Together with many of his artistic counterparts, Joshua Stirm, AKA The Juniper Berries, found his creativity stifled and stoppered in some way by the global lockdowns of the pandemic and everything that entailed, including live shows being postponed or cancelled altogether. However, that didn’t stop him from wanting to work on new material, and one such piece he created was “My Ambition”, which PopWrapped are delighted to premiere.
“It felt kind of throwaway at first”
Written while driving from Ashland, Oregon to Portland in late 2019, Joshua says the song: “…started out as kind of a jokey country song that I almost didn’t pursue. I think when I was writing it, I was mostly just really stressed out. It felt kind of throwaway at first, like one of those songs that comes together so easily you’re like well this can’t be that good.“
Like so many of us know happens all too well, inspiration for the track struck him at a busy and important time in his life, as he explains: “I was about to move to Austin, as well as in the process of booking a tour and hammering out our last record’s release. I just felt overwhelmed by everything in that moment and wrote the song almost as a wish that I could just quit music and be rid of my desire to keep it going.”
“My Ambition” also took on a whole new meaning for Joshua due to the lockdown, which has given people a new perspective on life. At a time when the music industry in particular found itself facing a somewhat uncertain future in terms of career prospects for bands and artists, especially newer, up-and-coming ones, it now plays as a postcard or diary entry expressing the fear that can come from and with living in an uncertain world, and for Joshua, was and remains a reminder of what it means to be an artist, not just in general, but particularly during times when music and its industry, for reasons beyond its control, is going through several kinds of immense changes. He shares that the track: “…serendipitously ended up being the very project that brought me back to making music with other people again.” As for what he wants listeners to take from the song, he adds simply: ““That life can be super fucked up but in, like, a funny way, I think.”
Give “My Ambition” a listen below and for more information on The Juniper Berries, check out Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
