Joshua Harrell

The Early Days

Out singer/songwriter Joshua Harrell was born Joshua Warren Harrell to parents Michael and Mary Harrell on April 16, 1975 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Michael was employed as a Sheriff's Deputy for the Broward County Sheriff's Department and Mary worked as a part-time bank teller.

After leaving the Sheriff’s Department to become a private bodyguard in 1980, Michael worked for a variety of rather elite clients, including former Beatle, Ringo Star. Joshua, who often times traveled to the cities where his father worked, recalls meeting Ringo in Beverly Hills. "At the time I didn't know who Ringo was --- except for the fact that he was my Dad's boss. Ringo kept asking me if I wanted to be a drummer and I kept telling him I wanted to be a singer. He told me that I could do both, and then he laughed. I now know why he found it so funny."

Eventually, Joshua's father Michael became swept up in the world of fame, fortune and fast money, which --- not surprisingly --- led to his addiction to cocaine. This, in turn, would lead to an unfortunate fate.

The Dark Times

In the spring of 1982, Joshua was awakened in the middle of the night by his mother telling him in an urgent whisper that they were about to embark on a trip to Disney World, his favorite place. But this wasn't a normal family vacation. Joshua's father had just committed murder, killing a very powerful drug dealer and stabbing his girlfriend 28 times in a cocaine-induced rage. No, this wasn't a vacation at all. Michael was on the run and taking his family with him.

As things would happen, it wasn't long before Michael was caught by police. Convicted of the brutal crimes he had committed, he was sentenced to several life sentences in prison, where he remains to this day.

Meanwhile however, Joshua's world had been savagely ripped apart. Between the ages of 8 and 10, he was exposed to money, drugs, hate, murder and eventually, a lawless and unsuccessful run from the authorities As a result, Joshua learned early on that there was no escaping the dark side of life.
Thus began his love affair with Rhythm & Blues. Ever-present in Joshua's music is his undeniable attraction to the difficult times in life. The difficult times --- the desperate times --- and the lonely times.

The Lonely Years

After Michael was incarcerated, Mary knew she must create a new life for herself and Joshua. In order to shield him from the ugliness that surrounded them in Florida, Mary moved the two of them to Douglasville, Georgia, then a rather a rural area just outside of Atlanta. Here is where Joshua first experienced country life.

As Joshua jokes: “We lived just down the street from a cow pasture that doubled as a satellite station. Go figure.”

But all joking aside, life in the country wasn’t as idyllic for Joshua as one would imagine. Not just because he had been forced to make a rather abrupt transition from city life to country life. But because of the fact that when Joshua was just 14 years old, his mother moved in with her boyfriend, leaving him home alone to fend for himself. Not just for a few weeks. For six years.

Except for attending school, Joshua rarely left the house during this time. He stayed locked away behind closed doors where he would entertain himself by staging solitary concerts and singing along to his albums. It was the late ?80s and this is where the dream of making music became more and more intense in Joshua's psyche.

Although he took guitar and concert choir in high school, Joshua's childhood trauma-induced anxieties prevented him from performing on stage with the other students. He was nervous and paranoid about drawing attention to himself. Not just because of his childhood, but because he was gay and he knew it. And so, to avoid being "outed" by his fellow students, he took to the shadows. Finding solace in TV and music, Joshua skipped school constantly, spending much of senior high in hiding.

The Age Of Discovery

When Joshua was 16, his mother decided he needed to expand his horizons. So she dropped him off at the Human Resources office at Six Flags Over Georgia and told him to get a job. And he did just that, working in the theme park's retail shops selling souvenirs and making many, many good friends. "I had never been exposed to such diversity. I met college kids, retirees, blacks, whites, Hindus, Buddhists. What a crash course on life! As I became a part of this subculture, I learned about religion, politics, sex and fashion. And the different types of music I experienced were amazing. The black girls especially loved teaching me about soul and R&B. I think they got a kick out of how excited I got about it. I was like a sponge just soaking it all up."

After Six Flags, Joshua landed a non-descript job at a cheap hotel in an industrial sector of town. Businessmen and vacationers were not the regular customers. Drug dealers and prostitutes WERE. "When I think about how dangerous it really was, I can't even imagine why I worked there. I actually had a prostitute proposition me once at the night window. Grateful for the bullet proof glass between us, I turned her down politely."

What kept Joshua working at the hotel was his boss, a very clean cut and professional hotel manager who just happened to be gay. Joshua saw his boss as a role model and was inspired to come out of the closet because of him. But not before he was held up at gunpoint at the hotel. "I actually bartered with the robbers. They wanted my wallet and I went on a tirade about how I didn't have any money, my credit cards were maxed out and if I gave them my wallet I would then have to go get a new driver's license and what a pain that would be etc." The robbers gave up and let Joshua keep his wallet. But he made the decision to leave the hotel world and shortly thereafter he became officially gay.

The Coming Out

Joshua came out on October 31st, 1994 and no, it wasn’t to express his inner woman and dress in drag. He walked out his front door that day and promised himself that he would finally BE who he really WAS. If anyone asked if he were gay, he would answer with a proud "yes" and to this day, he's been true to his word.

With the exception of telling his grandmother, coming out didn't cause any undue stress for Joshua. "My grandmother was the only person I had to officially come out to and I was nervous. But, she handled it like a pro. She said she wouldn't get any grandchildren, but that I was too self-centered (in a good way) to have a child anyway. Odd thing about this is that she lives in Wilton Manors and at the time it was just starting its transformation into the gay capital of the world. Now she dines regularly with the gays and they also help her with her garden."

