Joshwa On His Transition From Professional Soccer To Producing Music, ‘Bass Go Boom’ And Advice He Would Give To Young Artists

While music was always Joshwa’s passion since a young age, he pursued a career in becoming a soccer player. The underground house music artist, legally known as Josh Dickens, had trials with several UK teams such as Chelsea and Brighton before being poached to play abroad in Chile at the age of 18. During the start of his adulthood, Dickens moved to South America to live his dream of becoming a professional player. However, music was always at the forefront of his mind.

“I think looking back, music has always been my passion,” he says. “I can think of countless times when I was growing up and was putting everything into [soccer], I’d always find myself gravitating back to the music and wanting to work on songs and practice my deejaying instead of concentrating on a game. I’d be in the car just flicking through music, looking for new sounds.”

While music played a big part in Dickens’ life, he thought soccer was the place he was meant to go. He was so devoted that he left his family and friends behind to move to Chile, learn Spanish and adapt to a new culture. The music producer played for the Deportes Concepcion U21s team. However, it quickly became apparent that music was his true calling.

The biggest hurdle he has ever faced is making this move at such as early age. While he wanted to succeed as a soccer player, moving to the other side of the world proved to be a challenge. He adds that nobody spoke English in Chile, but he was able to pick up the language after living there for a year.

Music may have always been his passion, but leaving the world of soccer behind didn’t come without challenges as he had to learn to transition from being a professional sports player to being a college student at Loughborough University. He also had to go from playing a sport to working a “normal” job as an insurance broker, and this line of work gave him the extra drive and determination to succeed in music. While this change in direction may have been a difficult one, it proves to have been worth it for Dickens.

The UK-bred producer boasts an impressive career to date as he has his singles such as “Take Me” with Martin Ikin, his anthemic track “My Humps” alongside house music veteran Lee Foss, his record “Magalenha” on Spinnin’ Deep and his single “Miracles” on Chris Lake’s Black Book Records. His latest project, Bass Go Boom, marks a new milestone for Dickens as it’s released on Jamie Jones’ esteemed imprint Hot Creations.

The EP boasts pounding and bouncy basslines, funky and swirling synths, groovy beats, garage drops, catchy lyrics and more. Indeed, Bass Go Boom proves to be a house heater.

According to Dickens, the EP is inspired by UK genres, particularly garage and grime. Although the lyrics are toplined by a United States rapper, they have a UK feel. It was important for him to give a UK vibe to the two-track body of work.

“I wanted to really hone in on that sound and show my roots in terms of where I’m from and the music I listened to growing up,” Dickens says. “For me, grime and garage have been a big influence for me growing up, so obviously being able to showcase tinges [of them] at that moment in this EP I think was quite important for me.”

The EP’s title track is Dickens’ favorite song that he has even made because of the meaning behind it and the sounds he was able to create for the house banger. Bass Go Boom proves to be a milestone for the UK-based producer since it was released on Hot Creations, which is one of the first labels that got him into house music. The artist notes it is a “full circle moment” for him.

Dickens’ introduction to dance music came at an early age as his dad played trance classics and his mother is a lover of ‘70s and ‘80s disco. He adds that there was always music playing in the house, exposing him to electronic music during his formative years.

Looking back to when he first started making music, the piece of advice he would give his younger self is to enjoy the ride and not rush things.

“I remember when I first started out, I was downloading all the latest like plugins and trying to make all these crazy sounds and trying to basically put too much into one project,” he says. “But actually, if you strip it back, you want to have a project with less sounds and all sound great together. Sample choice is really key as well. If you’re working with bad-sounding samples, your song’s not going to sound great.”

“I’d say to the people who [are] just getting into the industry or starting out, I’d say really hone in on your sound and get it to a stage where you’re like, ‘Okay, this is great,’” Dickens adds. “Obviously send it to your friends and people that you trust to get their feedback, but I wouldn’t start rushing out sending stuff out to labels and other big deejays straight away. I think I sort of made that mistake when I first started out, whereas, in hindsight, I wish I’d waited a little bit.”