Josh Neumann started playing the cello when he was 8 years old in Nevada City, CA a small town in the foothills of the sierra Nevada's.


He joined the Sacramento Youth symphony when he reached high school and sat in the first stand for 3 of my four years. During these years he had the privilege to play with artists such as Roger Hodgson and Super Tramp, Winton and Delfeayo Marsalis, Bobby Mcferrin, Joanna Newsom, and Lubomir Georgiev.


His first recording gig was in 1997 for a CD called Rites of Passage, a live recording of two concerts that he played with the members of Super Tramp. After high school he accepted a music scholarship from San Diego State University and played in the orchestra's principle chair for two years. In 2001 he transferred to Cornish College of the Arts to continue his studies in cello performance and received my BA degree in 2004.


He has played on Brandi Carlile's first album "Brandi Carlile",  "The Story", her new album "Give Up the Ghost", on a recording of "Wild Horses" with Train, performed with Brandi Carlile on the television show Three Wishes, Conan O'Brien, The Tonight show with Jay Leno, The CBS Early Morning Show, The Jools Holland show, and played on 4 songs "Turpentine", "Tragedy", "Throw it all Away" and "Hiding My Heart" which were featured on the television show Grey's Anatomy.


Australian TV apearances include, the Morning Show, 9 AM and The Today Show.


Most recently he played on the soundtrack for the feature documentary "I think we're alone now".



Q & A with Josh


1.  Do you have any preshow rituals/traditions before going on stage?


I used to eat a fireball candy every time before I played, it would help me calm my nerves, but i don't do that anymore.


2.  If you had to pick one restaurant to eat at for the entire time you're traveling, what would it be?


Something like an outback, where I can get a variety of different somewhat healthy items. From meat to salads and sandwiches etc. 


3.  What's your biggest pet peeve?


I'm a pretty easy going guy, I don't really have any.                     


4.   Do you have any hidden talents? What are they?

                                         

hmmmmm


5.  Favorite movie?


HARD ONE! um......... maybe fight club or memento 

 

6.  Pirate or Ninja?


um...... pirate?


7.   What's your favorite Christmas/Holiday song?


dreidel dreidel dreidel, LOL the twins will love that!


8.  Seeing that you all spend so much time together while being on tour, is there anything that 'bothers' you about each other after a while or do you get more annoyed with the daily grind of being on the road?


Is this a trick question, heh. On the record...... "I LOVE EACH AND EVERY MINUTE I GET TO SPEND WITH THOSE CRAZY AMAZING PEOPLE!" HAHA 

 

9.  Pancakes or Waffles?


That's funny, I would have to say pancakes just because Phil paid me 10 bucks the other day to eat a side order of 3 pancakes at denny's, after I had already eaten my entire breakfast.........after a 14 hour drive, in my state of delirium...... I did it :)


10.  If you weren't professional musicians, what other jobs/careers would you pursue?


Well I was a teacher at gymboree before I started playing with Brandi, I love kids and could see myself teaching. (maybe to a bit older kids though. :)


11.  Do you ever pull pranks on each other? Any good ones?


Too many to count, this one time we got in a hotel war where our two rooms, Brandi and the twins, me, Jason and Alex, got in a big prank war. They put a trash can full of water against our door, knocked and when i opened it it came flooding in.  They also set our alarm clock for 4 a.m. and hid it so when it went off we could not find it.


So we got a key to their room while they were not there, stripped all the bedding off took everything in the room, remote control, lamps, clock, chairs, took them all to our room and hid them. We then turned the thermostat up as high as it would go, filled their bathtub with coffee and leaned the mattresses against the windows so no light could come in. AH SWEET VENGEANCE!


12.  What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you while performing?


This girl once while on the Fray tour said to me, "I want to pluck your strings" I'm sure I turned bright red! 

 

13.  If you were banished to a deserted island and could only bring 3 cd's with you, what would they be?


Way too hard! 

 

14.  Who/what are your musical influences?


My dad 


15.  When/how did you start playing for the band?


Been about a year and a half. So aug 2005 I think. Brandi was looking for a cellist, called a guy I know in NYC who could not do it and he gave them my name. That's it.