Rising Stars: Meet Joshua Newton of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Newton.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My creative journey really started with friends, making music in the basement of a house that wasn’t mine in college. I was attending Atlanta Institute of Music & Media while my closest friends attended Georgia Gwinnett College, Clayton State, University of Virginia and Brewton Parker . The same guys I’ve known since 6/7 years old. Kitboys. While in school (AIMM) I was being taught the ways of a Professional Audio Engineer, my introduction to producing my own sound. I met incredibly talented artists and teachers along the way, and all I wanted to do was finesse knowledge out of everyone I ever spoke to in the industry during those days.

This was in 2017, it’s been almost a decade since learning the basics but the slow route has been more than beneficial to my artistic development in so many ways. Since graduating in 2019 I became a freelance audio engineer for a couple years, and working at studios overnight. Then I quickly realized there weren’t many that felt as passionate about the route as a musician as I did.

I chose to put myself, my music & closest friends first, engineering them 24/7 and learning as much as I could about the film industry as I could from my brother LeekMatic. This paralleled the two worlds of audio & visual together for me and I started to dream even bigger than I already had before. My brother Munik taught me consistency and perseverance when it comes to creating, and with the two in tandem I learned Kitboys Club is an unstoppable team.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path was never linear as an independent artist. I’ve fought through financial ups and downs, spiritual ups and downs, emotional ups, and downs, all while losing loved ones along the way, which never makes it any easier. I’ve been in and out of different part-time jobs, mostly as a bartender & server; anyone in that field could tell you there’s changes in every season. Making time for family & friends is what becomes a big decision, based on becoming who you want to be or who they think you should be. Distancing yourself from certain people and certain energies becomes law. it can take a toll on your mental health over time as well.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I wear many hats (no pun intended). I,m a model, freelance film photographer, fashion designer with friends at Kitboys Club, an audio engineer, producer, and most importantly an artist/musician. I’m most experienced in audio engineering because the creative passions started here, but since 2017, I’d been introduced to many other talented creators that it would lead me to becoming more passionate and experienced in so many other mediums of creating and art. Most people know of me through some shape or form of these endeavors or projects that I’ve played a part in, and being a member of Kitboys Club. Sekou Thornell, founder of Kitboys Club, has helped open so many doors for this team and myself, I’m proud of what we’ve built so far and overly excited to see what the future holds for us and everyone involved. The more adversity I overcome, the more proud of myself I am though; the indie-creator path takes so much time, so much persistence, and so much vulnerability. The more committed you are to it, and the more invested in it you are, the road seemingly doesn’t get easier, it becomes more complex. What sets me apart though, in my opinion, is that I create from the heart and my own fulfillment; not playing into any façades. Now days it’s tough to connect with artists because so many people play into TikTok trends and fashion fads, so I keep to myself mostly and create what brings me joy and shows growth within myself.

What were you like growing up?
My early adolescence consisted of a fairly shy kid. Modeling was something that I was encouraged into because of my looks, it wasn’t something I initially saw for myself. My interests were more technical/mechanical i. e video games, sports; the typical 90’s baby activities. I wanted to be as smart as my dad growing up so I watched almost everything he did when it came to troubleshooting electronics or fixing devices, bikes, cars etc. He taught me so much about the roots of Hip-Hop/R&B while on car rides, it became second nature to me to be able to break down lyrics in real-time. After my grandmother (his mother) passed, I was holding in a lot of grief which added on to such a rude awakening when it came to how life carries on with such sudden, inexplicable changes at a young age. He would repeatedly tell me in subtle ways to just WRITE. No agenda needed, but to just write my feelings and thoughts out, no matter how “crazy” they seem in my mind. In doing that, I learned and taught myself that everything I was feeling while growing up was natural, and it became very healing in a way to read back through my own feelings and thoughts out loud. Writing like this for years made me much more confident in myself and my decision-making when it came to expressing myself. This eventually lead me to writing out lyrics to my favorite songs in a notebook while listening on my CD player so that I always remembered lyrics.

Pricing:

• Film Photographs – $150 min.
• Mixing (Engineering) – $100 per song
• Mastering (Engineering) – $50 per song
• Tracking (Engineer) – $50/hr
• VHS Videography -$100/hr

Contact Info:

• Website: https://engineears.com/joshuathelight
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuathelight?utm_source=qr
• Youtube: UCpYBBzL0KTIt3xkjOQsvM9g
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/joodloo?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing