Nestled amidst the rich contrasts of nature, and fueled by the raw emotions of indie rock, Joshua Mendrala of Ragged Oak takes us on a profound journey through his music. Reflecting his surroundings and his experiences, Mendrala weaves an intricate tapestry of sound and stories, capturing the essence of life's complexities. We join LP McKay in conversation with this talented artist to uncover the heart behind his upcoming album and discover the inspirations that drive him.
Joshua Mendrala, Ragged Oak
I really like those raw, indie rock sort of sounds that, that just really inspire me to, I think, be authentic with music, and provide the freedom to not feel like I have to live in the box of, you know, a pop music structure or the right amount of time or the right instrumentation to just sell music, but rather to go into something that's much more focused on just being like as authentic and raw and emotive with everything that I play that I can be.
LP McKay
So being based in Durango. It sounds like nature is a incredibly important part of your musical journey. Can you speak just a little bit more to that?
Joshua Mendrala, Ragged Oak
Yeah, I mean, how can it not be, if you're in especially if you're just in Colorado anywhere, a lot of times, I will try to replicate feelings or sounds that I find in nature, within my music. There's a song on my upcoming album, that's called Winter. And while there may not be a literal sound of snowfall, the whole riff and kind of soundscape that that I built for that song is an attempt to almost like replicate what it's like to watch, a peaceful snow falling in the winter time. And a lot of times, I use nature as a source of metaphor within my lyrics. I think that there are some really powerful things and like seeing your own reflection in rivers and streams and how those things are distorted, or in watching the lifecycle in nature around us and seeing things that are very new and very old, contrasted with each other. And music is really all about contrast. And when we're surrounded with these beautiful contrasts in nature, and around us, it's very difficult for me not to write about them.
LP McKay
Yeah. And that kind of leads into my next question, the title of your upcoming album is pretty profound sounding. Can you delve into the themes and stories behind Letters to God, Man and Myself?
Joshua Mendrala, Ragged Oak
Absolutely. Yeah. So it's gone...It's gone through a couple of different titles. I've a few times shortened it just to "Letters," but felt that having that expanded Letters to God, Man, and Myself was important. Really, the album is an exploration of the kind of human growth journey of going from things like self discovery, and actualization to heartbreak and acceptance and just recognition of how we grow. And I am going through that process, in the form of these songs that are letters written to either others, to a creator or to myself. And I actually, there's some fun little, little kind of cues throughout it like anytime that I'm writing to myself, I usually mentioned that there is a reflection at some point in that in the song, and it's really just exploring all of these things is kind of an underlying theme of decay. And the first song is titled everything fades. And the last song is titled in ruins. And it is meant to kind of take you from this understanding that all of these things fade and change as a beginning as a negative view, and then ending with the recognition that this kind of secondary succession that we go in through our lives is something that's very positive and shouldn't be embraced.
LP McKay
Yeah, and that carries directly into your first single, it's called "Live like you're alive" and it carries kind of in line with that overall message and affirming very positive message. What was the inspiration behind that track in particular?
Joshua Mendrala, Ragged Oak
Yeah, "Live Like You're Alive" is, is a funny one, because it honestly is the most different from any song on the album. It was released as a single, or I just released a single because I found it was the most accessible. But I wrote live like your live about three years ago. And it was because I was just writing all of these really, really sad songs. And sometimes I think we have to force ourselves to write music. That is for the sake of finding or discovering a feeling and I wrote live like your life actually encouraged myself to enter into a mindset of being joyful and pursuing a present. Just a presentness in life that I think I was missing at the time.
LP McKay
You do pretty much all the instrumentation and vocals on the album. So how do you intend to translate that to a live music setting?
Joshua Mendrala, Ragged Oak
Yeah, I'm really, I'm really excited for it. It's just one September 15. And I'll be playing the record from start to finish. The full album doesn't actually come out until October 27. But everyone who comes to this show will get the whole album as a download or CD early. I do have an amazing drummer who wrote and recorded all of the drums on this album, his name's Kaikay Morice. And he is behind all of all of our percussion. And then I do have a friend named Andy Sloan, who recorded a chunk of keys bits for it. But yeah, the rest is me. For this, for this show, I've got my drummer who's going to be flying out to play some drums on it. And then I have a good friend who's a really, really talented pianist who's going to be filling in for some of those key parts. And with this show, I really wanted it to be something that's more intimate. And for that, we're going to be kind of stripping things back a little bit. So some of the more like stadium rock type stuff that's in here will be toned down. But I think that it's going to be really cool to get to just engage with the storytelling aspects of the songs and to get to kind of have the audience participate in this first demonstration of these stories
As Joshua mentioned there, his album Letters to God, Man, and Myself is due out later this year, on October 27th.
