Despite growing international success, local DJ remains "as humble as ever"

Wednesday 13 March 2024

When I first met Josh Le Tissier, it was to celebrate 20 million streams of his music online.

18 months later, Josh has surpassed 60 million streams, has signed two massive contracts, is set to appear at one of Germany’s biggest electronic dance music (EDM) festivals in June and lining up multiple gigs in Asia.

However, despite his growing international success, Josh was as humble as ever about his accomplishments, which include a growing following on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. When we last spoke, Josh acknowledged that he needed to “put himself out there more”, and perhaps has a friend to thank for supporting him in this.

“There are several great networking events available within the music industry (Amsterdam Dance Event), and I’ve had to learn to give an ‘elevator pitch’ where you sum yourself, and your work, up in just a minute or two. I started giving it a go, and at one event a friend happened to overhear me introducing myself to a producer.”

“After the event, my friend gave me some constructive criticism. I am always somewhat uneasy about sounding big-headed, so I had simply said that I was a DJ and had some tracks coming out soon. My friend said I needed to be more upfront and say that I have 60 million streams and have played Ministry of Sound and other big venues and events. While self-promotion doesn’t come naturally to me, I followed my friend’s advice, and I noticed a difference straight away.”

“Suddenly, I could see people I was talking to almost click into focus on what I was saying; recognising that there is credibility to my work, and that I have a decent audience."

Credit: Dan Groundland.

That “decent” audience (at the time of writing) includes over 172,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 1 million monthly listeners on YouTube. Josh explained that artists have access to real-time data for their music.

“I can see who’s listening to my music at any time. It can get quite addictive because it’s interesting to see where people are listening from, whether they keep listening to my other songs, and if they add it to playlists.”

“Interestingly, my biggest audience is in Germany, approximately half of my listeners are in Germany, and the other half are scattered all over the world. There is a big EDM following in Germany, and being invited to play the Lacuna Festival in June is a big step for my career. It will be my first time playing in Germany and its likely some of the crowd will already be familiar with my music, which is really exciting.”

There is also potential for Josh to play at several events in Asia this year, including Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan.

“I have a record coming out on 26 April under the label of one of the biggest DJs in the world, which should help to open doors in the Asian market. I can’t announce who that DJ is yet, but it’s incredibly exciting.”

“I’ve been sending this DJ music for around 10 years in the hopes something would get picked up, and when it finally happened it was a surreal moment. I’ve known since January that the DJ wanted to sign the track to their label, and I can’t wait to be able to finally announce it, which should be later this month.”

Josh explained that exclusivity is an important part of seeing success for a track.

“Building interest in a track is very strategic. The celebrity DJ who has signed the track will have exclusive use of it and my name won’t be attached when it’s played initially. That helps to build interest from the crowd who might like the song and be keen to find out who the DJ is behind it, including guessing who it might be before it’s announced.”

“This DJ very rarely signs solo releases under their label, it's usually collaborations. I’m incredibly proud that it’s been signed as a solo release; it’s all my own work.”

“If this DJ generates enough interest by using the song, then when it’s announced that it’s my solo track, it could be the ‘rocket to the moon’ for my music. It’s a really exciting time.”

Josh has a collaborative track coming out this month [29 March], with a Dutch DJ called R3SPAWN under Actuation Music, a prominent label for EDM tracks.

“I connected with R3SPAWN a while ago and decided to send him an idea for a song to see if he was interested in a collaboration. I had a reply within five minutes, and within 24 hours he had finished the track and found an interested label. This happened to be on Valentines Day, so conversation with my fiancée did revolve around my music that night, but she’s incredibly supportive and was as excited as I was about it.”

“Collaborating with a more established artist can be a great way to reach more listeners and leverage off their popularity. I do have people message me sometimes looking to leverage off my audience, and if I feel a connection to the song and think I can put my own spin on it then I will collaborate, but that maybe only happens one time out of every 10 songs I’m sent.”

I was interested to know whether Josh could pin down a secret to his success.

“Everything is about trial and error. The music industry has changed a lot, particularly when it comes to social media platforms like TikTok. I had a friend who put a track out on TikTok and it suddenly went viral, to this day he has no idea what made it go viral. You can never tell, and a huge amount of it comes down to luck.”

“My approach is to say yes to everything. I started playing local gigs again after two-and-a-half years focusing on off-island gigs and honing my production skills. I love playing locally and it’s a good way to test music for larger gigs because Guernsey crowds will let you know what’s working or not.”

So, what’s next for Josh?

“It really feels like 2024 is going to be a big one for my music. I still work a full-time office job and I hope that the success in my music is proof to others that you can have a dream and a day job; it’s always worth investing time in yourself and your passions because you never know where it can take you.”

Pictured top: Credit - Dan Groundland.