A Light In The Dark
The heart and soul of Mostly Autumn, vocalists and instrumentalists Bryan Josh and Olivia Sparnenn-Josh, talk to Prog about how the emotional and personal challenges of the pandemic led to the creation of their finest studio album to date, Graveyard Star.
Words: David West Portraits: Sharon McInerney
Bryan Josh struggled during lockdown – but the new album is filled with hope.
“It ’s amazing what music can do,” says Bryan Josh. “It lubricates any sort of stress or fear, things that are clogging up when you’re in a dark place. Music becomes like an exhaust pipe. There’s no two ways about it. It’s one of the best things in the world for that, actually.”
Graveyard Star, the new album from Mostly Autumn, was born out of the fear and darkness of the pandemic and the loss of people close to Josh and his wife Olivia Sparnenn-Josh. Facing lockdown with their young daughter at home, music was a way to process the experience. “All the inspiration for doing normal things like songwriting just went really, because it was a crazy, strange time,” says Josh. “It left a vacuum. It strips away the normal juices that flow, the inspiration, and what I found personally was that all that was left was dealing with the situation. That’s where this album came from, really. It was a real-life diary of what went on through the months.”