A Conversation with Host/Songwriter Josh Skinner

By: Jacob Elyachar

It is always a pleasure to interview Host and songwriter Josh Skinner.

He had a memorable 2012 that included his memorable interviews with GloZell, the Queen of YouTube and CeWEBrity Pop Star Blare Levoir and found success with his latest song: “La La Land,” which peaked at #27 on the Billboard Dance Club Chart.

Josh sat down with me to talk about the lessons that he learned during 2012 and what fans can expect from him in 2013!

Jacob Elyachar: How have you changed as a songwriter/Host since the last time we spoke?

Josh Skinner: I think that my songwriting has completely evolved into something on a much deeper level.   Any artist will tell you that the way you can really grow as a professional is to experience some kind of heartbreak or tragedy.   2012 started off for me as tragedy because I went through what I would consider the purest form of heartbreak.   I think that kind of break up really let’s you: find out who you really are, how to love yourself and deal with everything after you go through every emotion under the sun.

I wrote 16 new studio songs, which is kind of unheard of, because a lot of time and effort goes into songwriting and I dove into it and worked with a great producer named Brandon Slavinski, who worked with Drew Seeley  (High School Musical, Another Cinderella Story), and we wrote 12 songs together.  Our songs ranged from a crazy dance song to a sad ballad and a few of them have already been picked up for releases next year, which I am very excited about it.  I also wrote two songs with Drew and a song with Kimberley Locke.  Music was my therapy this year.  One of my favorite songs we wrote was called, “A Chance to Forgive,” and that epitomizes my 2012.

JE: What were some of your professional highlights of 2012?

JS: One of my accomplishments from the past year was “La La Land,” the dance song that I co-wrote with Jason Evigan (J.LO), Russell Ali (Colby O’Donis) and Sir Ivan, peaked at number 27 on the U.S. Dance Charts and actually went to number 10 in the UK.  It’s now finding traction on the U.S. Radio Charts and I will see how it does here.  It’s a great accomplishment because I have not had a song chart like that before.

JE: You continued to do your WithJosh interviews but you did not produce a lot of interviews in 2012.  Could you explain why the interviews took a backseat?

JS: 2012 was all about songwriting and I worked on a television show for FilmOn Network called Good Morning 90210.  We shot 15 episodes and they were two hours each, so that was 30 hours of footage.  So between being in the recording studio all the time and working on such a demanding type of morning show, I really did not have a lot of time to do any WithJosh interviews.

I was very selective with who I chose. I wanted to interview GloZell again because she set the bar for YouTube and she is one of the best comediennes of our time on the Internet and now she is represented by William Morris Endeavor and working on her own projects that she deserves.   I also wanted America to know some other hidden ceWebrities, as well call them.  These people are hidden gems on the web that can be instant celebrities.

JE: What are your 2013 plans for withjosh.com?

JS: I have just launched a brand new withjosh.com, which will show a completely different style.  For the past three years, I have been all about trying to do serious interviews and really get to the heart of the matter.  My tagline was “everyone has a story” and I felt like I have achieved that and I needed to evolve into something different.  It’s going to be a much shorter website and the interviews are going to be five to 10-minutes-long.

The celebrities and I will be doing really fun things.  We will be talking about their charity or their lives.  I will be going into the kitchen with some of them as well.   We will be going to the sets of some of my favorite T.V. shows and see the behind-the-scenes stuff.   In addition to the interviews, the new withjosh.com will be brighter and have a music section.  We will have a lot more acoustic performances with celebrities and it going to be a lot of fun.  I am very excited about it.

 

 

JE: I want to go back and talk about your follow-up interview with GloZell. What was different about your follow-up interview compared to the first time that you interviewed her?

JS: When I first met GloZell, she was still getting fame off of Perez Hilton and that was her identity.   She was posting funny lyrics and was doing hysterical lyric translations, but then I saw GloZell this time and she is a star.   She is a smart woman and everything is strategic with her.  If you looked at her video counts and her target audiences, she’s really brilliant and is about to explode.   GloZell already has 359,000 followers on Twitter and 280,000,000 views on YouTube and I think the next level for her is to be on T.V. in some capacity.

We wanted to have more fun this time around and we shot three videos plus she was a guest on my T.V. show.  We had this clip from behind the scenes that she put on on YouTube that her boyfriend filmed.   We did some crazy stuff with hula-hoops in the middle of the streets of Beverly Hills and only GloZell could get away with that.  I ran around shirtless and in a bathing suit and it was really ridiculous.

However, the TRX video that we did together was a huge hit and over 137,000 people have seen it and that was not planned, she really did fall on me.  I was teaching her how to be a host and told her that she need to be physically fit and you got to know what you are doing.

JE: Another interview that you had was with Blare LeVoir.  How did you approach that interview differently than your second GloZell interview?

JS: I had no idea what to expect with Blare, I just saw videos and thought he was an extraordinary singer and I thought that this kid from Texas can create a fan base out of nothing and have a number one single on Billboard’s Digital Sales.  I knew that GloZell and him were friends and I saw their synergy and I wanted to be a part of that.  Selfishly as a songwriter, I wanted to write a song with him because he is that talented.  I wanted to interview him and wanted to hear his side of the story.

To me, that interview was fascinating because we are so both casually candid and I forgot that the camera was really there and we wrote a really sick song together, which will be coming out this year.

JE: What can fans look forward from you this year?

JS: I have a lot of new music coming out and my relaunched website that is going to be really funny, fun and quick and possibly a brand new T.V. show that we’ve started talking about.

You can connect with Josh by visiting his website: http://www.withjosh.com/