Music, Wildlife and Resilience: A Conversation with Josh Ansley

In this episode of The Real P3 Podcast, Philip reconnects with his former schoolmate, Joshua Ansley, a talented singer and songwriter known for his impressive achievement as a four-chair turn on The Voice and as the overall runner-up. Joshua shares insights into his journey, discussing how he has embraced and adapted to life's changes. He also provides a glimpse into his unique experiences living in Kariba, Zimbabwe, including the fascinating encounters with elephants and other wildlife that occasionally disrupt daily life.

What You Will Learn:
· Josh's Return to Zimbabwe:  An exploration of Josh’s move back to Zimbabwe after traveling the world for his music career.
·       Life in Kariba: Get to know the unique lifestyle in Kariba, including interactions with wildlife such as elephants and hippos, and how these encounters shape daily life.
·       The Voice South Africa Audition:  Hear about Josh’s powerful audition on The Voice South Africa and the sacrifices he made to participate.  Watch his AUDITION
·       Career Sacrifices and Preparations: Insights into what it took for Josh to compete on a major stage, including blocking off peak periods in his career.
·       Living with Wildlife: Humorous and challenging stories about dealing with local wildlife in Kariba.
·       Post-The Voice Journey: Josh's experiences with Universal Music, producing music during COVID, and negotiating his publishing rights.
·       Creative Aspirations and Business Adaptability: Learn about Josh’s current and future creative projects and his pragmatic move to join a family business during the pandemic.

This episode is ideal for listeners interested in music careers, unique wildlife experiences, and the importance of adaptability in overcoming personal and professional challenges. Join us for a rich and engaging interview with Josh Ansley on The Real P3 Podcast.

Thank you for tuning in to this inspiring episode with Josh Ansley. Don’t forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations on The Real P3 Podcast.

Watch his audition here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8j6SCY6qyg

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Transcript

Casey
 0:00:00
 Welcome to the Real P3 podcast. Every Monday, join the Unstoppable team as we explore powerful stories of resilience and inspiration from the leaders shaping our industry. Tune in to start your week with motivation and insights that empower you to be unstoppable in life and business.

Philip
 0:00:25
 Okay, hi guys. So today I'm here with a really exciting speaker or more of a singer. His name's Josh Ansley and we'll chat a little bit about Josh's background, what he does, but hi Josh. How's it going? Sup Vos, you good?

Philip
 0:00:41
 Yeah, Vos again, the nicknames have been discussed before, so you're going to hear all sorts of names come through. So Josh and I also an old school mate, but as a friend of Josh's, like his wife literally calls me his biggest fan because A, my size and B, what he's managed to do with this, his journey as a, as an artist and full loop background into Zim after traveling a bit of the world and the States, pursuing a music career

Philip
 0:01:05
 and then now settled down in Kariba with a beautiful wife and daughter.

17
 0:01:08
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:01:09
 From Djerba to Kariba, quite a change of pace, especially rush hour. It's very different, like, you know, from having to wait behind lots of cars during load shedding. And for anyone listening overseas, load shedding is what happens when they switch off the power in certain areas to save money, which generally costs more money because your production levels all around kind of-

Philip
 0:01:33
 Well, how much more of an impact it has on the country.

Josh
 0:01:35
 Yeah, it has a huge economic impact. But being stuck in traffic in Joburg when load shedding is happening is unreal. The most traffic we have in Kariba is when there's an elephant blocking the road. You know, or if you're behind one slow driver, there's no way to overtake on that road. So I have about a 15 minute drive from home to work. As a crow flies, it's probably not even 10 kilometers.

Josh
 0:01:59
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:01:59
 But you know, it's dirt roads onto a very small single lane tar road. And we have elephants and hippos and buffalo and all sorts of things and lots of crocodiles.

Philip
 0:02:13
 In the town as well, Josh, how do you navigate traffic when there's an elephant in the road? Like any rules?

Josh
 0:02:19
 You wait, I guess. Depends on the elephant. If you've got an elephant that's distressed, then you've got to be quite careful. There was an elephant, not too long ago, a male elephant, who completely obliterated a small black Honda Fit.

