Born in Nebraska, singer/songwriter Josh Rouse has gotten around. After college in Clarksville, Tenn., he set up shop in Nashville, where he recorded a string of lovely, soul-inflected rock records constructed out of great songs recorded in a straightforward way.
Since his breezy, smart and irresistible “1972” – named for the year Rouse was born -- was released in 2003, he’s been unstoppable, with each new release getting better.
Between 2005’s”Nashville” and 2006’s “Subtitolo,” Rouse moved to Valencia, Spain, where he’s since recorded the “She’s Spanish, I’m American” EP with Paz Suay and has completed a new full-length disc, due out this summer.
Rouse has also set up his own Bedroom Classics imprint, which has allowed him to release a string of EPs and CDs, unfettered by the slow-moving music business.
He also recently toured with John Mayer, at Mayer’s personal and very public request (in his popular blog at johnmayer.com) and now Rouse hits the road again and comes to Milwaukee on April 15.
We chatted with him via e-mail from Spain before he returned to the States to start the tour.
OMC: Other than the introduction of Paz's lovely voice, has your music been affected by your move to Spain? Has it had an effect on your work in other ways?
JR: I suppose moving to Spain has had an affect on everything I do. Environment is very important to songwriters. I can't tell you exactly how living in another country has affected my music because I'm probably to close to it. However, I can say that I'm enjoying my life a lot.
OMC: Do you have a public profile as a musician in Spain or are you kind of undercover over there?
JR: I'm not really undercover. My last three records have done well in Spain and we can play for a good amount of people but I'm not bothered on the street.
OMC: I saw the blog on the John Mayer site telling his booking agent he wanted to tour with you. That has to be a nice thing to have happen to a hard-working musician. Did the gigs go well?
JR: My band and I had a really good time on tour with John and his crew. It's a big operation. There was a good reception from his audience almost every night.
OMC: I'm intrigued by the Bedroom Classics -- not as an indie label -- but more for the EPs. Is having the label allowing you to be more immediate; to get new work out to fans in a more timely, more urgent sort of way?
JR: Yes more immediate. I don't have to get things approved and it's wonderful. I can record five songs and have them up on the Internet in a matter of weeks. Since there's not a whole lot of marketing or money put into the EPs it's easy to do and I think the fans enjoy it as I do.
OMC: Is there a down side to that? Are the EPs kind of cannibalizing material from future long-players or are you so prolific that it doesn't really matter?
JR: To be honest I think EPs are actually becoming more popular as people's attention spans are decreasing. If you can pick and choose what tracks you'd like to buy I don't think long players have the weight they used to. At least not digitally, and in a few years the sale of music will be almost entirely digital. So, to answer your question there's no downside to releasing EPs.
OMC: Speaking of long-players, can you tell us a bit about the upcoming full-length disc? Are you already playing some of the tunes on stage?
JR: Well, the title is “Country Mouse, City House” and it's out in mid-July. It's very warm and classic sounding. It was a band effort recorded in six days in Spain. Kinda rough around the edges and there's a lot of country-soul type songs on this one. We're not playing any of the tunes live yet.
OMC: What's on the books after that? Anything planned? Will you produce and write a whole disc for Paz, whose voice seems really suited to your music?
JR: Just touring and getting settled back in the States again. Paz is currently writing her own songs, she's co-written three off my new one.
Josh Rouse plays at The Pabst Theater, Sunday, April 15 at 8 p.m. Kyle Andrews opens.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
