Give Love

About the Artist

The Josh Dion Band is led, as you might expect, by Josh Dion, its drummer, main songwriter and lead singer. The first thing that you notice when you see Josh perform is that he is an amazing drummer. That may sound like a “duh!” statement, but when you find yourself thinking back to the last time that someone knocked you out like this, it makes sense that you can't say it strongly enough. After growing up in Storrs, Connecticut, Josh attended William Paterson University in New Jersey. After college, Josh spent time on the jam band circuit with New York funk band ulu, where Josh became accustomed to being ready to go with whatever happens. Rounding out the sound that is the Josh Dion Band is bass player Brian Killeen, a former bandmate in the NYC funk band ulu and a current fellow with Josh as a sideman for guitarmeister Chuck Loeb, who guests with a blistering performance on “Indecision.” However, most of the guitar work on Give Love belongs to 23 year old Dan Hindman, co-writer of “Birdwalker.” The main keyboard duties are the province of Pat Firth, who co-wrote “Movin' On.” The backing vocals feature the talents of a number of people, but Sarah Versprille and Justin Wade, along with Josh Dion, are the main voices in the backing vocals on all of these songs, as they are when you see the band live. Drummers who become the lead singer have only a few prominent role models in the pop world. Sure, there's a handful of names that people can name, but only a handful. Josh's inspiration for his future is a name that you don't hear very much in this context: Maurice White. Josh's love for Seventies funk led him to “Earth, Wind and Fire which became my all time favorite group because of their fusion of all different styles of music.” Josh enthuses. “All the singers are drummers. Maurice White was originally a session drummer for Chess Records and played with the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Their lyrics are positive and spiritual so it connected me with all these different parts of my life that I had been through. It wasn't just 'sex, drugs and rock and roll', it was 'life is great, love is the answer and we're badass funky dudes.'”