Philip
 0:02:33
 Yeah, we just sit on it.

Josh
 0:02:35
 Mercilessly, absolutely ruined this car. Fortunately, there was no one in it, it was abandoned, but because people were hitting at this elephant to get off the road, he got the hang of it and just absolutely obliterated

Josh
 0:02:46
 this car.

Josh
 0:02:47
 Good job, man. So, yeah, you've got to pick your battles.

Philip
 0:02:49
 Yeah, well, sort of as an ex-elephant hunter, we kind of have a hearty respect for them. And I know sort of elephants in the cities and towns kind of get, well, in towns like Caribbea get accustomed to humans, but still there's that factor of, should I trust you?

Josh
 0:03:02
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:03:03
 In Caribbea, especially, the elephants are a big problem for the locals, because one elephant can absolutely destroy five to 10 people's gardens in a single night. We actually had an elephant break into our garden one night. Now we're in a gated community called Llamagandhi Lakeside, and the elephant came in through the harbor, through our neighbor's gate, which he always leaves open,

Josh
 0:03:28
 and he bent our steel gate like it was made of wire.

Josh
 0:03:33
 It was ridiculous.

Josh
 0:03:34
 He came down into our garden, he pushed over, I think, three purple trees. We have a huge mango tree and he must have eaten about 500 kilograms of mango. But it felt like there was a T-Rex in the garden. Like that thing is big. And our little cottage outside where we stay is made with these hollow concrete cinder

Josh
 0:03:56
 blocks, which are not that strong. Like I mean, if he decided to build a house down here, we'd be stuffed. So fortunately we had a bag of oranges and we literally laid a trail of oranges going

Josh
 0:04:09
 up the side of the hut.

Josh
 0:04:10
 Trying to get a bite.

Philip
 0:04:11
 Oh yeah.

Josh
 0:04:12
 And as soon as he spot the oranges, he thought mangoes are overrated, went back around the house and went out. But the amount of destruction just in our garden from one elephant. So that can be a big problem for the locals in Kariba. So we understand that there's a bit of a love-hate relationship.

Philip
 0:04:26
 One of my not-so-fondest childhood memories was climbing under a gate, which was electrified. It was four coils of wire. I don't know how many thousands of volts it was. And a friend of mine said, why are you climbing under it? I can open it.

Philip
 0:04:39
 So he decided to open the gate while I was halfway through. And it hit me in the chest and the stomach and flung me like 10 meters. So, like, everything to keep the elephants out, I suppose, and little kids going where they're not supposed

Josh
 0:04:52
 to go.

Josh
 0:04:53
 Yeah, we often have elephants waiting at the main gate. So they've got one of those sort of spring electric wires that they pull across.

15
 0:04:59
 That's the guy.

Josh
 0:05:00
 Which is just enough to keep an elephant out. And sometimes the elephants, they'll see it get open for a car, you drive through, and before the elephant can get there, they close it again. And they'll have an absolute tantrum about the fact that they got closed out.

Philip
 0:05:13
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:05:14
 If only they could speak, they would probably use a lot of

Philip
 0:05:16
 very colorful language. That would be cool. Yeah. Very interesting. Trails you go off and talk about the elephants and in town, it's not what we expected to discuss, but I think for a lot of the audience listening to this, a very sort of bizarre thing and it's life's different, right? Like how an elephant can challenge your, your drive to work. I'd much

Josh
 0:05:32
 prefer an elephant in the road than the traffic though, that's for sure. Yeah. It's just one of the things about living in Carribe. You know, we've also had a hippo break into our house, well, garden three times. And eventually he tried to break out at the bottom of the garden and we have an electric fence around the back of the garden. And he tried to push his way through and as soon as his nose touched the electric fence, you know, normally a hippo will spray his crap around.

Josh
 0:05:58
 That's how they mark their territory. This poor hippo crapped himself a meter straight back. And he hasn't been back since. We think he's just embarrassed.

6
 0:06:07
 That's good.

11
 0:06:08
 That's good.

Philip
 0:06:09
 So, Kariba, just for everyone's sake, I think it's one of the biggest man-made dams in the

Josh
 0:06:16
 world.

