Badflower’s Josh Katz Plays His Favorite Riffs

In this new episode of Loudwire’s original video series Gear Factor, Badflower‘s Josh Katz plays his favorite riffs.

If you’ve been following closely, you may have seen our recent episode of How I Learned to Sing, also featuring Katz. The 27-year-old rocker is the very first musician to make an appearance on both series, all as Badflower really behind their newest album, No Place Like Home, which came out in June earlier this year.

Katz was one of dozens of performers at the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio, where we managed to snag some time with him for this pair of complementary episodes diving into his makeup as a musician.

The Guitar Riff That Changed Josh Katz’s Life

“That was a big deal, that one,” Katz says after playing Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.”

“When somebody picks up a guitar and puts the pickup switch in the middle and went [plays riff again] — that changed my fuckin’ life. That was the coolest thing ever.”

READ MORE: How Badflower’s Josh Katz Learned to Sing

At First, Josh Katz Played Piano

Before guitar, there was piano.

“I used to watch a lot of movies with my family. I was obsessed with movie scores and stories and orchestral music. I used to play the piano. I’d watch a movie and then I’d jump on the piano immediately after and figure out how to play the score. I was shaping up to be a good little orchestral Juilliard graduate kid and then started doing drugs and smoking vapes and found the guitar and liked punk rock style music a little bit more. And that’s the direction I went.”

Blink-182’s Influence on Josh Katz

“Blink-182 was all over MTV and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. When Napster was new and Limewire was new I used to rip live performances. You could get the Glastonbury live performance or something like that from Blink-182. I would watch all their performances and I thought they were terrible live in the best, most charming way.”

He says watching the band be loose and have fun onstage was “very inspirational.”

Watch more of Katz playing his favorite riffs, including a Badflower original he feels is “mathematically perfect,” in the video below.

Badflower’s new album ‘No Place Like Home’ is out now and can be purchased from the Loudwire Record Shop. Follow the band on Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook and catch them on tour now in the U.S. through late August. See all upcoming dates at Badflower’s website.

Badflower’s Josh Katz Plays His Favorite Riffs

How Badflower’s Josh Katz Learned to Sing