Indie-Pop Artist Josh Sahunta Receives 2024 JUNO Award Nomination for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year
Edmonton-based indie-pop artist Josh Sahunta‘s album, To Be Loved, Vol. 1, has recently earned him his very first JUNO Award nomination for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year.
To Be Loved, Vol. 1 comprises seven love songs written for his wife, exploring the depths of marital emotions and conveying appreciation. These songs, which resonate deeply with audiences, have found a special place in numerous wedding and engagement videos globally. Sahunta reveals that To Be Loved, Vol. 1 initially began as a collection crafted for film and television, nearly remaining exclusive to those mediums before its eventual release on streaming platforms.
Last month, Josh released his brand new single “Crazy“, inspired by the experience of falling in love with someone yet feeling too anxious to confess. It delves into the emotions surrounding the fear of rejection and the vulnerability of being afraid to be hurt by someone you care about.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Josh Sahunta, I’m an indie-pop singer-songwriter/producer from Edmonton, Canada. I’ve been doing music full-time now since 2020, after completing a 5-year degree in Psychology at the University of Alberta. It was definitely tough taking the plunge into doing music full-time, as I didn’t receive support for it from my parents, and I felt obligated to work in my field of study after committing 5 years of my life to it. I’m glad I took the chance on myself though because I’ve had a thriving career for the past 4 years, supporting a household as a sole income provider.
Congratulations on your JUNO Award nomination for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year! How does it feel to receive such recognition for your album, To Be Loved, Vol. 1?
It truly feels surreal. Even to this day, there’s a part of me that still can’t fully comprehend this nomination. I never even considered “awards” as a part of my time doing music. I just make music that I’m happy and proud to release and leave it at that. To be honored in this way is so incredible to me.
To Be Loved, Vol. 1 is a collection of love songs dedicated to your wife. Can you share with us the inspiration behind this album and what it means to you personally?
My wife and I got married in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns. We had to cut our guest list down from 100 to 10, six days before our wedding day. This really affected my wife and I, as we obviously had dreamt about our wedding day for a long while. What this also did, however, was change our perspective from focusing so much on the wedding “day”, but more on the lifetime of marriage, we had ahead of us. It really put things into perspective for me and made me realize what an absolute privilege it was that this woman wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. I wrote every song on the album with that sentiment in mind. That I was the luckiest guy in the world to be marrying her, and that she chose me despite all of my flaws, my messed-up past, and all the baggage I brought along with me from my past. The overflow of emotion I felt about all of that is what this album was made up of.
Your latest single, “crazy,” explores the emotions of falling in love and the fear of rejection. What was the creative process like behind this song, and what message do you hope listeners take away from it?
“crazy” definitely speaks to a place that a lot of people (myself very much included) have found themselves in. When you have feelings for someone and want them to know, but you know that there could be a very real possibility that those feelings aren’t mutual. It’s also about the fear of letting somebody “in”. Letting them into your innermost parts, and your deep insecurities about yourself that you have hidden from just about everyone. Part of loving someone is being willing to let these walls down, and sometimes that is just the most terrifying thing about being in a committed relationship. But it’s also the most incredible and fulfilling part when it works out. The creative process behind this song was simply the self-exploration of my feelings around being in love with my now wife. Fearing that once she really knew the parts of myself that I felt most ashamed of, she’d take off on me. Thankfully she didn’t! What I would hope listeners can take away from this song is that sometimes (very often actually), the best experiences in our lives are on the other side of fear and that sometimes doing the things we’re most afraid of, are the best ways to experience what this life has to offer. Obviously, it doesn’t work out every time, but when it does, there’s nothing else quite like it.
Your sound has drawn comparisons to artists like John Mayer, Dermot Kennedy, and Ed Sheeran. How do you navigate maintaining your unique style while also embracing these comparisons?
I feel like my music has been often compared to these 3 artists in particular, but also never so concretely that I felt there was nothing original there. I personally can hear elements of these 3 artists in a lot of my songs, but I’ve never felt I was at risk of ripping any of them off. I also am heavily influenced by R&B music, and there has also been a huge overarching R&B theme to a lot of my songs as well, in terms of melodies and chord structure. My sound is very much just influenced by whatever and whoever I’m listening to at the time. Sometimes I’ll hear a Latin song I really love, and then my very next song is heavily inspired by Latin music. It’s all just whatever I’m into at the time, but these 3 artists (and a few others) are who I kind of ground myself to when I’m getting too carried away with my genre exploration.
Looking ahead, what are your goals and aspirations for your music career? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re excited about sharing with your fans?
My main goal right now is to get to the point where we can live off of my passive income (royalties, etc.), and I can have more financial freedom to focus on other music projects & endeavors that I am passionate about. For example, right now, it doesn’t make the most financial sense for me to go on tour because I can’t justify the potential loss of income that touring often can lead to. But if I were more confident in my passive income keeping my baseline covered, I’d feel like I could more confidently take that risk and plan a tour. I essentially just want more flexibility and freedom in the things I spend my day-to-day focusing on, rather than being at the mercy of whatever brings income in at that specific time.
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