Philip
 0:06:17
 No, it's still the biggest. It's still the biggest man-made dam in the world. It's 400 square kilometers. I think for a sort of scale perspective, I understand it's the same size as Israel. So it's a really big dam where a source of our electricity comes through hydroelectricity. So anyone Googling Kariba Dam Wall, really cool stories, really cool histories, really

Philip
 0:06:36
 cool sort of mythology about the yummy, yummy, the steak that destroyed the wall the first

14
 0:06:40
 time.

Philip
 0:06:41
 So there's a lot of interesting stories about Kariba. And then Josh, going back to sort of post-school, you and your music career, and I watch your I was watching your audition on The Voice, South Africa. It was amazing. So you came on stage, you sang an ACDC song, you turned all four chairs. I see the video now has got over 270,000 views on it at this stage.

Philip
 0:07:05
 It's really doing well. How was that? How was going to The Voice? How was going for the audition? How was it getting all four chairs turned? I mean, that's an incredible achievement as far as I'm concerned.

Philip
 0:07:17
 It was a huge sacrifice for me and Kieran.

Josh
 0:07:20
 It was an investment because the time of year that they hold the first three rounds for The Voice is during the busiest time of the year for any working musician or artist. It's right at the end of the year where you normally get great bookings or double bookings. I'd been with the Barnyard Theatre. And usually at that time of the year, we've got double shows. So it's the time of the year that pays the best.

Josh
 0:07:45
 And you have to be available at the beck and call for this production team the entire time. So each episode, the first three rounds, which is the audition, the battles, and then the knockout rounds, you have to be available at the studio for the entire week. So you got to like basically block off that time.

Josh
 0:08:05
 I had to steer clear of any contracts, anything that would keep me tied down. And honestly, the week that I went in for the film audition, there's sort of like a pre-run before that. You audition for the, you know, for the audition.

Josh
 0:08:20
 And I think they let a hundred people come and do a film televised audition. Yeah, I had a gig the weekend before and drank a little too much and managed to absolutely wreck my voice the weekend before. So when I got to the studio on the Monday with the film audition coming up on the Thursday, I didn't have a voice at all. So I had to just be quiet. And I mean, ACDC is really high.

Philip
 0:08:49
 You guys, I highly suggest, I'm actually, I think we're gonna add the Lincoln. I mean, it was an incredible audition. Josh really let the pipes go on that. So you wouldn't pick up that you'd been.

Josh
 0:08:59
 I didn't know if I was gonna be able to sing or not. I had no idea. So backstage, fortunately, the producers were really nice to me. They put me on last. So I was the last audition of the night,

Josh
 0:09:12
 which gave me a little bit of time to relax and ease into it. And we're all in the green room downstairs, there's TVs, you know, so we can all see everyone else's performances happening. And a friend of mine, Davy DeYoga, he comes around and he had those little Jagerbomb,

Josh
 0:09:27
 like, shooter bottles.

Josh
 0:09:28
 I know them.

Josh
 0:09:30
 I was like, can I have two? So I had two of those. My wife had these natural, sort of like, chill-out pills called, they're actually called tranquility.

13
 0:09:40
 Marijuana.

12
 0:09:41
 Not quite.

Josh
 0:09:42
 They're herbal, but not that herbal. And I had like three of those. So by the time we're about halfway through the night, I was feeling pretty damn good about myself. And I really started to like relax a bit, started to sing a bit downstairs, you know, there was a piano there and people walking around with a guitar and what have you. So it was a really festive atmosphere. About five minutes

Josh
 0:10:04
 before I was about to go backstage and do my thing, you know, I started feeling excited and pumped and nervous and terrified and all those things. So it was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying because I didn't know what was going to come out of my throat, but I just went on there and gave it everything I had. And something that you won't see on the YouTube video, because they cut it right at the end of the performance, the first thing I said to the judges, once the applause died down, was, I think my poo-poo just ate my kidney.

12
 0:10:35
 Because that's what it felt like.

Josh
 0:10:37
 It felt like my insides were eating themselves. Yeah, it felt like my lungs should have inverted and actually fallen out.

