Los Angeles, CA · indie folk · chamber pop

Father John Misty

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Josh Tillman's lounge-lizard prophet act — gorgeous orchestration, acid wit, and a crooner's delivery that sells every barbed line.

Father John Misty is Josh Tillman, born Joshua Michael Tillman in Rockville, Maryland, in 1981 to evangelical Christian parents; his mother had been raised in Ethiopia by missionaries. He has described his upbringing as culturally oppressive and was estranged from his parents for years before the two sides reconciled.

He started out in Seattle in the early 2000s, where a demo reached songwriter Damien Jurado, leading to an opening slot on Jurado's tour in 2003. Recording as J. Tillman, he released a run of quiet, intimate folk albums before joining Fleet Foxes as drummer in 2008, playing on their record Helplessness Blues.

He left Fleet Foxes soon after that album was finished and began writing under the name Father John Misty, releasing Fear Fun in 2012. The record marked a sharp turn toward looser, more comic and self-implicating songwriting, set against a harder indie-rock sound than his earlier work.

I Love You, Honeybear (2015) built a concept album around his relationship with his wife, Emma. Pure Comedy (2017) turned that same attention outward into a bleaker survey of society, consumerism and politics. God's Favorite Customer (2018) and Chloë and the Next 20th Century (2022) moved through soft rock and traditional pop songwriting in turn.

Beyond his own records, Tillman has worked as a touring or session player with numerous bands and toured behind artists including Jesse Sykes and David Bazan. As a producer and songwriter, he has also contributed to albums by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone.

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indie folkchamber pop