Interview
with
Josh Setterfield

JOSH SETTERFIELD

Josh Setterfield has had a transformative musical career. The one-time frontman of indie Brisbane pop-punk band Call The Shots is now a bonafide pop/country solo artist. You get the sense when listening to his sophomore EP entitled From Dusk, that he was always supposed to be doing this whole country thing.

Currently touring as part of the Tamworth Country Music Festival, Josh Setterfield recently chatted with AMNplify about his new musical career path, his two EPs and what to expect from his run of shows in Tamworth. Find out what he had to say about these topics and much more below.

What prompted the shift to a pop/rock country sound?

When Call The Shots came to an end, I didn’t really want to go down the same path and build something from scratch in the same genre. I’ve been a fan of country music for a really long time, my family has been into it since I was little and I wanted to do something completely different. What is more different than country compared to punk. That’s basically it.

What do you love most about country music?

I like the storytelling behind it and it’s for all ages, I feel. You can just sit there and tell your stories and people will sit there and listen without having to mosh, haha. I think the storytelling is my favourite thing about it.

How do you think your time as the front man of Call The Shots has helped with your burgeoning solo pop/rock country career?

Yeah, actually. Coming into country, even in Tamworth, when people have come to see me; they have said it’s very different to other country artists that they have seen. To me, I’m just doing my normal thing. I get up there and do what I normally do, what I’ve always done. They just say it stands out different. It’s more of a show because I’ve come from being in a pop punk band, I have a different stage presence I guess. It works for me because I’m doing what I’ve always done and people like it, haha.

How would you best describe your new sound?

I take a lot of influence from Keith Urban. It’s kind of a country rock/pop mix, but it has a little bit of pop punk in there. It’s like if Call The Shots went country, I guess.

**What is the inspiration for Feelin’ Love?**

Feeling the love, I guess. I’ve never been asked that question before, that’s really cool. There was a girl back up in Brisbane and things didn’t go ahead with her and stuff like that. It was written about her, but I don’t think she knows it’s written about her actually but that’s okay.

It might be a bit awkward if she did know…

Yeah, yeah…especially as how it didn’t go ahead.

**How does the From Dusk EP differ to the Live It Up EP?**

With my songwriting in general, I write what I’m feeling at the time. It’s not different in that aspect, but I feel like my first EP (Live It Up) in country was just me testing the waters and now I’ve branched out into something I’m more comfortable in (From Dusk). From Dusk is kind of my progression, I guess, more into the genre and me exploring the sound a little bit more and seeing what I can do with it.

What can we expect from your shows at the Tamworth Country Music Festival?

Just fun, I guess. I try to play as much fun stuff as I can, originals. Upbeat, alive…

So, no that different to Call The Shots really…

Exactly, yeah, haha.

What makes you different to similar sounding artists?

I think just coming from my background of another scene. A lot of these artists that I’ve been talking to, they have grown up playing country music and they have grown up with the chilled outside of country music. Whereas I’ve grown up with the exciting, loud, fast version of punk. Coming into it, I try to bring a bit of that across. Like I said earlier, it doesn’t feel different to me but it feels different to people who come to see the shows. That’s my main difference, it’s without trying to be different.

What has been your most memorable career highlight to date?

In all of music or country… (country)…oh, in country…I think it would be the Deni Ute Muster I played at a couple of months ago. That was with a couple of my favourite artists, The Wolf Brothers and Lee Kernaghan actually played it. So that was pretty cool to play the same festival as him. That was just an amazing weekend and I hope that I get to do something like that again.

If you could play any venue in the world, where would it be and why?

I really want to play Brixton Academy in London, that’s because I have a Good Charlotte DVD and it’s been my favourite DVD ever. I don’t why, I just think it’s awesome; it’s this really cool venue – it’s a really theatre-looking place. Other than that, it would probably be the House of Blues in Anaheim, just right next to Disneyland. I don’t think there would be anything better than going to Disneyland and playing a show later in the night, haha.

I was actually chatting with Tara Favell last week and she was saying that she wanted to go tour in the UK as well and we were discussing how there’s not many country artists in the UK. It’s a bit different, I don’t know why there isn’t anyone…it’s like why, everywhere else has country artists…

I think America is where it’s biggest at the moment. I’m not sure how it would go in Japan either. I can’t imagine there being Japanese people with cowboy hats.

Have you got any aspirations to go outside of the country?

I would absolutely love to go to Nashville. I haven’t been over there before. I had a couple of friends go over and tell me how amazing it is. I feel like being in the country, Nashville is the world home of country music. I just want to go over there, just meet some people and just experience it all. Apparently, the music never stops. I can’t explain it until I’ve been there, but I just so much want to go over there.

Have you seen the TV show at all?

The TV show Nashville…I’m obsessed with it.

Tara (Favell) was saying how you have to line up at the Bluebird Café to get in…they don’t show any of that on the TV show…

No, they just show how amazing it is. You can just go there and watch. If you line up and don’t get in, go away, haha.

Have you got a show today?

I’m playing today, at like 11.30 at night today so… it goes until like 2 am. It will be a party show. I’ll see how that goes, see if I can stay awake…not have as many beers is what I’m saying, haha.