The Artist’s Interview: Musician Joshua Leventhal

Interview with Kimberly Phinney

L I S T E N W H I L E Y O U R E A D

T H E  A R T I S T ’ S  I N T E R V I E W

Joshua Leventhal

1. If our readers met you in an elevator, and you had less than a minute to tell them about you and your mission, what would be your “elevator speech”?

I’m an American-born, Canadian-raised-and-living singer/songwriter who loves Jesus above all else. I write songs meant to simultaneously glorify Him and express the Christian life in honesty and intricacy. That people might hear these lyrics and feel they express notions they themselves were trying to find words for. I’m married to a fellow creative; her name is Kaitlyn Rose, and she is a phenomenal abstract painter who also creates unto His glory. I also serve as worship director at a local church outside of Vancouver, BC.

2. How would you describe your “sound” or style of your music? Who are your major influences? 

I generally fit in the singer/songwriter vein, sometimes straddling worship music, with a healthy dose of genre-bending. I like stuff that’s hard to categorize. My sound is characterized by a blend of organic and synthetic instruments. The other-worldly, ethereal synthscapes that defy pinning down, woven with acoustic guitars and gritty hammered piano strings. It almost feels like a heaven-meets-earth approach to the sonics themselves.

Influence-wise, I’m a bit all over the place. In high school I listened to so many genres that I don’t even know what all shaped me—haha. Indie folk right alongside hardcore and death metal. Writer-wise, both John Mark McMillan and Jon Foreman have been hugely influential. When I was a teen, David Crowder as well. JMM also has influenced my approach to being an artist. He’s the number one person I’d love to work with someday.

3. When did you know you were going to be a musician? Did you always know? Or was it some divine surprise?

Not only was I not musical as a kid; I didn’t even really like music. I didn’t mind when we’d sing in church, but I didn’t really listen to music on my own. Which is crazy to say now. My parents had us in piano lessons as kids, and I hated it (I feel terrible for my teacher; she was a sweetheart). So, I sort of associated music with tedious practice and didn’t see the point. Then, as I was going into high school, our family moved from Saskatchewan to Alberta. I joined our church’s youth group, and my new friends quickly introduced me to music I fell in love with (much of the eclectic range of styles I mentioned previously). At the same time, I took some guitar lessons from a woman who really only taught me a few chords and how to strum. But she immediately showed me how to use that to play a worship song I liked. And that gave me the motivation to learn on my own. 

I played in the church youth band, made some metalcore bands with my friends, and pretty much started writing songs immediately, because I was a hopelessly angsty teen who needed to get it out somehow.

Then, as I was nearing the end of high school, I started distinctively feeling the call into music, both local worship ministry but also to write songs for whoever would listen. Hopefully, the world. And that’s where I still am, in my vocational present!

4. How have your lived experiences and travels informed you as an artist?

I would say utterly, to the point where I can’t imagine what I would make without what I’ve experienced. Particularly in relation to the stings, beauties, and messes of life.

I remember listening to an episode of the podcast Broken Record where they interviewed Rosanne Cash (Johnny Cash’s daughter). They asked her if she writes songs every day. She said, “I don’t write songs every day, but every day I’m a songwriter.” I try to live by that.

I practice “active listening” wherever I can; anything and everything I drink in through daily experience potentially turning into an expression of imagination and experience. Like 99% of writers, my iPhone is filled with little fragmented voice memos, flashes of inspiration, never-revisited notes, etc. I’m singing into my phone all of the time—haha!

I feel like the past decade or so has been learning how to bottle a feeling or memory as purely as possible and distill it into words, melody, and harmony.

5. How does your faith influence your music and artistry? Do you see yourself as a Christian artist or an artist who is Christian? Do you see a difference?

All the music I’ve released publicly is explicitly shaped by and expressing my faith. But even the songs I’ve written privately, that aren’t about Jesus, still bear the marks of seeing everything through His lens.

Madeleine L’Engle famously said in her masterwork, Walking on Water,  “Christian art? Art is art; painting is painting; music is music; a story is a story. If it’s bad art, it’s bad religion, no matter how pious the subject.”

So, I guess by that rubric, no one is a “Christian artist” per se… but if it’s easiest to describe me in those terms, I’m totally fine with it. The notion certainly conjures up a lot of different things for people, so it’s best to know my stuff probably doesn’t fit on K-Love—haha—(but hey, I’m not hating)! I do agree with Madeleine, however, that the honesty, clarity, and beauty that we bring to our work is unto the glory of God, over and above what labels we ascribe to said work. 

6. Can you describe for our readers your creative process? Does the music just come to you? Or is it often more hard-fought?

It really depends; I often say that songs are always born differently. There’s typically an initial moment of inspiration, and the rest of the process is like tugging at a loose thread until the end.

Other times, it’s a slow, meticulous crafting process. Others still, it just spills out of me, and I can’t even really explain what happened. Sometimes it feels like I’m not so much writing as discovering, at other times it’s methodical crafting, with me going through a mental rolodex of synonyms that have the right evocation, syllable count, and assonance, to best serve the phrasing and emotional tone. The initial idea may be musical, sitting with my guitar or piano, or it may be lyrical. I try to weave music and lyrics together pretty quickly, because how the words sing is vital. But occasionally the lyrics I get most excited about are ones that I wrote in my head, completely devoid of music. Those ones are almost just poems, and they tend to end up with more unique musical phrasing as a result. But I think the variance in process helps keep things fresh, for both me and the work itself.

