WATCH: Singer on his way to the USA

Singer and songwriter Josh Moreira (18) has released a new single Homegrown and a seven-track EP to pay homage to South Africa before spreading his wings to the USA to begin his studies there in August.

It’s a bumper release with him also dropping his newest single off the EP, Fingertips, along with a music video for the new single.

Homegrown is a product of Josh’s time during the lockdown in 2020 and 2021.

What sets Homegrown apart from others for a young talent like Josh is that it’s 100% made by him. In true lockdown fashion, he wrote, laid down the vocals, played all musical instruments, mixed, mastered and produced it all by himself. He then went on to film and produce his own music video for Fingertips.

All this before he heads overseas to fulfil a life-long ambition to study in the USA.

More about Josh

His teenage years belie his music credentials, having been musical all his life. He picked up a guitar at the age of four and began learning songs by ear. Fourteen years later, he now adds piano, ukulele and bass to the mix.

Josh wrote his first song at the age of eight and has already had multiple single releases under his belt, all receiving great critical acclaim and radio rotation on many popular local stations.

These releases include Falling Apart (2018 – when he was just 15), Ablaze (2019) and more recently, the first single from the Homegrown EP, Nike Airs in 2020, which talks about having anxiety during the lockdown.

Lockdown struck in 2020 when Josh was in matric, and he decided to give himself a new challenge to put out music that was 100% himself.

He has a knack for storytelling and his debut EP most certainly reflects that.

“Homegrown crept up on me quietly. I had made portions of songs that weren’t much on their own, but once I listened through all of them, it hit me. This could be my debut EP if I put in a bit more work. And so, in the height of lockdown, I worked in April and May 2020 to get all these songs finished,” he reflected.

“After a difficult matric year, I began to learn how to mix and master, only fully completing Homegrown in June. Although that seems like a long time to complete an EP of only seven songs, I aimed for as much perfection as my bedroom studio could give me.”

More about his music

Josh took inspiration from Jeremy Zucker and Jon Bellion for the seven-track EP, using their genius and storytelling techniques to add to his own creations so he could create an art piece rather than a meaningless combination of sounds.

This EP will always remind Josh of home. It’s as raw as it could be for him. Sitting for hours into the night trying to fix certain issues with songs and then climbing into a bed, not even a metre away was a dream come true for him.

He was finally living the fantasy of his four-year-old self. His music was finally coming to fruition, right there in his bedroom.

The way forward

Joshua enrolled in a two-year study programme in business administration and management at Jamestown Community College in the state of New York.

He flies out to Newark, USA, in early August to quarantine in accordance with Covid-19 regulations, before orientation and studies begin later in the month.

His long-term goal is to use the knowledge gained while in North America to start his own record label.

His short-term goal, besides studying, is to immerse himself in the American music culture and use the time to hone his new skills of production, song-writing and mixing to ensure they are comparative to those of his idols.

“I am nervous and excited to head out to the unknown but this has always been a dream of mine to challenge myself and study overseas and make a name for myself with regards to my music. I want to use this time to soak up as much knowledge and first-hand experience as I can. I know that I’m going to miss home a lot, though. South Africa is where my roots are, where my history is,” he said.

“It’s time for a new journey. But before I do that, I felt there was no better time to release Homegrown. This is my ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s supported me. This is me. This is authentic. This is Homegrown,” Josh concluded.

• Josh Moreira’s debut EP Homegrown can now be streamed and downloaded across all digital platforms via Distrokid.

• Here’s a link to the music video of Fingertips: