Josh.

Vienna, city of classical music. The waltz and the boys' choir. From Sachertorte, Wiener Schnitzel, Riding School, Heurigen, Franzl, Sissi, Burgtheater and Opera Ball. That is one side. Full of clichés.

Vienna, city of Falco. Wanda. By Ambros, Fendrich and Heller. By Molden and Nino from Vienna, by Kruder and Dorfmeister, Yung Hurn and, of course, picture books (even if they come from Upper Austria). From Life Ball (once upon a time) and MQ. That is the different, vital, creative, exciting and incredibly interesting side of the city on the much-sung Danube.

Josh comes from this Vienna of contrasts, and this city also sets him apart, has shaped him. He was born here 37 years ago and is deeply rooted here.

Josh was recommended to the music — if not in his cradle — in early childhood. At the age of 8, he began to learn classical guitar and from then on played — following the cliché that all Austrians love classical music — including Beethoven.

Less about his own, but probably to the great joy of his grandfather, who was very fond of art and gave young Josh his first insights into the art world.

But even though this was the beginning of a lasting love for the guitar, it still took Eric Clapton and his “Unplugged” album to get Josh., whose father listened to a lot of Paco de Lucia and Bruce Springsteen, really excited about the instrument. He was thirteen years old when he heard the groundbreaking successful album for the first time. It was like an initial spark: “That music literally kicked the button for me back then,” says Josh.

At 15, the first school bands came along and with them the first songs. “But let's be merciful and keep the cloak of silence about my first adolescent steps as a songwriter.” laughs the 35-year-old looking back. A start was made. But Josh had tasted blood, but he wasn't ready yet.

Because despite discovering pop and rock, he did not completely want to turn his back on formal music education and so Josh studied jazz for 5 years. Like classical music before, jazz became too tight for him and the jazzers too elitist. He did not want to believe that music could and should only be “played correctly”. Because from Josh's point of view, it may well be crooked and yet good. Jazz was followed by an interruption in instrumental and vocal pedagogy for purely economic reasons. Looking back, Josh himself says today that he would never advise a potential singing student to sing like himself. That makes sense: Who wants to create competition for themselves?

As is so often the case in the life of a musician, it was pure coincidence that brought Josh. together with his first producer in 2016. The collaboration of this team reached its undeniable climax with “Cordula Grün”.

The track brought Josh over 47 million YouTube streams, around 58 million Spotify streams as well as triple platinum in Austria, platinum in Germany and the Amadeus Austrian Music Award 2019 for “Song of the Year.”

The love of language and the wordplay that make up Josh's lyrics, the stories from everyday life that he spins, also characterize the debut album “Of Girls and Colors.” It was an immediate top 5 success in the Austrian album charts and with “Maybe” another gold-winning single was to be found.

In autumn 2019, Josh released the Licht ins Dunkel song “Kerzen, Karpfen und Du” and a duet with Ina Regen called “Weil ich's nicht weiss”. He also began to write intensively on new songs for his second album, for which he wanted to work with another producer. He found this in his drummer Flo Koch. The two used the forced break soon after due to the Covid pandemic — like many others, Josh had to cancel or postpone countless concerts — to work meticulously on the new sound and new songs.

With “Wo bist Du” (2020, gold status) and “Ring in der Hand” (January 2021, also gold status), two successful advance singles from this second album were released, which was finally released in June of this year and the track

“Part-time romance” wears. It went from zero to 2 into the off. Austrian charts, was in the top ten for weeks, in the album charts for a total of more than 52 weeks and has also achieved platinum status. The single release “Expresso & Tschianti” developed into THE summer hit 2021 made in Austria in Austria and brought Josh a triple platinum award, 36.3 million Spotify streams, more than 12 million YouTube views and three more awards at the Amadeus Austrian Music Awards 2022 (song of the year, songwriter of the year, artist pop/rock).

Following the release of “Teilzeitromantik”, there was also another extended concert tour through Austria and Germany, which only came to an end in October 2022. They were acclaimed gigs, including at Danube Island Festival (as co-headlining alongside Seiler & Speer 2021), and sold-out shows wherever the Viennese and his band came.

But the constant, years of work also took their toll. A recent depression of overload forced JOSH. to take a break of several weeks in 2022; fortunately, the successful artist's health is now much better again.

Even before and immediately after the illness, Josh worked on his third album, which was released in September 2023 and was to become his first number 1 album. He had already presented most of the songs live (“Tanzen bei der Arbeit”, “Der Rausch vom Vermissenen”, “Wenn ich heut bei Dir bleib”, the current single “Ich gehör reparated”, “Nur nicht von Dir” etc.), but others were still new even for fans.

JOSH. once again produced together with Flo Koch on “Reparatur”.

Following the album release, Josh was on tour in Austria and Germany (together with Seiler & Speer) in October, followed by a sold-out tour of Germany in spring, which was followed by an extended and also sold out tour in Austria. The tour culminated in a sold-out concert at the Wiener Stadthalle at the beginning of November. To be heard on the live album “Es ist alles in Ordnung — Live aus der Wiener Stadthalle” released in April 2025, for which Josh also produced a short documentary of the same name.

Josh is currently working on new songs for his fourth studio album. Two of them, “Sag ab” and “Leise”, celebrated their live premiere at a much-acclaimed headlining appearance in front of around 100,000 fans at the Vienna Danube Island Festival and will also be heard on the German and Austrian tour beginning in October.

Klaus Hoffmann/KHO 07/25