7. Which creative accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why?

It always tends to be whatever I most recently released—haha. I have this unofficial rule for myself that whenever I release anything, I want it to be the case where if I were to die right after, I’m happy that was the last thing I did. I would certainly say that’s the case for ALL YE LEPERS, perhaps THROUGH being the proudest of anything I’ve written and presently released. But to an even greater extent, my next, still unannounced project… It may end up being my life’s work. We shall see!

8. Tell us about your most recent album, ALL YE LEPERS. What was your vision for it? We know it’s like asking you to pick a favorite child, but which song is your favorite or most essential for the album?

ALL YE LEPERS initially was just going to be a collection of songs that felt most belonged on the record, though I wasn’t initially sure which songs would make the cut. But as I began curating the songs I’d already written, and writing others toward it, themes began to clearly emerge. The tensions between suffering at God’s sovereignty, of my unworthiness met by literal sainthood through Jesus; all those moments and feelings of the Christian life that seem to be gaps in its popular music. Communicating as honestly as I can without betraying reverence or hope. Not “positive,” but hopeful. It was also a fork in the road for me into squarely the singer/songwriter vein. With my first EP, it sort of flirted with the line of congregational worship (genre-bendy though it was). I still write congregational worship songs, but most of AYL doesn’t fit in that lane. 

Haha! Oh man… I’m bad with favorites, period, let alone my own stuff. Honestly, it tends to move around. Ones that tend to stay near the top are “THE GALLOWS,” “THE MEANTIME,” and “THROUGH.” Though, I will say that I think “THROUGH’s” final chorus is the most important thing I’ve ever written—and may ever write. I try to stay away from easy answers when it comes to suffering, but “THROUGH” probably provides the most satisfying one. Like scripture, it doesn’t so much outline the “why” as the “how.” Namely, that our pain is utterly transformed in light of Christ’s. That YHWH is not so much concerned with the origin of the suffering as the co-opting of it, for His glory and our conforming to His image.

9. You are a committed lyricist, which you wrote about recently in your essay with Ekstasis Magazine. Any key lyrics you’d like to share and talk about? Where’d they come from? What do they mean for the song or album?

Yeah, lyrics are my first love when it comes to writing.

Music is the vehicle that makes those lyrics come alive, but lyrics that paint, carry, and even feel like they sing before melody or harmony has ever been put to them tends to draw me in the most.

If the lyrics don’t move me, I tend to not be able to enjoy a song—haha. It’s funny you mention the origin of lyrics; sometimes I’m not even conscious of the Scriptural or literary references I’ve naturally inserted into my stuff. It’s the culmination of a lifetime of drinking in as much as possible and then it just spilling out when I go to write. 

The lyric that tends to be brought up most from the new record is the first verse of “THE GALLOWS”:

I've been mixing my metaphors when it comes to You

'Cause I'm a son, I'm a bride, the acquitted, and the accused

And I know those last two are the other way around

'Cause I'm no longer lost but I forget that I'm found

And You paid all of my debt but I still live like the rent is due

I’m huge on lyrical imagery; drawing people in by painting with words. You’re never supposed to mix metaphors in writing, but so much of life in Christ is made up of various, seemingly incompatible ones. I had this idea to use that very mechanism as a way of evoking how easily we get our eyes off of our identity in Him, where we end up not living into our salvation. It’s a decently complex concept, that then the simplicity of the chorus just cuts through like butter: “But You hung on that tree to keep me from the gallows.”

10. Anything new or exciting for you on the horizon? Anything you’d like our readers to know? Where can they go to find out more and connect with you?

I have two more singles recorded to release this year! The week after Easter, the same crew that recorded AYL came to Casa de Leventhal (an above-ground basement suite on a farm in Chilliwack) to do the new songs. My producer Dan Klenner (maybe the best musical and producing mind I’ve ever known), Connor Zacharias (who I worked with at my previous church) is a fantastic songwriter and multi-instrumentalist on guitars, and Tim Koziol (who I went to school with in Australia almost 15 years ago) is not only a stellar pianist but also a master synthscapsist, are my musical collaborators. Each bring so much, and the four of us in a room together has resulted in some of my favorite creative moments. 

The first single is a part of a much, much larger project I haven’t announced yet, but am beyond excited about. It’ll be coming soon! The other is not a part of a larger work just yet, but it’s coming out in December…

I’ll let y’all fill in the rest! 

Digitally, I’m on everything! For streaming, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, any and all other platforms. Also on all socials, but IG (@joshualeventhal) is definitely where I’m most active.

I technically have Twitter, but my presence is almost non-existent—haha. Easiest low-cost way to support is to follow/subscribe on any and all platforms you’re on! I also absolutely love getting messages from people when the songs have impacted them, so please feel free to reach out.

Would love to hear from you!

V I S I T T H E S T O R E

JOSHUA LEVENTHAL

Joshua Leventhal's voice has always been his own. Not merely in his vocals, but also his lyrical expression. At 30,000 feet, Joshua’s first full-length album, ALL YE LEPERS, is both an act of confession and glorification; the exploration of how they are wed. The songs reach fresh heights and depths, as he responds to the goodness of Christ across the spectrum of human experience—life and death, joy and sorrow, expectation and waiting. All with poetic determination and unflinching honesty. Intricate and fertile lyrics, woven through a rich and diverse sonic tapestry.

Leventhal is American-born, Canadian-raised. He is married to a fellow creative, the love of his life — Kaitlyn Rose, who is a full-time abstract painter. He is currently based outside of Vancouver, BC, and is the Worship Director at Main Street Church. Visit him: JOSHUA LEVENTHAL and on Instagram @joshualeventhal.