At age 20, Joshua went to work for a then fairly unknown cosmetic company called Bare Escentuals. With his Six Flags retail experience firmly under his belt, he worked his way up the ladder quickly and, in five short years, became the Director of Stores for this rapidly growing company. "In order to do so, I had to put my music dreams on the side. But I met so many wonderful people at the company and achieved so much that I wouldn't have traded it for the world."

During this time, Joshua was involved in a series of inadequate long-term relationships that drove him further into himself and farther away from social interaction. A string of abusive, lying, cheating, drug-addicted boyfriends would leave Joshua with a very unfulfilled personal life. Only his job brought him comfort and satisfaction.

While working for the Bare Escentuals CEO, Leslie Blodgett, Joshua was assigned to coordinate the production of the company's shows on QVC --- selling the Bare Escentuals/Bare Minerals products in addition to his management duties. "Working with Leslie at QVC has been such a unique experience and one that really got me back on track with my goals. Every time we would do a show it really felt like a performance. Dressing the set, picking the models and the outfits and doing the occasional walk on as needed. Even doing a demo of men in make-up. I've been so fortunate to meet so many different people from celebrities to amazing business people. It has enriched my life experiences."

The Freeing Times

Just prior to leaving Bare Escentuals, Joshua embraced Buddhism. This allowed him to remove the negative influences from his personal life and gave him the confidence to follow his heart.

In 2005, Joshua left Bare Escentuals to realize his dream of making music --- with an intriguing sidetrack called Otter®. Otter® is a clothing line of colorful screen-printed tees and embellished fashions. Each is designed to "make a statement". Joshua's newfound confidence after letting go of all the pain and doubt set him free to "live out loud" and this fabulous line of clothing fosters his self-expression.

Otter® and OtterFashion.com were born in June 2006 at Atlanta Pride and quickly grew from a local company to a worldwide online fashion retailer, all the while staying true to its focus on color and its dedication to creating designs that "make statements". Fortunately, Joshua's new found energy allowed him to work on multiple projects at once, and lo and behold; he finally got around to music.

Sitting at a coffee shop with friends one fall day in 2005 Joshua announced that he was going to be a rock star. Everyone laughed except for a guy named Europa who explained to Joshua that he was a music producer and would love to work on his music with him.

Without further delay, they booked a studio and started work on an EP. "Europa asked me if I had any songs, but I didn't. I had never written a song, although I had an idea about one based on a movie I had seen called "Get Real". At the end of the movie one of the characters who just came out of the closet in front of his whole school, and who was high on a world of possibilities, tells his miserable boyfriend who is embarrassed by his public coming out to "be happy" and then just walks away. He didn't tell him goodbye but wished him to find his happiness and went on to live out his own happiness. This struck me so hard. I had been in countless relationships that sucked the life out of me. That drained every ounce of happiness out of me and I stayed in them. I admired this character’s commitment to himself while still respecting the person he loved --- knowing he couldn't be the one to create his happiness for him.”

The Music

Joshua's first song, “Johnny Be Happy”, was born from his impression of this movie. Joshua’s second song “Sanctuary”, a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshee's "Peek-A-Boo", and remixes of the title track all make up the "Johnny Be Happy" EP. Released on iTunes in May of 2006, Joshua's EP began a new journey in his life --- that of an artist truly expressing himself in a variety of mediums. "I have accomplished many things so far in my life, but the day I held my first CD in my hands was an amazing one."

Once “Johnny Be Happy” was released Joshua immediately began thinking about his next album, although it would take some time before the project could get off its feet. Eventually, through a very close friend, Joshua was introduced to the hip-hop production team known as Battery Five.

The crew of Battery Five and Joshua got together in early 2007 to start the new project. After meeting to discuss direction, the group worked to create the sound. “I wanted to create my sound from scratch. All my life I was exposed to so many types of music from Stevie Nicks to Donna Summer to Mary J. Blige and Moloko. I wanted a sound that not only contained qualities of all my favorites, but also embraced it as acceptable and not a forced fit. I’ve been told all along that ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘you can’t do that’ with music. Now was the time for me to say ‘Oh yes I can’.”

On July 3, 2007, “Brighter Day” was released. "The beats are good and juicy, making it hearty dance floor material and Harrell's voice is sunny and playful”, wrote Kai K. Andersen of Dakine Magazine in Hawaii.

According to Joshua, “Being an out singer is easy because so few have gone before me. There really aren’t any preconceived notions about how or who I should be.”

The Video

Joshua worked with director Mia Sorensen on his first video for the single "Brighter Day (Mello Dope Remix)" which co-starred Mike Strelecki and a talented crew of dancers from the Atlanta area. The song is about Joshua's coming to peace with the journey he took with his mother after his father's infamy. It concludes with finding comfort in a lover's arms.

Styled after Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" the video is unique because of what it is, not because it has a gay theme. "I didn't want to shock anyone by 'being gay' in the video. The video represents me and I am gay so you aren't going to see me rubbing up on a woman. And it wasn't going to be alluded to. That is ridiculous."

The Present

Joshua is continuing to work on new music and develop as a recording artist while keeping business in front of it all. With the opening of it's London office in 2008- Joshua's company,Red Diamond Worldwide, continues to grow. Expanding on the success of Otter®, Joshua launched several new brands: Jock SoapTM, Brighter Day Jewelry®, and Grooming Simplified®. "All of my businesses and projects are close to me. I have to stay connected to my customers and make sure that we are striving to do the best no matter how small we are. In the end, its the human connection that makes it all worthwhile."