Philip
 0:10:47
 And if you guys watch the video, you'll see exactly why. He really cranks it up. It was a great performance. And that journey was interesting. So you came second on The Voice.

Josh
 0:10:53
 Yeah, second overall.

Philip
 0:10:55
 Second overall. I mean, huge, huge, huge achievement, Josh. And then after that, it changed the trajectory of your life for a little bit?

Josh
 0:11:01
 Yeah, I was signed to Universal Music for a year. We did one single together, but the live events that I did with the manager that I had, who was with Universal Music Live, I actually looked back at my, the invoices that I had sent to and yeah, we made really good money. My wife and I updated our living situation shortly after that. We went from like a single bedroom floor apartment to a double bedroom roof apartment with

Josh
 0:11:28
 like triple the space. So that was really cool. So that was 2007. Did a lot of gigs around about sort of March 2008, had a chat with Universal and they just didn't really, I didn't have a clear enough vision of what I wanted to do with my musical career after The Voice. And that's such an important thing to have. You have to have, whether you're gonna have

Josh
 0:11:52
 an album pre-recorded or demos or a band or a live show concept or something like that, you have to have an idea of what your brand is going to be with the exposure that you get from an event like that. And I just didn't quite have that. I think I've always had queries about my direction as an artist and I don't want to pigeonhole

Josh
 0:12:13
 myself into any one thing. Yeah, I just didn't quite have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. So Universal was very kind. They let me go with no strings attached. They did try and keep my publishing. Yeah. Which at first, you know, the agreement was over the phone. They sent me the email and I sent it back like, what's this clause here?

Josh
 0:12:32
 So I looked it up on the contract that I'd signed before doing the voice and it was my publishing going forward. Which means that if I had have signed that document as it was, they would have kept 30% of all the royalties of any song I ever wrote and produced without having to put a dollar into making it. So fortunately they changed that.

Josh
 0:12:48
 And I signed the second agreement that they sent. So no strings attached as far as I know, but I haven't necessarily released anything too wild since. I tried to do an album during COVID actually. A buddy of mine in South Africa, Fani, he was connected to a guy called Joe Black. Have you ever heard of Joe Black?

Philip
 0:13:11
 I think so actually.

Josh
 0:13:13
 He's probably got the best beard in all of South Africa.

Philip
 0:13:15
 Yeah, right.

11
 0:13:16
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:13:17
 Great musician. He had a warehouse where they were doing these online gigs. So you re-record a gig and then stream it online and try and make some money as a musician when everything was locked down. Remember that three-week lockdown we went into?

4
 0:13:32
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:13:32
 That ended up being seven months.

10
 0:13:33
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:13:34
 Yeah, that fucking thing. So anyway, you gotta do what you gotta do. So my buddy Fani actually put me forward and said, you should do something, but it has to be all original music. So I had three weeks to take recordings that I'd been working on for two, three years, five years, some of them, and make them into songs.

Josh
 0:13:54
 That was, I think we did 11 numbers in that show. So the idea was to try and do that as a live show and then produce it as an album afterwards, we managed to get a single out of it, which was cool. I think the only mistake that I made was not going through the editing process with producers once it had been filmed, because there's a couple of things I would have liked to have a bit more of a hand in.

Josh
 0:14:19
 Anyway, I really enjoyed being under pressure and having a deadline to produce a whole lot of stuff. And I really enjoyed that creative process. So I'd like to do it again, but I think what I want to do creatively in the future is actually get a group of guys together, go on a trip, make a studio somewhere that's unique, and try and write music for a week or two weeks or a

Josh
 0:14:46
 month or something like that, and just see what comes out of it. I do enjoy the process of being creative, but looking back, I think what's in my mind and how I hear it in my mind is definitely not what it sounds like.

Philip
 0:14:57
 For life in general, with everyone though, and that was kind of like what I wanted to come around to in these discussions as well, because like I said earlier, so our resilience is undertone, our resilience is being a part of resilience is being able to be adaptable. That's the main thing, like you embarked on this sort of music career, found your way back to your home country. We're very glad you're here because you're busy setting up a concert stage for this weekend.

