User:Joshuacros/sandbox

Cross speaks a musical language that blends acoustic rock with alternative rock/pop/country to create his own avant-garde dialect. While his sounds may be hard to define and his composition difficult to conveniently box into a single genre, his passion is straight up. Cross is a consummate artist and the struggle and inspiration behind him work comes directly from life experience. For that reason, perhaps, he defies conventional categories while concentrating on reinventing himself and letting the art narrate the journey. As Cross once described it, "I'm still trying to find myself in the music, and I am slowly learning how to slough off more than the surface of my ideas." That is what genuine artists do – and that's why we need them in this world, to tease us back into metamorphosis as we lean toward the dull comfort of stagnation. Cross describes his songs as a "healing for the nations". Music was always a part of his life – at the age of 13 he started his first band called Narrow Express. The band played mostly cover songs but also some originals. After three years the band spilt up and went their separate ways. He felt it was for the best, but with music still stirring his heart he picked up guitar and piano and started working as a solo artist, At the age of 19, after just getting out from the Newfoundland orphanage that was his home, Cross moved to Ontario with a band he had put together and started to play around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the hopes of being "discovered". Cross was given a gift, a beautiful baby boy and his boy reciprocated by giving him a new view of the world and a fresh, raw perspective on the meaning of daily struggles. "The birth of my son gave me the true inspiration to take my music to the next level," says Cross. "Great music is fundamentally about the expression of love for something outside of you."Cross's music derives from hard-won experience, intense study, and the kind of persistent dedication that leaves blisters on the tops of your fingertips from working the fretting board. He started picking up local gigs to indulge his passion and hone his skills. He played guitar and sang for the group Primitive faith at major clubs in the Toronto and areas, Then he start doing local gigs on his own, just his guitar and his voice. In 2005 Cross was asked by a local charity called Shelterthem to go Kigali Rwanda in Africa with the charity and put on a concert for orphan children, these kids were homeless because of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and so he went and he describe it as a life-changing experience. In 2007 Cross opened for Grammy nominated artist Sarah Kelly. Joshua Cross is the fulfillment of a vision, an artist with an uncompromising desire to encourage people to live life to the fullest.