By Brooke Miller
For Joshua Powell, living as an artist and creating music wasn’t just about the praise and recognition that comes with it. It was more formed by years of adapting to the environment, developing creativity, collaborating with others, gaining experience, as well as understanding the responsibility. Music to him wasn’t just about the talent, but about growing, finding your passion, and the way you treat others. He also shaped the role of an artist as one who’s grounded in vulnerability, teamwork, and reliability. Through his efforts on individuality, collaboration, and integrity, Powell highlights how artists can contribute to important social change within the music industry.
As a rock singer from Indianapolis, Joshua Powell has experienced a unique success throughout his journey as an artist. For starters, he went to school from 2009-2013 and switched to a rock band when he was only 17 years old. This band has allowed him and his friends to DIY their own brand and to tour to many different places. However, Powell is mainly known for playing over 1000 shows in 45 states with his band. His journey as an artist has made him realize that he loves making music with his friends and making actual records for people all over the world as well.
Powell also works as a tour consultant for Indie on the Move and until recently taught the music business at an area university for ten years. Indie on the Move is the domain for artists and bands to book shows and tours. This domain can allow you to explore booking agents, music venues, and record labels. He is also labeled to Romanus Records, and this label is a DIY custom vinyl brand, among other things. Powell has mentioned that Romanus Records is a label which provides the service where a vinyl record can be filled with liquid, sand, glitter, bugs, and even more!
Apart from the experiences as an artist and being in a band, self-awareness is overall something Joshua Powell has learned and understood. Being self-aware in the music industry has allowed Powell to gain three specific pieces of advice when it comes to being a new artist. The first piece of advice offered by Joshua is: “Be willing to suck.” When he was younger, he always knew that he wanted to do music, so he usually experimented with it. Because of this, Powell has been making music before he even knew what he was doing. He even played and messed with instruments before he even knew how to use them. The only way to adapt as an artist is to be willing to suck at first. That way, says Powell, you can learn to grow and practice from your mistakes.
Joshua’s second piece of advice is: “To build your hat collection.” As an artist, Powell mentioned that you will be wearing a lot of hats. Wearing hats expresses your creativity, confidence, and identity. A hat essentially becomes a part of an artist’s look and can be viewed as a visual signature of themselves. Hats can also show an artist’s individuality especially if that someone is a DIY artist like Joshua Powell.
The third and final piece of advice offered by Joshua Powell in his guest lecture visit to IU Indianapolis is simply “integrity.” This advice is significantly the most important piece of advice, says he. Powell knows that all artists need to be a good human beings. If an artist is a good person, then that means more gigs and that your overall brand as an artist will skyrocket. He has also mentioned that by being a good person, an artist will earn more money because people will like you and be more willing to see you in person. If one bad interaction with someone occurs, then word will get out and spread. In Powell’s words, “Being a horrible human being gets the word around fast and gigs fall short,” because people will dislike you and not want to see you in person.
Apart from his success, Powell’s perspective promotes a music community to be created around overall support and respect. By highlighting self-awareness, which can include individuality and integrity, he shows that artists can impact positive change. This change can shape areas where artists feel seen and motivated to grow.
Overall, Joshua Powell has learned and understood a lot about what it means to be an artist. He knows that being an artist comes with many perks, challenges, and responsibilities. However, vulnerability also comes with it as well. Powell thinks that “being an artist is selfish because nurses save lives every day. Meanwhile, artists are over here like, ‘Look what I did and everything.’” He feels as if artists get a lot more recognition when all they do is make a record and obtain gigs, compared to nurses who do so much for society and aren’t praised as much as artists are. Joshua Powell may have had a lot of success throughout his journey as an artist, but he still went through the ups and downs of learning to adapt and grow as an artist in the music industry. We are grateful indeed that he came to offer his wisdoms and kind heart (and music!) to IU Indianapolis this semester.
Joshua Powell – On Living with Integrity
By Laila Nahas
Joshua Powell is an independent musician who has done impactful things for the music community throughout Indiana and across the nation. During his visit this Spring as a guest speaker for the IU Indianapolis “Rhythm and Revolution – Music and Social Change” class, we got to hear about Joshua’s life and career and current goals for the music scene in the city and beyond. Powell lives in Indianapolis and makes music in the Indie Core genre. Having loved music since childhood, Powell went to school for music and eventually had a band that toured over 45 states in the U.S. Joshua has mentioned making political music in the past but over the years has branched out into other subjects. One of the main things that Joshua talked about during his visit to IU Indy was how he uses resources like indieonthemove.com to help with building his music platform and for other artists as well. It is a website that can be used for booking shows, finding venues, and looking at record labels.
One of the main lessons we learned from Joshua are these three main points: be willing to suck, build your hat collection, and live integrity at every step. Each point can be interpreted in many ways, but musically, these points can be used to build confidence in one’s passion for music. Joshua describes “be willing to suck” as when you are starting in music, embrace the mistakes that you will make, because they will come eventually and practice will always lead to a better outcome. Being able to embrace the mistakes you make while singing, playing an instrument, or producing will help you build confidence, accountability, and bravery. The second point, “build your hat collection,” can be interpreted as building your connections, networks, and resources. These things will help a musician along their journey to getting where they want to be in their career. The third and last point is having and living a life of integrity. Having integrity shows that you are able to be honest, truthful, and real with those around you. Having good integrity also can show your fan base that you mean well and that you want to build your brand around truth. As mentioned before, these things can apply to musicians but can also apply to any career field. Our class enjoyed getting to hear these points from Joshua and it made us think deeply about what to look for in building a career.
Joshua Powell even performed a gorgeous personal song for our class with his guitar and lyrics. Powell also hosts an open mic session at the Red Line at Fountain Square in Indianapolis. It is a chance for musicians to gather and express themselves freely without being judged and just to have fun. Powell also has an Instagram page – @joshuapowellmusic – where he posts out his music, educational videos, and other subjects. It has been a pleasure to hear from artists like Joshua Powell, as we have been able to learn how to embrace your mistakes, use the resources around us, and to always have integrity.