{"id":231965,"date":"2025-06-18T19:19:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=231965"},"modified":"2025-06-18T19:49:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:49:20","slug":"key-songs-in-the-life-of-josh-abraham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/key-songs-in-the-life-of-josh-abraham\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Songs In The Life Of… Josh Abraham"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have \u2014 so far \u2014 defined their journey and their existence. In the hot seat this time is Josh Abraham, co-CEO of Pulse Music Group. The Key Songs\u2026 series is supported by Sony Music Publishing<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Josh Abraham has spent his career championing the outliers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m drawn to those who lead the way by not following trends,” says PULSE Music Group’s co-CEO, before we dig into his Key Songs choices and the stories behind them. <\/span><\/p>\n

“There was also always a danger in what I listened to,” he adds. “That’s what led me to rock and hip-hop becoming such big parts of my life.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham’s gravitation to music\u2019s non-conformists has served him well throughout his career, both as a highly sought-after producer and co-head of one of the world’s hottest independent publishers and record companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

PULSE, co-founded by Abraham with hit songwriter Scott Cutler in 2008, has seen significant success with writers behind hits for artists like Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, and others. The company has also been enjoying a run of recent success with Tommy Richman’s viral smash <\/span>Million Dollar Baby<\/span><\/i> (via Pulse Records, a JV with Concord).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Abraham’s own journey in music began and continues in Los Angeles, where he grew up with a guitar in his hands and an ear that naturally deconstructed music into its component parts.\u00a0 As a teenager, he recalls listening to music in a different way from his friends: “They’d talk about how they liked a song, but I would break down music, following the kick pattern, understanding what the drums were doing, separating instruments,\u201d he recalls.<\/span><\/p>\n

This innate ability to dissect sound eventually led him into the studio. With his foundations in guitar-led blues and rock combined with a passion for early hip-hop, Abraham produced landmark rock and nu-metal albums from Orgy to Limp Bizkit, Staind, Linkin Park, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

His work on those albums eventually led to producing Slayer’s <\/span>Christ Illusion<\/span><\/i> in 2006 with executive producer Rick Rubin, a full-circle moment for Abraham, who had long admired Rubin’s pioneering work with Def Jam and hip-hop in the ’80s. “It was cool to come back and make a Slayer album where he was executive producer and I was producer,” he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham would start working with Rubin again in 2014 via PULSE Music’s JV with American Songs, which led to signings with Turnstile, Freddie Gibbs, Kaytranada, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

“These songs are all gifts, showing how each artist influenced the next, creating this beautiful continuum of music that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of.”<\/p>\n

Josh Abraham\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The songs that have shaped Abraham’s musical journey are as eclectic as his production credits and publishing roster, with his choices spanning blues, funk, rock, hip-hop, and even yacht rock.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Abraham explains below, each represents a period in his life when music introduced him to different scenes, new creative possibilities, or simply comforted him.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When I look back at all these songs now, I realize they’re like photographs,” he says. “If I wasn’t a music producer, I would have been a photographer. When I recorded a song as a producer, it was no different than taking a picture, capturing a great take, and then moving on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese songs are all gifts, showing how each artist influenced the next, creating this beautiful continuum of music that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, in his own words, are the key songs that have defined Josh Abraham’s life and career so far\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/figure>Albert King, I’ll Play The Blues For You (1972)<\/b><\/h6>\n

I went into a deep dive with blues. For every genre, I went through a rabbit hole of discovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Albert King was a Memphis player. The way he played was unique \u2013 he was left-handed, so he’d take a right-handed guitar, flip it upside down, and didn’t restring it. So he could pick up any guitar, and his tone was just rowdy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other players like B.B. King were clean and proper, but Albert influenced players like Stevie Ray Vaughan to some degree. Blues is part of the lineage to hip-hop and everything else in rock.<\/span><\/p>\n

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