NEW ALBUM, Blazing Star : 5 SONG EP INDEPENDENTLY RELEASED TO PUBLIC ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 2025

Joshua's sophomore musical album, Blazing Star, breaks 10 years of silence :

A sonic journey of the piano-based ballads which haunted & took shape in Joshua's life, as he was trying to make sense of his own personal struggle & triumph over alcoholism & a 20 year secret meth addiction.

Blazing Star is a record of hope. The pieces of light which bend & stretch their ways through the darkest parts of the universe and into the eyes of us, down here, stumbling in the dark.

Trauma burns like a blazing star. A public display of Fire & Ice. Grief & Rage. Love & Release. ✨️ Its where addiction takes root. And starts changing the brain. It can lock oneself into a perpetual pattern & state of self doubt & sabotage, all the while proclaiming you are the king of the mountain. It can also be an incredible source of resilience. And hope. And the birth of some serious magick. 🌱 be careful, begs Joshua. It's a double edged sword.

Blazing Star is also a reference to Joshua's grandmother's cousin from West Virginia - famous burlesque stripper Fannie Belle Fleming AKA Blaze Starr. In the beginning of his recovery, Joshua kept pulling on the spirit of Blaze Starr to help him climb out of his personal prison of complex trauma, sexwork and addiction : his “house of the rising sun”

Her ghost & memory have become a guiding light.

Blazing Star begins on the shore of Joshua’s experience of being estranged & ghosted by not only his father at 15 years old, but in the midst of his collapse & recovery, years later, from a sibling and childhood best friend. The opening track “Seven Heads” is Joshua’s prayer for broken hearts and wanting to find forgiveness for other people’s silence & Joshua’s very own destructive behavior with addiction. “When my heart broke - I tried to fix it with all that dope” The title, Seven Heads, is also a reference to the seven headed beast in the Holy Scriptures, the 7 “demons” which were cast out of Mary Magdalene & the “Seven Heads Peninsula” in County Cork, Ireland which Joshua explored & where he finished writing the track before it’s recording, in Wales.

The second track, The Fall Of Icarus, was one of Joshua’s first written songs, which never made it onto his debut album, Sacred Secret. “This is my only song for Charles” sings Joshua, referencing & dedicating the song to Charles Darwin. Joshua had read that Charles Darwin suffered from anxiety, ADHD & depression, and would walk with his dog through his gardens, contemplating his life & past. Joshua also wanted to bring up his past as a Jehovah’s Witness and his childhood devotion to the Holy Bible & the Jehovah’s Witnesses impending Armageddon. Even Icarus makes a guest appearance in this pensive yet explosive ballad.

Fields of Gold - a STING cover, which certainly speaks for itself, is re-imagined with added lyrics written by Joshua. This song, especially Eva Cassidy’s version of it, has been haunting Joshua for years & recently when he heard about the bombs in the Ukraine & Gaza, and the children underneath them, he envisioned himself promising them “rows and rows of LOVE” in the afterlife. "I promise you" sings Joshua - as the world watches these wars continue.

The fourth track on the record, Crystal Ball, is one of Joshua’s most vulnerable & was the first song to come to Joshua in the very Genesis of his recovery, while living and working on a horse stable for rescued horses - “I needed to write a song ode to my alcoholism & secret meth addiction” states Joshua. “And the fact that the 10 horses I was taking care of in the first year of my sobriety became the best magical metaphors to understanding my very own personal boundaries - how I wasn't sticking up for myself & letting myself be sexually & physically abused by others. Grooming myself with shallow confidence. And constantly putting myself in danger. The horses gave me the power, SHARED WITH ME, the power to finally stick up for myself. love is stronger than glue.”

Blazing Star ends with it’s final track & SINGLE of the EP, Lanterns, with very special guest, Steve Balsamo.

“LANTERN came to me while I was in a very vulnerable space of transition, in the beginning of my recovery from addiction & questioning how i was going to make it through... alive” writes Joshua on his social media, upon the singles release. “I was uncomfortable & scared, and the spirit of the song became a lantern - pulling me out of my darkness, begging for me to integrate the shadow AND the light.

I have always been fascinated by pirates (consider myself one) and as ive read & heard many stories of "mooncussing" land pirates who once used lanterns to cause shipwrecks from the cliffs of the sea, to steal from the ships. I wanted to hold up my lantern in the dark, to pull others onto safe & dry land.. struggling in the sea of addiction, trauma & grief.

I hope this song finds you.

Especially in these dark & twisted times.”

BLAZING STAR - Recorded and produced in Llangennech, Wales by Welsh recording engineer/producer/guitarist, Tim Hamill, at Sonic One Studios - Joshua is also accompanied throughout the record by Swindon, England's stunning violinist, Rachael Birkin.

Welsh singer/songwriter (famous for his part as Jesus in Andrew Lloyd Webbers WEST END LONDON production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR) Steve Balsamo - appears on the track, Lantern, with backing vocals.

All songs written by Joshua except Fields Of Gold written by STING, in which Joshua remakes and puts his own twist and new lyrics into his cover of it.