It’s been a while since we’ve had a chat with Canadian rocker Josh Taerk, but as he’s recently released the title track for his latest album, ‘Beautiful Tragedy’, which comes with a very cool video, we figured it was high time we caught up with him. The single, ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ is currently charting at the 43rd spot on the Mediabase Top 40 Pop Activator Chart and #52 on the BDS/Billboard Top 40 Indicator Chart, and looks set to go even higher.
‘Beautiful Tragedy’ has already received rave reviews, and has been streamed over 40,000 times on Spotify alone, as well as being played on over 100 radio stations across the UK.
Speaking of the success of ‘Beautiful Tragedy’, Josh said,
I can’t even begin to say how excited and grateful I am. This has been a dream of mine ever since I started playing guitar and I can’t believe it’s actually happening! To my family, friends, everyone I get to work with everyday, and to my amazing fans, thank you for coming on this journey with me. I love you all!
Lisa had the chance to ask Josh some questions about the new release, touring, and a subject close to every Canadian’s heart, bacon.
Heya Josh! What have you been up to since we last heard from you?
It’s been pretty full on since the last time we saw each other, and I love it! After my tour dates in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London I toured through New York State until the end of October. November, I did a big tour through the Midwest going through Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In December I was in Colorado and did some videos in the D’Angelico store in Colorado after the holidays. In January we started a U.S. Top 40 Radio campaign, the band and I played shows in Los Angeles, and I attended the NAMM conference.
You’ve got a new single out at the moment haven’t you, ‘Beautiful Tragedy’. Tell us about that.
I do, and I’m so excited about what’s going on with this song! It’s one of the first songs I ever co-produced with my friend, Nashville Producer and writer, Teddy Morgan and it definitely holds a special place in my heart.
How’s it performing?
I’m really grateful for how people have been gravitating to “Beautiful Tragedy.” We released it to regional radio in The U.K. this past year and it was playlisted on over 100 stations across the country. The streaming numbers have been climbing, over 40,000 streams on Spotify last time I checked, and as of this week “Beautiful Tragedy” #43 on Mediabase Top 40 Pop Activator Chart and #52 on the BDS/Billboard Top 40 Pop Indicator Chart.
What’s the song about?
I started writing the lyrics for ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ when I got back to my hotel room after one of my shows in London. It’s about 2 people realizing that, no matter how much they want to be together, sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
You’ve just released a rather cool lyric video for ‘Beautiful Tragedy’, which shares the song by using different online features that we’d all use in our everyday lives – I have seen Google Translate, Kindle, word documents, iTunes, Facebook messenger, GMail, youtube…It even looks like you’ve got GarageBand in there? There’s loads more! Who came up with the concept?
When it was time to make a video for the song, I knew I wanted to do something different. I started thinking about my love/hate relationship with the tech you mentioned above and thought, “this would make a hilarious video!” I came up with the concept and outline of the different segments and then brought Josh Lockhart, Nashville Director, in to work on it with me. We connected on the idea instantly, and with our combined sense of humor were able to really make this idea come to life.
‘Beautiful Tragedy’ is the title track of your new album – where can we find it?
The ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ album is out now, and you can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, everywhere you can stream or download music. I’ve also got CDs, and you can get those on my website.
Will you be touring the new album, and if so can we expect you in the UK soon?
I am constantly on the road playing shows, and it’s the best! I write songs based on experiences that I’ve gone through or people very close to me have gone through. Getting to tour, meet new people, and share my stories with the world leads me to new experiences, new stories, and new songs. After all, you’ve got to live life to be able to write about it.
I love the UK It’s like my second home. I got my start there 9 years ago or so, and I will definitely be coming back to play shows soon.
Anyone who follows you on Instagram would be aware that you know your way around a kitchen – you’ve even dedicated an IG highlights page to food! What’s the best thing you have eaten recently? What about the best thing you’ve cooked?
I think the best thing that I’ve eaten recently would have to be a handmade Oreo ice cream bar sitting by the pool in Orlando Florida. They took Oreo frozen yogurt and put it into a popsicle mold with whole Oreo cookies. When it was done it was like eating Oreos dipped in Oreo ice-cream. I’d swim back to Florida for another one of those.
I’m always on the go, and a lot of the time need to make something quick that I can eat fast. So I use a lot of leftovers in my cooking and transform them into something new. The other day I took leftover steak, onions, garlic, some chillies, and made a fried rice using brown rice and eggs as the base. It was delicious and took maybe 10 minutes to make.
As you’re Canadian I guess I might already know the answer to this, but is everything *really* improved by the addition of bacon?
I can’t think of one thing that doesn’t taste better with Bacon. It’s good in sandwiches, it’s good wrapped around steak, it’s good on doughnuts and great covered in chocolate.
And finally – what’s next for Josh Taerk?
I’m always writing new songs and constantly on the road so there will be a lot more tour dates and maybe even some new music coming soon. We’re also in the middle of the Top 40 Radio Campaign so there will be a lot more announcements about chart progress coming soon too.
Find Josh Taerk online on his official website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Be sure to check out all our other articles on Josh here.