Philip
 0:15:19
 And I'm very grateful that you've taken the time to share this with us and chat to us, because I know you're busy. You've got a big Rock of Ages concert that you're doing. And I know the Friday night's got over 400 people already signed up, which for Zim is a pretty big thing. That's fantastic.

Philip
 0:15:32
 So you're still being able to do the music, the thing that you love. Life took a different angle. You backened them, you're working in Caribbean, you settled a lot more towards a family life. And I think people in this world struggle when things don't go their way.

Philip
 0:15:46
 And I know I've discussed this with someone else on a previous podcast, but I think it's important because you can hear it from different people and different characters from different parts of the world. How do you sort of embrace that, Josh? Is it like a natural thing for you as a person

Philip
 0:16:01
 when things have to change and you need to find another way? Is it life that you've just learned to take on the chin because we're born and raised in sort of a third world? What is your sort of comments on that for anyone listening to this who maybe right now things aren't going the way they've expected it to go?

Josh
 0:16:16
 With what it's like living and running a business in Zimbabwe, at least looking at my in-laws business with their boat building and what it's been like for them to try and keep their company and, you know, keep it running. It's been incredibly difficult, but you learn that you've got to make do with what you've got left, you know, at any point, everything can be taken away from you. There's nothing that can't be taken away from you.

Philip
 0:16:39
 Well, we've lived that. That's an interesting make do with what you've got left because not make do with what you've got. And we've all lived that growing up in Zim. We've had it more than once where everything's been taken, everything's stripped, financial status, land, whatever it is, make do with what you've got left and make the best of

Philip
 0:16:56
 it. That's a really interesting comment.

Josh
 0:16:58
 Yeah. I mean, my in-laws who I'm now working with and for, they've been building boats in Zimbabwe for 30, nearly 40 years now. They really have been through a lot, but I feel like as a family and as a business, we're in a good situation now to hopefully start making some profit. We've got some projects coming up and yeah, it's one step at a time.

Josh
 0:17:20
 I think something that COVID, that whole lockdown period really taught me was that the next step that you take has to be the one that makes the most sense. It might not necessarily be what you had imagined or what you envisioned, but it's the one that makes the most sense. So for us moving back from Joburg to Kariba, it was like a five-minute conversation with me and my wife

Josh
 0:17:43
 after a 30-minute phone call with the in-laws.

Philip
 0:17:46
 Because it made the most sense.

Josh
 0:17:48
 It just made the most sense. They were struggling to run their company. I think there was a lot of internal workings within how the company was being run and operated. And my wife, Karen, has managed to probably cut out about 70% of unnecessary paperwork.

Josh
 0:18:01
 So things are running a lot smoother there and I think she's really enjoyed that because it has been a creative process in many ways for her.

Philip
 0:18:11
 You have to be in business, you have to be creative. I mean, you've got to constantly be thinking on your feet, changing, adjusting to the world around you. And the world is moving, it is changing, and it's not just the third world. The third world changes today and tomorrow, every day. Well, I can definitely see it. And I have not experienced in the first world.

Philip
 0:18:28
 I've only traveled a few times. I've had a lot of conversations, but my understanding is that it's definitely changing for everyone. It's a different space to be in, definitely for farmers and agriculture as well, getting a lot more harder, less labor available. Guys are managing the farms themselves, farming in isolation.

Philip
 0:18:42
 And we can't keep doing what we were doing. If it isn't working, we have to change how we've been doing things. If it's not working the first time, don't keep doing it that way. And are we evolving enough with the times? Would be an interesting question.

Josh
 0:18:56
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:18:57
 In the last two years, I've learned, you know, I went from being a musician most of the time to kind of general dog's body now for the company. I run around, I manage projects. I just try and make sure that everybody who has a job gets it done, that they have what they need to get the job done. You know, we are building and, well, we're not building boats in Kariba, but we

Josh
 0:19:16
 are maintaining, managing. So in Kariba, we're doing repairs, maintenance, and refurbs is the big one. So we'll take a boat, build new rooms, make the roof 20 centimeters higher, add two meters. We've been installing rather big solar systems. Yeah, so from being kind of a weekend musician.

