December, 2008

Josh Fix: Piano Rock With A Purpose
By Michael Gallant

“I came to San Francisco straight out of college to work in an investment bank,” says exuberant piano rocker Josh Fix of his less-than-musical introduction to the working world. “The first day I got there, I saw it wasn’t for me. Slowly but surely, I weaned myself from the corporate world.”

Though they weren’t the best of times, Josh’s months in finance helped him find a meaty theme for his monumental debut album, Free At Last, an explosive and layered collection of tunes that brings to mind elements of Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and Queen. “We keep finding ways to unnecessarily complicate our lives, whether we’re bankers or bums,” he explains. “You can’t help but listen to some homeless people arguing when you walk down the street — they have complicated lives, too! Every little song on the album has a slightly different point of view about the modern neurosis we inflict upon ourselves, and we don’t even realize we’re doing it.”

Produced by Josh, Free At Last features a generous helping of piano courtesy of a “rickety little Emerson upright which is probably 100 years old” — even though Josh had a Yamaha C7 grand at his disposal while recording at San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios. “I was in this anti-establishment state of mind,” he says. “I thought using this beautiful grand piano would be the predictable thing to do. I wanted a grungy feel. The Emerson has a unique sound and we didn’t have to do too much to it in the mix. It recorded naturally punchy. We got a huge sound out of it and we were only using one mic.

“This was the record where we used every part of the buffalo,” Josh says. “We used a Nord Lead, but a lot of the synthy stuff I did in my bedroom at home with a couple different programs — Native Instruments Absynth, IK Multimedia SampleTank, and MOTU MachFive. I didn’t have a huge budget, so anything that I could find laying around in the studio that we thought would be cool, anything I had on my limited Pro Tools rig at home, I tried to play.

“It was a wacky process,” Josh continues, referring to the intense time he spent recording. “We couldn’t have been in the studio for more than two weeks, but we compressed a lot of activity in a short period of time. The days we were there were crazy, like 20 hours a day.” He adds, “My engineer’s wife wanted to kill us!”

Free At Last carries an important message for keyboardists and non-musicians alike. “Don’t put superfluous pressures on yourself!” says Josh. “The reason I wanted to call the album Free At Last, and the reason the cover is an empty suitcase, is to symbolize leaving your baggage, your societal luggage, behind and just going for it.”

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