Josh Ramsay
Joshua Keeler Ramsay is a Canadian singer, songwriter, producer, recording engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for being the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Marianas Trench. He has produced and has written songs for a wide array of artists including Carly Rae Jepsen, Nickelback, Jessica Lee, Faber Drive, and Suzie McNeil. He also released his debut studio album, The Josh Ramsay Show in 2022.
Early life
Josh Ramsay was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, although he currently has dual citizenship in Canada and the United States. He went to high school at Magee Secondary School, where he was later expelled due to his heroin addiction at the time. He sought treatment for his addiction at the age of 18. Ramsay also struggled with depression, bulimia and anorexia while in high school. He grew up in a musically inclined family, in which his mother was a vocal teacher and his father owned a recording studio. Ramsay inherited that love of music by initially starting his own solo career at the age of 14. He decided later that he needed a supporting band. Ramsay got together with his sister, Sara Ramsay, and formed the band Ramsay Fiction. After that ultimately did not work out, Ramsay joined high school friend Matt Webb in hopes of creating a new band. They found Ian Casselman in an ad in the newspaper, who introduced them to Mike Ayley, Ian's roommate at the time. The four members went through many names before finally settling on Marianas Trench.Career
Marianas Trench
Ramsay formed the band Marianas Trench in 2001 and released their first self-titled EP the following year. The band later signed with 604 Records, through the assistance of owner Chad Kroeger and co-owner Jonathan Simkin. Their debut studio album Fix Me was released on 3 October 2006.Their second studio album Masterpiece Theatre was released on 24 February 2009, and debuted at No. 4 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 5,000 copies in its first week.
Ever After, the third studio album from Marianas Trench, was released on 21 November 2011. It was certified triple-platinum by Music Canada in January 2025. The first single from the album, entitled "Haven't Had Enough" was released in July 2011, and reached the No. 1 spot on iTunes Canada Top of the Charts and Pop Downloads. On April 22, 2013, at the annual Juno Awards, Marianas Trench won the 2013 Juno Award for Group of the Year.
On 23 October 2015, their fourth studio album, Astoria, was released. This album includes the singles "One Love", "This Means War" and "Who Do You Love". The story-theme album was recorded in Josh's home. In 2017, they released "Rhythm of Your Heart".
On 1 March 2019, their fifth studio album, Phantoms, was released, including singles such as "I Knew You When", "Only the Lonely Survive", and "Echoes of You". The band uses the idea of closely linked emotions attached to love and death throughout the album.
The group released their sixth studio album, Haven on 30 August 2024.
Songwriting and solo music
Ramsay plays 13 instruments, and often plays all of the instruments on the songs he produces for other artists. He also owns the studio, The Umbrella Factory. Ramsay was featured on the Carly Rae Jepsen song "Sour Candy" in 2008. He was recruited to co-write and produce her hit single "Call Me Maybe" with Tavish Crowe, which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards. He was also featured on the song "Hit Me Up" by Danny Fernandes.In 2010, Ramsay partook in Young Artists for Haiti performing a rendition of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag". He also recorded the song "Baby Please Come Home" for the 604 Records Christmas album. He released a non-album single with Emily Osment titled, "Hush" on 10 May 2011, and the song peaked at number 90 on the Canadian Hot 100. He also provided vocals for the opening theme song for The Hub's Transformers: Rescue Bots.
In 2014, he co-wrote two songs for Nickelback, "Satellite" and "She Keeps Me Up". He also co-wrote the song "Story of Another Us" in 2015, by 5 Seconds of Summer. In 2018, he released the single, "We Should Be Friends", which he wrote for the 2017 film Adventures in Public School. The song peaked at number 8 on the Canada Top Downloads chart.
On 3 December 2021, he released "Lady Mine", featuring Chad Kroeger, as the lead single from his debut studio album. Entitled, The Josh Ramsay Show, it was released on 8 April 2022. It included features from other Canadian artists such as his sister Sara Ramsay, Ria Mae, Serena Ryder, Tyler Shaw and Fefe Dobson. The album's second single "Best of Me" was released on 15 February 2022, featuring Dallas Smith.