Joshua Wells is first and foremost a musician. He has been playing the drums since he was nine years old, for 26 years; he is also a skilled pianist, guitarist, and sometime singer. He is adept in the studio, tech-ing his own drums, helping his musician friends to get good drum sounds and occasionally engineering and producing himself.

Josh was first introduced to music by way of his family; his father Victor is a blues and rock guitarist and singer; his mother Dianne is a folk-turned-opera singer and accomplished music historian. Josh grew up playing music with his family and his parents encouraged him to pursue formal training when he became obsessed with the drums. He studied orchestral percussion in Toronto at Oakwood Collegiate, then studied jazz when he moved to Vancouver. Eventually he worked his way through Vancouver Community College’s excellent jazz performance program, studying drums and playing in varied ensembles.

All the while Josh played in bands outside of the academic environment, honing his own style and focusing on original music. He continued playing in many rock, jazz and avant-garde groups and spent many years touring North America the hard way, making and releasing independent records with bands like Radio Berlin and Jerk With a Bomb, eventually coming to international prominence in 2005 when his new band Black Mountain released their first record.

Since then, Josh has toured the world with Black Mountain, early on opening Coldplay’s Twisted Logic tour in amphitheatres across the US and Canada, then on their own headlining tours through Europe, Australia, Brazil and North America. He has made live television appearances with Black Mountain on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, CBC’s ZED TV and twice on French National Network Canal Plus’ L’Album De La Semaine.

Josh has also found the time to lend his talents to other people’s bands such as Blood Meridian and Pink Mountaintops, and to start another project, Lightning Dust, in which he plays piano primarily.

Joshua’s drumming style has been described as classic, a loose limbed jazzy approach to rock with a tremendous dynamic range. He is a tasteful drummer, and views his drumming as an integral part of a song rather than a demonstration of his abilities. His life in music has been a varied one, and he holds fast to his belief that music is music, not just rock’n’roll or jazz or orchestral, and he will go with it where it takes him.