Philip
 0:19:41
 Full on working in one of the hottest climates in the world, I think, because Caribou is

Josh
 0:19:45
 pretty tough. Yeah, my first week there was 43 degree weather and the humidity is just unreal because I mean, you're right next to this massive body

Philip
 0:19:55
 of water. I remember when you moved back, it was in October and I was like, Josh, was this the smartest move moving to Caribou in October?

Josh
 0:20:00
 You come in winter. That was literally trial by fire. But yeah, it's amazing. I do all sorts. I do plumbing here and there. I do electrics here and there. We do welding, carpentry, painting is a big part of it.

Josh
 0:20:14
 And yeah, but running a business in Africa is, I think, a very unique experience. Yeah.

Philip
 0:20:20
 And we've got our new dollar now, the ZIG, which is based against the gold, backed against gold, which I think the last time a country did this was, 40 years ago, was the last time that a currency backed against gold. So we've got a ZIG now.

Josh
 0:20:34
 Yeah, it's called Zimbabwean gold.

Josh
 0:20:37
 Yeah.

Josh
 0:20:37
 We'll see, look, I think if the governor of the Reserve Bank sticks to what he said he's gonna do with this currency, it should hold its value.

Philip
 0:20:46
 Well, as a country which hasn't had a currency or multiple attempts at a currency and one that fell out of hyperinflation, we need something solid. There's obviously a lot of lack of confidence in it because of how it's been managed in the past, but we'll be interesting.

Philip
 0:20:58
 Maybe now we're on the right track. When again, make do with what you got left, like hoping this time is going to be different, hoping this time we're going to get it together.

Josh
 0:21:05
 Well, I mean, a couple of people had their accounts, their US dollar accounts converted to ZIG without their approval.

Philip
 0:21:12
 I heard that today.

Josh
 0:21:13
 Without any forewarning.

Philip
 0:21:14
 We were worried about that. We heard it today.

Josh
 0:21:17
 It just happened. So look, I mean, since they introduced the ZIC, it has grown in value against the US dollar. And the US dollar is, of course, it's the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy.

Philip
 0:21:29
 Yeah, it is. That's all it is right now. It's trading in US dollars.

Josh
 0:21:32
 Yeah. If we didn't have US in this country, I don't know what we'd do.

Philip
 0:21:35
 We'd be trading. Tomatoes for mangoes. Mangoes for oranges.

Josh
 0:21:39
 Yeah, like we did back in, what was it? 2000 and... 2000. 2001, 2, 3, 4.

Philip
 0:21:44
 There was a lot of trading going on.

7
 0:21:46
 Yeah, yeah.

Josh
 0:21:47
 I'll trade you five liters of petrol for a sack of potatoes.

Philip
 0:21:50
 This is exactly what was happening. It was bizarre to try and even remember those stories.

Josh
 0:21:54
 You had to take petrol to school so that we had enough petrol to get home on the weekends.

Philip
 0:21:58
 Yeah, and not we're going to encourage any of that, but we abused the petrol in the dormitories a little bit. I had one particularly fun memory of Josh running down the corridor, fortunately the highs only lasted a few minutes.

Josh
 0:22:11
 Yeah, the things kids get up to when you...

Philip
 0:22:13
 Do not send your kids to school with petrol.

Josh
 0:22:17
 Yeah, yeah.

Josh
 0:22:19
 Don't go huffing petrol. Take it from me. Yeah, I'm sure my brain is actually still trying to recover from that one. Yeah, we had a good time growing up in Zim. It was a tricky place, but you just got to keep with it, work with what you got left.

Philip
 0:22:35
 Josh, thanks again so much for taking the time to chat with us today. And good luck with your concert that you're getting ready for. Keep making music, I love it. And I'm really going to direct the audience

Philip
 0:22:45
 so that they'll see for themselves how amazing you are as a singer. And yeah, thank you.

Josh
 0:22:50
 Thanks, dude.

Philip
 0:22:51
 And yeah, thank you. And yeah, thank you. Thanks, Sid.

 
 
 Transcribed with Cockatoo