Stripping it all back in time for a more authentic sound

Bedroom producer and singer-songwriter Josh O’Leary has been performing as JOSSLE for several years, building a reputation as a reflective and contemplative narrator with an extensive appreciation of melody and indie-rock guitar music.   The Kinsale native has been in London since late last year, but his heart remains very much attached to Galway and the west of Ireland, where he attended college and initially grew his act.

It is a period of time that spawned Nested, a four-track EP set for digital release this Friday, July 27.

Josh’s move to the UK allowed him to expand on the ideas that filter through this project, benefitting from the increased pressure of London life and the wealth of new collaborative partners at his disposal. He explains the stories behind the four tracks.

“All the songs are pre-London,” Josh explains.

“I wrote Child when I was fifteen, coinciding with the birth of my brother’s first child. I had most of those lyrics done and I went back to it when I was in Galway.

“That was the only one that ended up being a collaborative piece. I went in with this producer, Frank Colucci, to do a session my label had set up. He asked what I wanted to do, and I started playing that riff from Child – I’ve been playing it for years. The whole song unfolded then and there. We had the whole thing produced and written within four hours.

“All My Plants I wrote in final year of college. It’s quite an introspective one. It’s about my relationship with myself and how that can have an effect on your real world. You can internalise a lot of things but the way you react to them has a real impact.

“Nestled was written in two parts in Ireland. I’d written half of it after a breakup, and it was a song of remorse and grieving the relationship. I left it alone and came back to it about a year and a half later… The second half of the song is about gaining more perspective on that relationship, and how it wasn’t all about me and both of us got hurt – owning up to myself a bit more and understanding myself more.

“Freckle was written in the same bedroom as all of them in Galway about a relationship with one of my friends.”

Pictured:  Jossle...Galway gigs represent a homecoming.