By Mikayla van Loon
Taking on the mantra ‘it’s now or never’, Mount Evelyn’s Josh Hannan will soon be gracing the screens of thousands as he pursues his music career on Australian Idol.
While the 20-year-old has always had a love of music, something that stems from his dad, his passion for it has really grown over the last few years having been able to give it more time and energy.
“I’m studying a Bachelor of Science at uni at the moment and I think it’s at that point where you’ve got to commit to one or the other,” he said.
“I’ve never given myself the proper time to commit to my music and it’s now or never for me.
“I really wanted to just give it my all and Australian Idol was the perfect way to get some really good industry experience and put myself in front of a big audience to see if my music really works with Australia.”
After 20 years since first airing, Australian Idol is coming back with a new lineup of judges and mentors with the show making its debut on 30 January.
But what really attracted Josh to auditioning for the show was the success rate of previous winners and contestants.
“It’s one of the best artist makers in the country. You’ve got people like Matt Corby, Guy Sebastian, Stan Walker, Jessica Mauboy, all these people have actually had successful careers,” he said.
Although doing this for himself to know whether he can make it in the music world, Josh said one of the underlying factors for auditioning was to say thank you to his high school singing teacher who is going through a battle of her own.
“She’s actually got a brain tumor and she’s in a wheelchair at the moment and her whole life has been flipped on its head and I really wanted to do something for her.
“She’s helped so many people from my high school, hundreds and hundreds of kids and she was the biggest support for me during lockdowns and everything because I was doing my Year 12 in the middle of Covid.
“So it was a pretty rough time and I just wanted to show her that her work wasn’t for nothing and just make her proud.”
Having “always wanted to play guitar…because [his] dad shreds on guitar”, Josh began learning throughout high school, playing in a self formed rock band with some friends.
Wanting to truly give music a go, Josh decided to commit to doing music as a subject in Year 12, not having done it in Year 11 and as he’s progressed, Josh said “it’s getting more and more into something I want to do with the rest of my life.”
“It was after I broke up with my first girlfriend I started writing songs and that was really when I kick started my whole music career. After a little while, I played at my sister’s wedding, and I sang for the bridal dance.
“Ever since then I’ve just been grinding away and writing heaps of songs and practicing and learning how to play piano for the last year.”
Staying true to himself and using his personal experiences to write his music, Josh is inspired by people who do the same, musicians like Matt Corby, Jeff Buckley and Billie Eilish who shine with “authenticity and creativity”.
“A lot of my music comes straight from my heart onto the paper. I’m not trying to write for anyone specifically. A lot of my stuff is pretty real stuff that happens in life and more often than not it’s stuff that’s happened to me before.
“My process normally, like half the time, I’ll be just driving in the car thinking about something that’s happened in the last week, and I’ll tell Siri to write it down and then I’ll finish it off when I get home or I can’t sleep and then I write down a whole song – that’s how I work through all my problems in my life.”
Having grown up on a rose farm, Josh’s surroundings of paddocks, kangaroos and nature have been a stable and calming place for him to explore his musical talents.
“I sit in our back room and we’ve got a big view out over the back paddocks and the mountain right near us. It’s a pretty inspiring place to write music. I’m very lucky to be here.”
Aspiring one day to have an album of his own recorded, Josh said Australian Idol is a step towards that goal.
“The ultimate goal would definitely be releasing and recording an album and then probably having a crowd sing it back to me so I know people are getting down for it.”
Not having many expectations about the show and how it would be, Josh said it was a really positive experience and has made him even more keen to explore music as a career.
“The other people in the show are just the most talented and humble people that I’ve ever met and it’s really inspiring. It makes me really want to stay in the industry for a long time.”
