When Josh Fudge was a kid, his neighbor was throwing out an old piano that his dad thought would be a good addition to the house. It was that moment when Fudge was instantly drawn to music and the interesting sounds that could be created. Although he wasn’t good at first, his father kept encouraging him to keep practicing and when Fudge was six years old, his father asked him to play something that reflected how he felt about his day. It clicked for Fudge, even at that age that music was reflective of emotion and a way to channel one’s feelings. From that point on, Fudge would immerse himself into music, teaching himself how to play guitar and computer software to enhance his music. Drawing inspiration from everyone from Billy Joel to Mac Demarco, Fudge has amassed an arsenal of analog synths that have helped shape his sound consisting of a nuance of sounds including funkadelic bass lines and bombastic percussion. As he was growing up, he would busk at neighborhood block parties and local fairs to earn money to put towards new equipment to be able to make entire songs by himself. “I’d been improvising forever and improvising and songwriting are very close together,” Fudge stated as he spoke about utilizing his computer in making music, “it just made it so easy so I could sing everything, write everything, and now with a computer I could just sit here and create entire songs all by myself. That’s what I would do, all by myself.” After graduating high school, Fudge took a gap year to release his album ‘Fun Times’ independently in early 2021, which led to a record deal and plans for new music in the coming year.
B-Sides spoke with Fudge about his journey into making music professionally, detailed the encouragement he received from his father, new music and more.
