By Arden Berry | Arts & Life Editor
As the sun beat down on Zilker Park, Austin City Limits attendees were not the only ones feeling fried. The sun took another victim: pop-folk artist Josha Jensen’s computer setup.
However, despite the malfunction halfway through, Jensen’s set went on.
“You know, the sun wanted its moment and it’s fine,” Jensen said. “We made it work.”
Such sun was not an unfamiliar experience for the Arizona native. In fact, he said Austin reminds him of Arizona.
“I think it’s very hot,” Jensen said. “It’s dry. But you know, we got the cicadas out here. We got some snakes. We got some cacti. So I love it. It’s very cute. The people are very friendly and bubbly. I feel like everyone’s happy to be here.”
Jensen performed much of his set with a guitar in hand and backing vocalists framing his melodies.
“They’re troupers, my band,” Jensen said. “I’ve been with some of them for a long time, and some of them I just met. So it’s a beautiful process to come together and make something fresh and do it for the first time.”
He also brought on a trio of backing vocalists who he had known for a very long time: his sisters. Together, they performed “Cool Water” by Bob Nolan.
“I love them so much,” Jensen said. “I think my family, they’ve obviously seen me through so many phases of my career. And just through my life. And I think it’s really fun to have them in this new phase. You know, kind of usher it in.”
Jensen said his love of music has grown from “a lot of little seeds” planted throughout his childhood by sowers like “The Fox and the Hound,” Joni Mitchell records and “Les Misérables.”
“We got not the best tickets, but good enough to kind of see, and it was in Arizona,” Jensen said. “And I just remember the opening number, seeing the lights and the music and the choreography and everything telling this story. And that’s one of my earliest musical memories.”
His love of music continued to grow as he practiced piano for about five hours a day as a kid. On Sunday, he demonstrated his piano proficiency onstage.
“I just owe it to 14-year-old Josh,” Jensen said. “In the practice room, not doing school, literally failing my classes, but was not failing piano for sure. I had some amazing mentors. And a lot of YouTube.”
He would try to transcribe an Oscar Peterson solo from videos.
“I just have always had a desire to learn about the language of music,” Jensen said. “And I just figured it out. Sometimes it was just by ear too. You know, you just play the recording and you kind of whittle around until you find the edge of the thing.”
Just as he carries these childhood piano skills forward, Jensen’s strategy for creating songs involves bringing older songs forward.
“I write a lot all the time,” Jensen said. “And I kind of wait and see which songs will stick with me and kind of carry me through. It’s not always the songs you think.”
He said he wrote his two currently released songs, “Hoping” and “People Were Singing,” a long time ago.
“I always knew these songs were going to be the first things,” Jensen said. “When I wrote ‘Hoping,’ I was like, this is my first song. This is the doorway. I feel like the path is very clear and now I just get to walk on it.”
As for what comes next on this path, Jensen has a few ideas.
“Hopefully opening for someone on tour or having my own tour,” Jensen said. “Definitely releasing more music this year. And next year maybe an album. We’ll see.”
