Joshua Bassett Says His New Album Easier Grew From Nashville Writing Bursts, Open-D Guitar Tuning, and a Story Fans Can Follow From First Crush to Heartbreak
Joshua Bassett maps Easier as a full emotional arc
NEW YORK, NY — Joshua Bassett says his sophomore album Easier was built as a complete story, with each song marking a different stage in a relationship. He spoke in New York just days before the album’s release, explaining that the project has been waiting on a hard drive while his life shifted enough for him to finally share it.
He said four of the nine tracks were written in a three-day stretch in Nashville, then later returned there to write three more songs in another three days. The sequencing follows that same order, he said, so listeners can hear the narrative unfold in a straight line from the start of the record to the end.
Why the title track became the centerpiece
Bassett said the title track Easier felt like the best summary of the album’s emotional core. For him, the song captures the question of whether it is simpler to love someone else, or whether a new relationship just feels easier than one that came before.
He described the record as a chain of connected thoughts: “Blue” is about falling in love, “Dancing on the Edge” asks whether it will last, and “Hold Me” lands in the breakup. Later songs move through guilt, regret, and lingering attachment, until “No One Loves Like You” ties the whole story together.
Bassett also said a number of songs did not make the final track list, but he does not see them as lost. In his view, they may still find a place in a future project.
Touring, New York chaos, and a new vocal sound
One of the album’s key songs, “Dancing on the Edge,” came from the challenge of starting a relationship while on tour. Bassett said he was just beginning to see someone when he had to leave for The Golden Years, and the two kept missing each other across different time zones, including a stretch tied to Florence.
He said New York has also shaped how he works. Bassett described recording ideas while walking or riding a Citi Bike, and said the city’s constant motion helps creativity flow. Even when the city feels overwhelming, he said he has become more comfortable with the chaos.
That same ease extended to the music itself. Bassett said he used double vocals across nearly every song on the album, sometimes allowing them to sit a little out of sync for a looser, more relaxed sound than a single lead vocal down the middle.
A more singer-songwriter record and the response to Rookie
Bassett said Easier feels more like a return to his singer-songwriter side than his earlier, more pop-leaning work. He also pointed to his production choices, including writing several songs in the key of D and tuning his guitar to open D, which opened up new chord shapes and helped songs spill out quickly.
He said much of the album was built from fast, improvised voice-memo sessions with collaborator Nate Miles, and that the best takes often felt close to the day-of demos. Bassett called himself happiest in the studio, where he feels free and able to work without ego getting in the way.
The conversation also touched on his book Rookie, which Bassett said has sparked an emotional reaction from readers. When fans tell him it changed their lives, he said, he gets overwhelmed, because that kind of response makes the pain of writing it feel worthwhile.
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