Josh Stevens

Josh Stevens (born Joshua Steven Gill, November 21, 1983) is an American singer, record producer, songwriter, audio engineer and music executive, located in Los Angeles. His works are Grammy Award winning, RIAA Platinum certified, Billboard Award nominated, Juno Award nominated, ARIA Music Awards Platinum certified and twice Superior Hit Product Award winner. His early career was based around hip-hop and dance working for Warren G, Snoop Dogg, LMFAO, Pitbull, Steve Aoki, Jennifer Lopez, The Game and Clyde Carson. He however found his modern sound in pop/indie-rock. As of 2019, he is the musical voice of Sapporo Beer Chu-Hi 99.99 worldwide commercial campaign.

Josh Stevens
Josh Stevens on the red carpet at Fashion One Show in Hollywood Ca 2015
Background information
Birth nameJoshua Steven Gill
BornFountain Valley, California, United States
OriginLos Angeles
Genreship hop dance pop indie-rock
Occupation(s)record producer, songwriter, singer, engineer, musician, A&R, CEO
Years active1999–present
LabelsStadium Music Enterprise, Interscope Records, Island Def Jam Records, Universal Music Group, Epic Records
Associated actsLMFAO, Pitbull, Capital Cities, Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Thurzday, Goonrock, Jennifer Lopez, Naima Mora, Rihanna, Beenie Man, Wilmer Valderrama, Lil Jon, Nitzan Kaikov (K-Kov), Young Jeezy, Steve Aoki, Nate Dogg, Lisa D'Amato, Shwayze, The Melisizwe Brothers
Websiteiamjoshstevens.com

Early years

His early years consisted of writing and free style rapping in his first hiphop group called Mental Advisory, where he went by the stage name Speratic. With his two brothers, Jason Whittaker (older) aka Blaximus and Jay Daniels (younger) aka M.A.R.S., Josh Stevens did mainly vocals at the time as Jason Whittaker did most of the production and music. One of Mental Advisory's biggest achievements was becoming the entrance music for comedian Mark Curry's live set. After the band members went on to do other ventures, Jason Whittaker became a well established comedian who now is known as Jay Whittaker. Jay Daniels became DJ Jason Craig. The members still work and make music with each other to this day.

Mental Advisory albums
  • Only The Few (2004)
  • Come Join The Circus – Speratic (solo album) (2008)

In 2004, Stevens attended the Los Angeles Recording School (now Full Sail and Los Angeles Film School) where he received a certificate of engineering. At this point he became an intern under Tom Weir at Studio City Sound. This is where he meet long time record executive, co-collaborator and current manager, Byron Martinez. As of today Stevens still calls Studio City Sound in Studio City[6] his main studio. At about the same time, he also became an intern for Niko Bolas. After spending about two years as an intern/assistant he found a live sound mix engineer position at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. He spent just under two years there as a head Tech Director. He still works for Saddleback Church as a freelance mixer today. Wanting to get back into more studio work, he was asked to be a personal engineer for Warren G. Warren G was instrumental in Stevens working with LMFAO and they maintain a strong working relationship to the present day.

Career

Sapporo

In 2019, Stevens was sourced to sing and write the music for the worldwide commercial campaign of Sapporo beer new product Chu-Hi 99.99. The campaign resulted in 12 national TV commercial advertisements and giving him the title "The Voice of Sapporo 99.99". As of December 2019, Chu-Hi 99.99 is a twice Superior Hit Product Award Winner and has sold over 48,000,000 units with revenue of $72,000,000.[1]

LMFAO

Stevens co-wrote, engineered and toured on LMFAO's 2010 sophomore album Sorry for Party Rocking. They released the full album on June 17, 2011 in the U.S. It was certified gold in early 2012 and in 2013 was near platinum. The album's first single was "Party Rock Anthem" which spent six consecutive week on the US Billboard Top 100 at No. 1, and the video, which Stevens can be seen shuffling in, as of January 2019 had over 1.7 billion views. Billboard posted it at No. 2 for the biggest song of the 2010 decade.[2] The song also peaked at No. 1 in Canada, the UK Singles Chart,[3] and over ten other countries.

The second single was "Champagne Showers". It features English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills, for which Stevens was the recording engineer.[4] The song was performed on American Idol in April 2012. The third single was "Sexy and I Know It", although Stevens was only accredited as writing the remix version (MADEin82 Remix). It reached No. 1 on the iTunes charts worldwide and No. 1 on the Australian and Canadian Hot 100. “Sexy and I Know It” also reached No. 5 in UK,[3] plus No. 1 in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Austria, Japan and New Zealand, and hit No. 1 on both Billboard R&B chart and the Billboard Hot 100. The songs he had the biggest influences on for the album were co-writing and engineering "Reminds Me of You" featuring Calvin Harris and "With You".

Aside from writing and engineering for LMFAO's album, he also toured with them in 2011 as one of their DJs, monitor mix engineers and a traveling writer/music producer for Sky Blu's label Big Bad University.

Josh Stevens & Skyler Gordy of LMFAO performing Party Rock Anthem at Surrender Night Club, Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas 2011

Pitbull

On June 17, 2011, Stevens engineered Pitbull's "Took My Love" (featuring RedFoo, Vein & David Rush) produced by Redfoo for Pitbull's sixth studio album, Planet Pit. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. It reached US (RIAA) Platinum and charted in the top 10 in over 10 countries.

Jennifer Lopez

On June 8, 2012, Stevens engineered and A&R (consulted) Jennifer Lopez's single "Goin' In", featuring Flo Rida and Lil Jon. It was produced by Jamahl "GoonRock" Listenbee and released by Island Def Jam Records. The single reached No. 1 on US Billboard Dance Chart and the album which was released July 17, 2012 by Epic Records.

Steve Aoki

Stevens co-wrote and engineered the song "Livin' My Love" featuring LMFAO and Nervo for Steve Aoki's January 10, 2012 album release, Wonderland.

Young Jeezy and Ne-Yo

On February 21, 2012, Stevens engineered "Leave You Alone" by Young Jeezy featuring Ne-Yo and produced by Warren G.

Unaccredited works

Eminem and Rihanna

In September 2013, while working as a consultant and writer for Interscope Records, Stevens was commissioned to submit songs for Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2. This resulted in Eminem's "The Monster" ft Rihanna mixed by Dr. Dre and bearing a striking resemblance to one of Stevens requested songs.

Present

Stevens was on a world tour in support of his recent radio single "Somewhere", with 2019 tour stops in Japan and US.[5]

Josh Stevens and Spencer Ludwig of Capital Cities writing at Studio City Sound, Ca 2015

Discography
Notes

References
  1. "Sapporo Group Business Results Presentation for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2019" (PDF). Sapporoholdings.jp. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  2. "Hot 100 Songs - Decade-End". Billboard.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  3. "LMFAO | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  5. "Exclusive Premiere: Josh Stevens Releases Single 'Somewhere'". CelebMix.com. October 18, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
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