Whether with a guitar or chisel in his hand and an idea in his head, Elliston’s Joshy Willo continues to forge his path and remain connected to the world around him
In the quiet coastal town of Elliston, down a driveway arched with mature native trees, stands a shed that is one man’s creative oasis.
To some, Joshy Willo is the award-winning soulful musician, to others, he is a meticulous woodworker whose creations tell stories of the scrub.
To a lucky few, he is the expedition guide who can recall the whistle of a bird like the notes of an instrument.
Joshy’s passions are varied: from music to woodwork and ecology, to stand-up paddle boarding.
If you ask him, these components don’t make up separate lives. They are all expressions of the same relentless curiosity – a curiosity to appreciate and understand the intricacies of the world, whether through a drumbeat, a grain of timber, or a bird’s call.
Joshy’s musical journey began not with a grand ambition, but as a disciplinary intervention.
“One of my first teachers, Mrs Keane, tried to curb my musical tendencies in year one or two because I was just always tapping on my desk,” he laughs.
“She thought doing some drumming lessons would stop me tapping on stuff because it was annoying.”
The plan backfired. Instead of getting it out of his system, the lessons threw petrol on the fire. Growing up in Elliston, Joshy was surrounded by music. He recalls dancing in the lounge room at the family farm to his parents’ Rolling Stones and David Bowie records – careful not to jump too hard lest the needle skip.
“I watched my mum sing in bands along with my uncles when I was young,” Joshy recalls.
“And grew up hearing stories of my Grandpa, Austin North, playing at dance halls all over the Eyre Peninsula. So I was very fortunate that my life was always musically orientated.”
By age five, he was building drum kits out of Milo tins and kebab sticks. By 12, he was the drummer for Terrelations, playing Saturday nights at the local footy club with his uncle Terre, brother Kane and sister Nikki.
By 16 he was drumming for the One Legged Seagulls at shows up and down the West Coast.
Some of the larger shows were New Year’s Eve shows at Port Kenny Hotel with up to 700 people in attendance.
While he professes to have spent his childhood hiding behind the cymbals, a transition was brewing. During his uni years in Adelaide, Joshy began writing.
It wasn’t about ‘making it’, it was about journalling and improving his musical capabilities.
“It was mainly a personal endeavour to pull a body of work together. I was always focused on the journey,” he explains.
“Music was always important to me well before the Triple J limelight hit me. I’d decided I would be playing music my whole life so I was more concerned with it being sustainable and treating it more like a trade, without that taking the romance out of it.
“It’s special to me and was going to be a part of my character forever, so I’ve tried to treat it as respectfully as I can. I think I had something more to say as well, had a bit more lived experiences, you know the whole heartbreak stuff.
“I found that getting it on paper is a good way to help digest.”
The songs are quite personal and there’s a vulnerability in revealing those things to the world, Joshy says.
“There was unexpected positivity that came from writing my own music.
“When you realise people can relate to it and that it is serving people in some way. It gives the music meaning and purpose – outside of yourself.
“I feel quite honoured to have people welcome my music into their lives and use it and listen to it. Done well, music can be medicine.”
Joshy says he is now always striving for that pinnacle of connection when writing a good song. “To make people feel something – to communicate something emotionally, goosebumps are the ultimate goal.”
In 2011, Joshy recorded his album ‘Moon As A Mirror’, on which he played all the instruments himself.
Friend, Matt (Macca) Wohling mixed and mastered the album.
“I had played drums in bands with Macca before and he became a regular thread in my
Joshy Willo projects,” he says.
He then uploaded a few tracks to Triple J Unearthed and hopped on a plane to the United States that year.
Joshy was in San Francisco backpacking when the call came – he’d won a spot to play at a major festival in Tumby Bay.
Despite the buzz, Joshy remained rooted in Eyre Peninsula.
“I always thought if my music was good enough, then it may draw the attention it deserved, no matter where I was based,” he said.
“My focus was on honing my craft and making the best songs I could – and my inspiration mainly came from the nature I saw around me. At home on EP, there’s plenty of inspiration.”
Staying based on Eyre Peninsula has not held back Joshy from being recognised for his musical talent; he was a semi-finalist in the 2014 International Songwriting Competition for his song Travel Diary and his music was recently curated and preserved in the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.
If music is Joshy’s voice, woodworking is his tactile connection to the earth.
His interest in the craft dates back to kindergarten, where his teacher, Karen Agars – to whom he dedicated his second album – allowed him to use a saw to make radios out of wood blocks.
Today, Joshy’s workshop is a sanctuary of specialised machinery, including a 140-year-old bandsaw he has restored, spiral-head thicknessers and drum sanders, all accumulated over two decades with the patience of a man playing the ‘long game’.
He doesn’t make furniture for mass consumption; he makes boxes that honour the timber.
“The boxes were almost like tributes to the timber,” says Joshy as he picks up a small creation made from a branch dropped near his home and shows the grain.
“I want knots. I want imperfections. I want nature doing its thing. In that box, you can see where grubs have eaten at it. It’s got a story to tell.”
Joshy’s philosophy is deeply ethical. He won’t touch a tree just because it’s on the land.
As a farmer, he spotted and watched ‘storm-tossed’ fallen branches while mustering, waiting for them to season naturally.
He recalls finding a fallen native apricot tree and preparing to take a branch, only to realise the fallen debris was protecting a nursery of saplings from grazing animals.
“I couldn’t take any from that tree.”
For Joshy, conscientiousness is key.
“I am careful to ensure I’m only taking what the land can give,” he explains.
“Only taking what can be sourced without disturbing the environment.
“And I think I owe the craft the respect it needs – I get satisfaction out of doing something well.”
Another thread that weaves Joshy’s passions together is his work as an expedition guide.
It began as a youngster, bug collecting with his grandma, cultivating a fascination with nature.
“It developed through fishing, through uni with ecology, animal behaviour, marine and terrestrial animal diversity subjects,” he said.
Bird watching is the most recent “filling in” of the naturalist role, which was further cemented with citizen science and a birdwatching course led by ecologist Greg Kerr.
For a musician with a finely tuned ear, birdwatching wasn’t just a hobby; it was a new way to hear the world.
“If you know the songs, you can pick up eight birds before you even see anything in the scrub,” Joshy explains.
This expertise recently took him to the Kimberleys, working as an expedition guide on coastal charters.
The role was a synthesis of his entire life’s work. He used his marine biology knowledge from his university days to talk about whales and crocodiles, his fishing skills to lead charters, and his birding knowledge to interpret the landscape for guests.
And, of course, there was the music.
At night, under the vast northern stars, Joshy would pull out his guitar.
“The rest of the jobs were new to me, so my brain was operating on all cylinders,” he says.
“But when I could fall back into the music, it felt like a comfy pair of shoes. I can do it with my eyes closed.”
Whether he is holding a drumstick, a chisel, or a pair of binoculars, Joshy is seeking the same thing – an understanding of the “fascinatingly intricate machines” of nature and art.
For him, the journey is the craft itself.
“Every level you get to, you realise there’s more to know,” he muses.
In an increasingly over-paced world, Joshy remains ever-curious and passionate, a man who refuses to half-measure his passions, ensuring that everything he creates – be it a song, a box, or a moment in the scrub – is done with the respect it deserves.
These convictions have moved his life in many directions, and soon will see him off once again.
With immense support from his partner, Ebony, Joshy will be heading to Borneo, expanding his expedition experience even further.
Under which stars will Joshy Willo next strum his guitar?
