Josh Cotterill is a Scarborough, UK-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, sound designer and producer, who can trace the origins of his music career to when a seven year-old Cotterill, obsessed with Jimi Hendrix and John Frusciante, learned guitar.
After graduating from college with a degree in history and Chinese, Cotterill began focusing on producing his own music with several projects — in particular, his rising, soul, jazz, synth pop and indie rock-influenced solo recording project Axis Neptune, which he started in 2020.
Cotterill’s Axis Neptune full-length debut, last year’s Reasons featured “Cherry Red,” which was chosen as BBC Introducing‘s pick of The Week by BBC Radio York and North Yorkshire‘s Jericho Keys. The Scarborough, UK-based artist was invited to perform for a BBC Introducing live session that was filmed on the Chinese island of Hainan, because Cotterill was stuck in China as a result of the country’s strict COVID-19 restrictions. (This also marked the first ever BBC Introducing session ever filmed in China.)
Adding to a growing profile, the rising British artist and producer played live sessions for CGTN, China Radio International, Nugget Record’s Online Music Festival, and sets at Sofar Sounds and Beijing’s Dusk till Dawn Club.
Cotterill’s latest Axis Neptune single, “Solar” is a slinky, hook-driven bop centered around glistening synths, bubbling bursts of funk guitar, skittering beats and the rising British artist’s falsetto delivery that manages to bring Currents-era Tame Impala to mind. But under the sleek, Quiet Storm-meets -disco funk facade is a brooding meditation on life’s fleeting nature.
