- The way "Feel Something" came about
was kind of an interesting one.
I sort of was walking home from something
'cause I decided not to Uber
and so it was like an hour and 45 minute walk,
but I was like "I'm going. I'm walking"
and it was pouring rain.
I literally have no idea how it happened,
but I just had the idea, and I started recording
and the entire chorus just literally came out.
The inspiration, some of it's not true,
it's not all a true story.
Like, a lot of it's just, like, an imaginary situation
of like having fun and, and, you know,
doing whatever you can to feel something.
So, there are some funny, like, true stories behind
some of the lyrics, but, you know, it's, it's a big,
big combo of, like, true stories and all in my imagination,
everything in between.
"Barely made it out alive,
crashed my car on the sidewalk" is a true story.
There was a bunch of fog
and I couldn't really see where I was going
and that was going down a hill turning,
And I couldn't tell where I was driving
and ended up sort of getting stuck on a cliff
basically because of the way the sidewalk worked.
My car was, like, kind of hanging off the cliff,
kinda not.
So the person I was with got out
of the car and actually, like,
seven really kind people got out
of their car and lifted my car, lifted it in the air,
so we could get it off the way that it was.
Long story short I'm OK, everyone is OK who was involved
but that one's technically a little bit true.
What up MTV news, I'm Joshua Bassett
and today I'm going to be telling you my top five
musical influences.
- So for my first musical influence
I'm going to have to go with Paul McCartney.
And I was debating between whether or not
to do The Beatles or Paul McCartney
because, obviously Paul McCartney was in The Beatles,
he's iconic through through that
and I love all the rest of The Beatles as well,
but I personally think that Paul McCartney has
really made an imprint on my life since I was born, truly,
like my dad played all of McCartney's stuff
from all The Beatles stuff
and like, you know, he wrote "Yesterday" by himself
which is my favorite Beatles song.
And just, a lot of the songs that Paul wrote,
I tend to lean towards more,
although, again, no shade to John.
He's got some great songs as well, don't get me wrong.
But I think Paul's career entirely I can sort of
lean towards I mean, Wings is this iconic band
that my dad played for me all the time growing up.
I love all of his solo stuff,
so Paul McCartney, for sure,
it's no secret that he's one of the
best songwriters of all time.
He's just really easy going and I just really love that.
He's always sort of giving out a positive message
and he's an essential, fundamental part of my childhood.
And he definitely had to be one on the list.
For my second musical influence, I went with Ed Sheeran,
because Ed Sheeran is such a force to be reckoned with
and I think the cool thing about Ed is like
he's no BS you know, like he really does it all.
You can see that when you look at videos of him
street performing, you know, when he was young
and he would go out there and street perform
and he would write three songs a day,
and go home and write songs
and then he'd try a new song every day
and see if people liked it.
If they didn't like it, it was out,
and he'd get a new song.
The fact that he plays 70,000-seat stadiums,
it's literally him and a loop pedal and a guitar,
and people walk away from it saying
it's the best show that they've ever seen, says something.
And I think that he is just such an inspiration
in so many ways.
In the songs that he writes, in the performer that he is,
and the work that he does.
He's just such a hardworking guy, but at the same time
he also will put out an album and then travel
for a year and a half and won't write at all.
And I think that's another element of my life
that I think is important, is like, as much as I love music,
and it's such an important part of my life,
the way he sort of navigates this whole world
and navigates everything that comes with the music,
is really healthy, and I think that that's a good model
to look after.
It's just everything. I look up to him very much.
My next musical influence is Queen.
Queen is iconic. There's no debate about that.
You look at the numbers, they're iconic
but I specifically watch the 'Live Aid' performance.
I actually preferred those versions
of those songs over the studio versions.
I don't know why. But there's a certain energy
behind those songs. You can't beat it. You really can't.
And like, oh, just Freddie Mercury is such an example
of somebody who owned who they were entirely and
they did not apologize for who they were in any single way.
Like he really just owned who he was.
And he wasn't arrogant.
He didn't think he was better than anybody else
but he'd been through so much stuff and
he just said, "You know what?
I am who I am, and I don't care if you like it.
And if you don't like it, I'm going to be fearlessly me."
And I think that is incredibly inspiring for so many people.
And they also make great music, like,
aside from Freddie Mercury being such an icon
in so many ways, the music that they made
is so incredible and so good.
So, for my next artist, I went with Bruno Mars
because I think he is, like, the smoothest man alive.
He really is.
That's not why I'm, like, a fan of him
but that's just --
he's the smoothest man that has ever walked this earth.
But his music is so good.
It does so many different things because, in one way
it's like really sweet and honest and pure
and in another way, like, he's kind of not afraid to like,
be a little bit of a bad ass
and do some cool things with this stuff.
So, he kind of plays the whole spectrum,
and I think that everything he does I eat it up, like,
I really love all three of his albums.
I've been a fan since I was like 10.
"Grenade" was like, man, "Grenade" broke my heart.
I think I sang "When I Was Your Man" at a talent show once,
and I won, I'm pretty sure,
or I got like second place,
I placed in a talent show. That's all I know.
But that song, "When I Was Your Man," come on.
No one's ever written, like, that's one of
the best breakup songs this world has ever seen.
And also he dances, and he's just super cool,
like he's just the coolest kid on the block
and everybody wants to be Bruno Mars.
So, Anderson Paak is another person that
I'm absolutely a fan of,
and obsessed with all of his discography.
And so once Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak came together,
I was like, "This is too good to be true.
No way they're really doing this."
But, I watched the "Leave the Door Open" music video
and my jaw dropped the whole time.
I was like "This is perfect."
And then, I found out that they're releasing an album,
which is some of the best news I've heard
in the last 10 years.
So, anyway, very much excited for the album coming out
between Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak.
For my last musical influence, I'm going with Adele
because I think Adele is just such
a special voice in this world,
and I think that she is somebody who is very intentional
with what she does.
Everything that she does has meaning behind it
and she's so good at really, like,
getting to the core of how she feels and, like,
eliciting that emotion in her music, and you can feel it.
And it's like timeless, and beautiful
and who doesn't love Adele?
But I just think that she does such a good job
of examining human emotions,
and also her voice is like so incredible,
but I think those two things go hand in hand.
I think that her voice and her writing
is a reflection of the beautiful soul that she is.
And I think that we only get a glimpse of that.
I've never personally met Adele, but I'm sure
that we would have many deep, spiritual conversations.
Another thing that's cool about her is that she really
is able to do the spectrum, similar to Bruno.
She can do like a really soft ballad,
and she can also make a killer heavy four on the floor pop song,
like "Rolling in the Deep," you know,
and I think that sort of range and the fact
that she does both so well is like so admirable for all
of her discographies will definitely influenced my music
for the rest of the time.
So, some honorable mentions that couldn't make the list
but I just had to include them are,
Miley Cyrus, 'cause Miley Cyrus.
Of course Lizzo. Lizzo's album, her last album
I've heard more times than is probably healthy, but,
that is just a powerhouse of an album.
Lizzy McAlpine is one of the greatest songwriters
of our time.
Billy Joel is the last one I wanted to mention.
Billy Joel and Dua Lipa.
Those are my five extra influences.
I can go into the reasons maybe in a part two,
but for now, they'll just live as my honorable mentions
because they have shaped who I am today as an artist.