***UPCOMING SHOWS***
SUNDAY MARCH 10th - Paddington Entertainment Presents @ The Bendigo Hotel (Matinee Show)

Josh Forner is a 24 year old songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. He spent the first few years of his life, after being born in Melbourne, in Virginia in the USA. Music shaped him at an early age there, and again since he'd moved back to his birthplace.

Josh sings of love, primarily (wow, what a shock right?), but also on his list of ‘hot topics’ are politics, famine, poverty and - of course – landscapes: the folk writer’s favourite.

The project began back in late 2008, under the guise of “Josh Murphy”. The first incarnation of the was called “Josh Murphy and the Squad of Tyranny”, and featured Simon Moore on lead guitar, Matthew Brown on keys, bass and guitar with Josh on the vocals and rhythm guitar and Michal Scigocki on drums.

Matt shipped off to England after filming a clip for Melbourne rock ‘n’ roll act The Vaudevillains, and upon his departure, Simon also made waves and concentrated on his studies in science.

Steve Martin joined the act on lead guitar in February 2009 after meeting Josh at the Evelyn Hotel. The two talked long-winded conversations about music and it so happened that Steve was a blues guitarist and up for a jam. From the first note they played together, they knew it was the start of something!

Their first show came in April of the same year as they played a 2-week running duo gig at The Johnston in the front lounge section alongside Deanna Wesson. From there the gigs flowed to places like Gertrude’s Brown Couch, Wesley Anne, The Edinburgh Castle and so on.

A new name, Filthy Soup, came about in winter 2009 as Josh munched away on some canned minestrone, as he thought about something that would describe the vast array of musical styles that made up the act. He later dropped the Josh Murphy tag, as well after drummer Brad Cameron joined.

The group became a guitar duo in June 2010 and eventually Josh and Steve mutually decided to part ways for the time being, and Josh was left fending for himself in the cut-and-dry world of Melbourne music.

He's since distanced himself from the original project and concentrated on the solo performance angle, deciding to utilise his real name for once!

He's played with some of Melbourne’s stalwarts including Timothy Cannon, Tash Anderson, Bridget Pross, Guesswork, Mr Brady, Pro Rata and leant one of his tracks, Pulled and Pushed, to the Revolutionary Road compilation CD in 2010 – a celebration of Sydney Road’s music community.

Josh's repertoire continues to grow as he is currently recording for the first full-length LP - Leading to Nowhere - set for release mid-2013.