“Simply beautiful … full of acoustic grandness” Maverick
Josh Geffin is a folk singer-songwriter from Dorset, UK, now based in London. Known for his striking fingerpicking guitar style and poetic lyrics, Geffin has released four records: two of original songs, one of traditional folk songs and an instrumental guitar album.
Raised in southern England, Geffin started writing songs aged 13, recording them on his father’s dusty 4-track cassette machine. He took an ‘apprenticeship’ with local band Roads, co-writing, recording, and performing at local pubs and festivals throughout his late teens. Geffin received his bachelor degree in Music from Dartington College in Devon, where he experimented with avant-garde composition.
Geffin self-released his first solo EP in 2006 which led to a tour supporting the acclaimed Icelandic band Amiina (Sigur Ros) playing to 300-capacity venues in the UK and Ireland. After an internship at Livingston Studios in London he recorded songs there that would become his pared back self-titled album (2009), produced by Mercury-nominated Sonny Johns, which earned him the quote “a fine new voice in an honourable British tradition of folk-based singer-songwriters” from R2 magazine.
Geffin went on to co-produce an EP with his brother Danny as Geffin Brothers, released through the independent label Roman Road Records which they set up with co-producer Luis Nunes (Benjamim) from Portugal. The single “Body Bluff” included backing vocals from Canadian singer Robin Dann (Bernice). Geffin has also released two EPs of loop-based electric guitar music under the moniker Weather Service.
After working as Audio Editor for The Song Collectors Collective (run by Sam Lee), Geffin produced an EP of traditional folk songs called Rock Of Bawn, featuring top musicians Quinta, Andy Hamill, Nathaniel Keen and Victoria Hume. Bright Young Folk said the EP had “remarkable depth and gravity”.
Hum & Glow, Geffin's latest release, is an album of ambient country-folk instrumentals. Emerging out of a period of spiritual exploration and influenced by country music as well as artists like Daniel Lanois and William Tyler, the record brings together Geffin’s accomplished acoustic fingerpicking with atmospheric electric guitar work. The record was released in 2018, self-recorded and self-produced, with mixing by Sonny Johns (Pica Pica) and design by Owen Tozer (Ben Howard). The blog Post To Wire wrote: “There’s a wonderful lush quality to the music – dreamlike, poignant and ethereal”.
Josh has been influenced by a broad range of artists including Bon Iver, Nick Drake and Daniel Lanois. His inventive fingerstyle guitar playing and heartfelt singing have led to comparisons with folk legends Bert Jansch and John Martyn. Josh has performed at The Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Centre and, as part of the major art exhibition, Ragnar Kjartannson, at the Barbican Art Gallery. As a guitarist for singer-songwriter Victoria Hume, he performed on the Marc Riley show on BBC6 Music. He performed his own songs at the inaugural End Of The Road Festival. Recent gigs have included support slots for top folk bands TEYR, Breabach and Ye Vagabonds.