Indie Singer-Songwriter numberonesun Has Fans Wanting More With Melodic Emo Acoustic “Over Again”
When not in the group Moore Ave, singer-songwriter Josh Gaudette has plenty on the go in his own life. But Gaudette, using the name numberonesun, has opened himself up with the shimmering, highly contagious indie pop single “Over Again.” It’s a song addressing a personal issue that many have and can successfully deal with.
“‘Over Again’ is about discovering my issues with anxiety, learning what it feels like to me, how it presents itself to the ones I love, learning to live with it everyday, and working towards conquering it one day at a time,” the artist says. “‘Over Again’ really punctuates the topics that surround the record it is preceding.”
The single, written by numberonesun, is a fantastic indie pop song that hits all the right buttons to start, recalling Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, City and Colour, and even the tight, infectious highbrow pop of Neil Finn (Crowded House, Split Enz). “Over Again,” produced, recorded, and mixed by Adam Michael (of the rock group Say Yes) and mastered by Kristian Montano of Toronto’s Montano Mastering, also features cavity-inducing harmonies by Jackie McBrien while Michael fleshed out the single with additional instrumentation. Additionally, a music video for “Over Again” was made by Shawn MacDonald.
“Over Again” originated after numberonesun and Michael made a roughly six-hour trek to Cloyne, Ontario where one of the producer’s family friends has a cabin.
“We ended up recording a full record worth of tunes in three days,” the singer says. “‘Over Again’ was just one of the ideas I had; it was just a chorus, essentially. In between tracks, I went outside and got really inspired to start diving into the idea more and in no time came out with a tune I am super proud of.”
Influenced by the late Gord Downie, Dallas Green, Weezer’s vocalist Rivers Cuomo, and the late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, numberonesun originated initially by accident. Gaudette approached Moore Ave with some songs for the group to record. The group believed the material would be much better served as a solo project for the artist. From there Gaudette contacted Michael and thus numberonesun came to fruition.
“I remember the night I was going through all of my voice notes and demos trying to figure out what I wanted to do with all these emotional down-tempo songs I had been writing,” he says. “Thanks to some very strong direction from my Dad, I reached out to my buddy Adam and asked if he wanted to make a record.”
An active participant in his own community of Aylmer, Ontario, Gaudette is a manager at McDonald’s, teaches karate at a local studio, and is a member of a local service club. Additionally, he has helped organize an annual benefit concert (one that has been held for 12 years) that has “donated thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of non-perishables and dry goods to the local food bank.”
With the debut album from numberonesun on the horizon, “Over Again” is a fantastic introduction to what is sure to be an excellent batch of material that is both extremely alluring and quite well-crafted. While describing the project as an artist “that writes and performs sad tunes to be sad to,” numberonesun and the new single “Over Again” is sure to leave you with a wide-eyed grin. And wanting to listen to it over and over again.
Hi, Josh! Good to see you again – we last talked when you were releasing music with Moore Ave! Care to introduce yourself to the readers?
Hey! I’m Josh Gaudette! I play guitar, sing, and write songs as numberonesun as well as in Moore Ave. I love Pokémon, cats, tattoos, reading, and a good beer. I’m 30 years old and have been playing and writing music since I was 14.
Can you share how your work with Moore Ave influenced or differs from the solo project of numberonesun?
My work with Moore Ave and my work with numberonesun are pretty similar honestly. I don’t write my songs any differently. A lot of the songs I wrote for Moore Ave started out slow and had sad acoustic sides to them. As Moore Ave started growing and I started learning more about production and working with more accomplished and seasoned musicians I learned a lot. As I started to grow as a musician I started keeping certain songs and ideas separate just because I didn’t see them as Moore Ave songs. For some reason, I just thought they needed to be done differently. The Moore Ave tunes “Sleeping On The Floor” and “More To Say” were the beginning of that feeling. Moore Ave is usually fast loud and distorted. I wanted to try and bring it down just a little bit but the more I wrote songs like those two the more I realized I needed another avenue for releasing these down-tempo tunes.
What inspired the personal message behind “Over Again,” and how did your journey with anxiety influence the songwriting process?
‘Over Again’ was inspired by the way anxiety affects me and my relationships. It took quite a while for me to write ‘Over Again’ because I really needed to find the right words. I had the chorus written for a number of years before I actually brought it into an environment where I could capitalize on creativity and truly finish it the way it needed to be done. The verses speak directly about how my struggles with anxiety have affected my relationships from my point of view as well as from the opposite point of view. And I feel that the chorus speaks to how I feel physically when I’m really struggling.
With influences like Gord Downie, Dallas Green, and Chester Bennington, how do you balance your musical inspirations with your own unique style in numberonesun?
I feel like my writing style takes a lot of influence from Dallas and Gord, I hope there’s a similar sense of Canadiana. I like to think that my performance style is directly influenced by Dallas. I took a lot of how I play chords and play within them from watching and listening to Dallas as well as some older folk musicians. When it comes to my vocals I really feel I have a good balance of the three influences and I try to use that to my advantage when performing to help build and create emotion.
As someone deeply involved in your community, how do you balance your various commitments, from teaching karate to organizing benefit concerts, with your musical career?
To be completely honest I don’t balance it very well. A lot of important things tend to be left to the last minute or fall by the wayside in all facets of my life. I’m learning how to balance everything better every day and I’m really hoping that by branching out with numberonesun I will be able to learn a lot more about work/life balance and take that forward in every avenue.