Josh Kaufman

On March 6, 2020, it was announced that Kaufman would be joining Paul Banks and Matt Barrick to form a new band, Muzz. The band also released their first single, "Bad Feeling."

Kaufman became a sideman for Dawn Landes and toured regularly across the US and Europe with the singer-songwriter. Kaufman befriended Landes’ then-husband Josh Ritter and the pair began collaborating, culminating in Kaufman producing and playing most of the instrumentation on Ritter's Bringing In The Darlings EP in 2012. Kaufman would also contribute guitar, electric guitar, bass, percussion and vocals as part of Ritter's core studio team for his 2013 LP The Beast In Its Tracks and become a lynchpin of Ritter's live backing group, the Royal City Band.

An announcement in late January 2019 revealed that Kaufman had produced a third solo record with Finn. I Need A New War was released on April 26 in the US on Partisan Records. In an interview with The 405, Finn revealed that Kaufman had been "very hands-on for these records", saying: "We really talk through the songs... He's helped me a lot." To mark the album's release, Kaufman appeared with Finn on Late Night with Seth Meyers for a rendition of lead single ‘Something To Hope For’. Though his work with Finn, he also bonded with drummer Joe Russo leading to the formation of their free-form group Boyfriends.

In 2019, Kaufman was appearing as part of a three-piece "supergroup" called Bonny Light Horseman, consisting of himself, Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. The band released their first album in January of 2020.

In March 2018, The Hold Steady unveiled two new tracks, “Eureka” and “Esther” which had been recorded with Kaufman in Brooklyn. Kaufman is collaborating with the group on further recordings.

Subsequent to this outing, Kaufman was brought in to co-produce Day Of The Dead, an elaborate Grateful Dead charity tribute album with Bryce and Aaron Dessner. Released in May 2016, the 59-track compilation was recorded over four years and featured a host of big names reinterpreting the Grateful Dead songbook, including Wilco, The War on Drugs, The National, Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham), Jenny Lewis, Lucinda Williams, Mumford & Sons, Perfume Genius, Lisa Hannigan, The Flaming Lips and Bill Callahan. Proceeds from the sales of the album were donated to the Red Hot Organization.

In late 2015, Bob Weir revealed in an interview that he was writing songs with Kaufman and Josh Ritter for a project that had come about after Kaufman encouraged Weir to revisit the fireside songs and cowboy spirit of his teenage ranch years in Wyoming. On August 4, 2016, it was announced that Bob Weir would release his first solo album in almost 40 years on September 30, entitled Blue Mountain. The album would be produced by Kaufman and feature contributions from Josh Ritter, Scott Devendorf, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Dawn Landes and many others. An 11-date tour featuring a backing band made up of Kaufman and members of The National was also announced.

While gigging around New York in venues such as The Living Room and the Knitting Factory, Kaufman met Bryan Devendorf of The National who were fans of Kaufman's band Follow The Lieder. As well as assisting with the recording of Boxer, in March 2012 Kaufman was invited by the band to act as musical director for a one-off ensemble performance with Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir and a host of big names from the US indie scene (including Walt Martin of The Walkmen and Thomas Bartlett under the title "The Bridge Session".

Kaufman married his long-term partner, Yellowbirds and Rocketship Park bandmate and regular musical collaborator Annie Nero in 2010. The couple gave birth to daughter Clarabelle in May 2014. They live in Brooklyn.

While working in a record store in the early 2000s, Kaufman encountered the music of the Twin Cities rock band, Lifter Puller. Many years later, in 2012, Kaufman was backing Hannah Cohen during an appearance at Crossing Border Festival in The Hague, Belgium. Craig Finn, frontman of Lifter Puller and more recently The Hold Steady, was on the same bill performing solo material. After watching Cohen's set, Finn approached Kaufman about collaborating and the pair reunited back in the US at Kaufman's studio in Dumbo. There, they worked together on music for a production of Scott Z. Burns’ play The Library before Finn lined up Kaufman to produce two solo studio albums, Faith in the Future (2015) and We All Want the Same Things (2017).

Josh Kaufman (born May 26, 1978) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, composer, arranger and engineer based in Brooklyn, NY.