New York, NY (Top40 Charts) It's been a busy couple of years for Buchanan AKA Josh Simons, who return this month with new single 'Breathe'. The single is the first new track from Buchanan since opening for
Keith Urban and
Carrie Underwood during the Oceanic leg of the "ripCORD
Arena Tour" in late 2016.
Far from resting on laurels, Simons has spent the last two years writing and producing for household name artists including
Travis Scott,
Partynextdoor and Cyhi The Prynce. Since relocating to Los Angeles following Buchanan's last tour, Simons has shared production credits with the likes of WondaGurl, HazeBanga and Kanye West.
In Simons' other role as CEO of tech startup Vampr, he's grown the platform into the world's largest social-professional network for musicians with half a million users across 195 countries.
Clearly understanding a thing or two about collaboration, Simons remarks, "In the past two years, although Buchanan has been quiet, I've been blessed to have found my way into rooms with other artists and creatives working on their own thing, across many genres, which is great because you still have that creative outlet, but the pressure is off somewhat."
New music releases featuring Simons' contributions have amassed close to six million streams in the past twelve months alone. "I've written or produced almost two album's worth of released material since Buchanan went on break; it's just been spread across a lot of different projects," including the new King IV single 'Basic' written during the Red Moon Studio APRA AMCOS SongHubs retreat.
It is unsurprising then that for Buchanan's comeback single, Simons has pulled in more than just the one collaborator to contribute to the afro-beat /
Radiohead inspired track, which explores the minefields of independence and finding peace.
Joining Tre Capital on the track is Australian pop-songstress Georgia Mae whose single 'Fools' was recently added to the Hit FM network across Australia.
"The track is about what you might tell yourself as a kid if you could travel back in time." As for what comes next, Simons teases, "I'd be reluctant to refer to this track as a single from some forthcoming unannounced album, but I will say that this era has ended up rolling out as distinctly and personal as any other in Buchanan's history and when that starts happening, generally that's when I start thinking about an album."