who has felt alone, that we never truly are. For it is the music that I have listened to and enjoyed that has alleviated that feeling in me by offering relatability with the creator.
For me music is a delve into sound. I pay far less attention to the meaning of words as I do the way that they sound and the beauty of their slur. However, I have learned to trust even the meaning of words that did not have intentful contrivance. It seems. To me, that truth emerges regardless of our intent.

These rambles aside, I will spend my musical career hoping that not only can I find solace in the art of others, but that those who encounter my work may find it’s significance.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The greatest support of artists that I can imagine, would be to build up the artist that seems to stand out. Not that they stand out due to sheer skill, but that their approach to art scenes to be for the betterment of humanity, or the mind. I do believe that it is a grave unskillfulness to fund, endorse, and build up the artistry of audio manipulators who seek only worldly gain at the detriment of the listener.
It is my opinion that we live in a Time where great skill is hidden in the underground of hearsay, while great manipulation and contrivance exist in the mainstream.
That is not to say that skill does not exist in the mainstream, nor that those performing in the mainstream are not artists. Though, it is through my experience as a community artist that there are many vibrant lights burning to be seen by the world from the depths of our bars, coffee shops, and the smallest of YouTube channels. These artists should be supported so that truth may emerge in the minds of humans. Contemplation of skillfulness. Qualities of mind. And the uplift others.

The day of musical marketing is moreso upon us than in past years. I believe this may be at the cost of our artistic soul.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

This response curtails on a previous question having to do with a traditional job versus a job and artistry.

So often I encounter others who question what the use of a lifelong commitment to an art would be in a world that requires security, steadiness, and asset. Even family has grown weary of the time invested in a lifelong commitment to music, especially when they believe mainstream Fame should be the goal of such commitment.

I believe the way that we worship and idolize hollywood, bollywood, and those who guide our minds in Media has confused non-artists about what the artist is practicing for to begin with.

I encounter confusion in those who look at a life of a 30-year-old who has assets different than their own, and who still sings blues songs after having learned lessons about melancholia. I encounter misunderstanding in those who see a person who is taken too long to ever retire traditionally. It is my opinion that these misconceptions are the result of a modern entertainment industry that prioritizes money and embellishes the artists they’re in as gods.

I believe that this misunderstanding causes people to misunderstand the struggling artist and not see the importance of supporting the obscure.

If you want to build up the art community, support artists at the local level and let them tell you who they are.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Facebook.com/joshuajarmanmusic
• Youtube: YouTube.com/joshuajarmanmusic