Kitchener/ Waterloo, ON’s singer-songwriter and multi-talented artist, Joshua Sade James has released his new single, “All Fall Down” with an accompanying music video.
Fresh from his forthcoming sophomore album release, JSJ — slated for June of this year — “All Fall Down” was written about mistrust, dishonesty, and miscommunication in a relationship.
“Without these core attributes enforced by love, we… ‘All Fall Down,” he explains.
First written about three years ago, the song’s bittersweet inspiration was related to a relationship and breakup he’d had while in college.
“It allowed me to do a lot of self-reflection,” he shares. “I wrote the song after the second time we broke up, and just got to think about how truly toxic we were towards each other.
There was cheating, there was manipulation, there was just a lot of baggage neither of us knew how to get rid of. We just sort of gave it to each other because it was easier than being alone.
“It was interesting to shoot this video with a current love interest when it’s actually about a previous one,” he continues, laughing. “When writing or hearing the song in my head, I wanted this song to be like if a sad, old clown got drunk, broke into the old carnival where he used to work, and started up the merry-go-round, only for it to not fully work.
“I think I achieved that in both the song and the video.”
The video was shot with director, Sagi Kahane-Rapport, and his good friend Esther Vlessing.
“Also, shoutout to Dylan Spilberg and Leo Vargas for making this happen!”
Check out the video for “All Fall Down” below and find out more about Joshua via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Joshua Sade James, spelt like Sade but not Sade. For those who don’t know her as an artist, look her up too, haha! I am an emerging Canadian pop artist who moved to Toronto to pursue the dream and start “paying my dues”. I am originally from Kitchener, Ontario, and like many have moved back home during the pandemic.
Since the age of nine I began writing songs, poems, nonsense; feelings if you will… Growing up I never felt secure. I had terrible abandonment issues and it was obvious when my first instinct to make friends was “I have popsicles in my garage, you want one?”. Later I found out people were only coming for the sugar rush when my mom stopped buying popsicles. I remember being in fourth grade when I began writing a song with the lyrics, “the rose is black, the butterflies are dead, I lay back in tears for all the meaningless words to say…” Now sing that in a Blink182 voice and you’re dead on the money.
I never knew how to be at peace with myself until later in life when I truly discovered music. I came out in grade ten, at age 15, I joined a pop show choir called KW Glee, I later auditioned twice and then got in, finally graduating from Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Musical Theatre Performance Program with the Sheridan Pop Award for Outstanding Performance. Needless to say, I found my calling, my passion, and myself during this last, almost decade, of my life. Never give up, and be true to who you are.
Nowadays (or I guess before COVID-19) I would be living in Toronto, working at a vegan restaurant, singing at corporate gigs or personal gigs about three times a month, trying to grow “Joshua Sade James”, writing once a month at DreamHouse Studios, and working on multiple projects. Today I sit in front of a computer screen working on everything in my career digitally, finishing up my personal EP & a SYNC EP. Release date? TBA. We currently have plenty of time to make it perfect, so that is what we’re doing.
Random facts? My favourite colour is orange, my favourite number is 5, I am a Gemini Sun – Libra Moon, I love the water, and last but not least taking long walks on the way to your computer to open Spotify and search “All Fall Down – Joshua Sade James” and hitting that lil heart <3. Want to learn more? Visit www.joshuasadejames.com
Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.
My writing style has become eclectic. Some days I pick up my guitar and find chords to words I already have down on paper. Perhaps the next day it’s me creating a beat around a certain synth sound I find cool, then I would pick up the mic and jam out until I FIND something that FEELS right to the nature of the song. How I approach necessarily differs depending on the environment in which I become creatively stimulated. However, I will say that a common theme that I’ve acquired over my time writing is making sure to have a title to the song, or a close theme that will guide where the song is going. For example, I miss my family, friends, and loved ones so I wrote a song that revolves around waiting, love, and remembrance; the song was later titled “I’ll Wait For You”. I guess that’s a little insight on my eclectic writing style.
Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?
Since the pandemic, all LIVE shows have either been postponed or cancelled. I actually have a Facebook LIVE show happening this Thursday, May 14th at 7 pm at www.facebook.com/kellielodermusic/live/ I was invited by Kellie Loder to be a part of her Writers Round.
If you haven’t been to one of my LIVE shows expect the following: high belts, high heeled platform shoes, dancing, proclamations of self-love, a storyboard of my life through songs, a little audience participation, and of course, we party.
If you haven’t been to one of my DIGITAL LIVE shows expect the following: high belts, high heeled platform shoes, potential dancing, proclamations of self-love, a storyboard of my life through songs, a little audience participation, and of course now it’s all acoustic and there’s no lights, BGVs or BG Dancers, but we still party.
I always encourage people to as some would say “live their truth” because we only have this one life potentially. Why would you want to waste moments concerned about other peoples insecurities and emotions when YOU could be flourishing. I think it’s important that in my set I give people a timeline or storyboard of my life through my songs. How we got there, when we got there, and why it became a song or, I like to say, timestamp.
Come to a live show and let’s hang out, shoot the sh*t, and sing some songs.
“You are worthy, you are loved, and you are perfectly you.” ~ JSJ
If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?
This question is loaded because it depends on the situation!! If I had my guitar I would definitely play people, “I’ll Wait For You” by Joshua Sade James (Unreleased), because it’s so fresh and new and I love it right now because of how relevant and relatable it is. If I had to choose a song for a new fan who likes visuals, then I would say, go check out “All Fall Down” by Joshua Sade James, my latest single. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. as well as YouTube where it lives with it’s Music Video counterpart. Lastly, if I want to send a single where I can show off my voice, range, production and somewhat lyrical skills then I send them to Spotify, apple music, etc. to listen to “One Thing” by Joshua Sade James. The track is just pure fun and I got to flex my producer muscles when creating this EP, so I’m proud of it.
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?
Dang, there’s a few so I’m just gonna list them in no particular order: So, of course, we have Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Amanda Marshall, Alanis Morissette, The Barenaked Ladies, Shania Twain, Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Dallas Green, and my father Jamie Warren. Then LOCALLY or underground artists I would say my favourite Canadian Artists are: Katy Taylor Topham, VAL, NOA, Zachary Simon, WILL, Cinde, TWNRVA, bryn, Ezra Jordan, Jessie Gold, Alfie and Joshua Sade James (shameless plug).
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