Josie Langhorst: Diary of a Minnesota Musician, Chapter 3
This is a year-long series following Josie Langhorst, a Minnesota artist new to the Twin Cities, as she shares her experiences entering the scene and making music in a new environment.
October to mid-November 2025: Routine at Last
Three months into her move from Duluth to the Twin Cities, Josie Langhorst finally found something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Structure.
“It finally happened,” she says, half in relief, half disbelief. “I have a routine.”
For the first time since leaving her small hometown and the tight-knit Duluth scene, Josie’s days have a rhythm that feels sustainable. She’s working weekdays as a paraprofessional, commuting in early morning traffic, and clocking out with daylight still to spare. It’s something she never realized could make such a difference. “With other jobs I’d get home late, eat, and go straight to bed,” she explains. “Now I have time to actually live.”
After months of stress and self-doubt and what she jokingly calls her “rotting months,” Josie has started to settle in. She’s felt a bit in a funk, focusing so much on creating that stability that the creative side of herself has been stifled. The new job has reduced the volume of stress and quieted the fears inside her head of not making it work, along with all the what-ifs.
In Duluth, Josie’s name carried weight. With her clear, intimate vocals, her songs reflective of her roots, she was a sought-after addition to local bills. Shows often came through word of mouth: friends calling, venues reaching out, musicians asking her to open up for them. But in the Twin Cities, the dynamic is different. It’s bigger and much more fragmented. “In Duluth, people would just message me,” she says. “Here, I feel like I’m still on the outside, trying to work my way in.”
Rather than letting that isolation sink in, Josie’s been building connections the slow, deliberate way. She’s been approaching other artists; trading notes with Ross Thorn, reaching out to Siri Undlin (aka Humbird). She’s also had a few artists extend a hand. Josie admits it’s not easy starting over, but the people she’s met so far have been very welcoming.
That search for belonging has become a central part of her headspace. She’s writing often, juggling multiple unfinished songs and slowly learning how to discipline her process. “I’ll get excited about one song, then start another, and another, and forget to finish the first,” she laughs. “I need to learn how to prioritize my ideas.”
Josie is also experimenting more than ever. With a new laptop, microphone, and recording interface, (upgrades from the phone setup she used for years) Josie is teaching herself the technical side of home recording. Before she used Bandlab on her phone, capturing ideas with the headset microphone. Now she’s primed to actually produce recordings that she’s proud of.
Even as she rebuilds her creative routine, performing remains her goal. After a month without a show, she admits she began to feel restless. “I told my bandmate Gunnar Olson, ‘I think I’m going crazy. I need to play in front of people,’” she says.
That craving was satisfied with a Halloween gig in Duluth with her band Moxen, held at a DIY house show venue. The outdoor setup surprised her with the audience standing above the band on a sloping hill, forcing Josie to perform looking upward. “It was wild,” she says. “Usually I’m scared to look at the crowd, but this time it felt natural. I could actually make eye contact without overthinking it.”
Moving from a smaller community to a sprawling metro has tested her confidence, but also widened her artistic lens. She’s absorbing new music, new venues, and new creative energy.
“I saw Leith Ross at the Fine Line,” she recalls. “Their voice was just … hypnotic. And then I went to see Renee Rapp at the Armory, and I met people in the crowd, total strangers, and we were playing games before the show. I love that. I love the sense of community that comes with live music.”
Nearing an Exciting Milestone
Amid all the change, Langhorst quietly approached a big milestone: her debut album, Deer Park, will be released in late November.
The title comes from Deer Park Road, the street she grew up on and a nod to the roots she’s still carrying forward. “It’s basically doxing my address,” she jokes, “but it felt right.” The album art, shot years ago by her best friend in a field near her family home, shows Josie sitting in tall grass, her head blurred in motion. The image feels like a metaphor for her current state, moving fast, yet still grounded in the place that shaped her.
She gifted us exclusive access to the first, as yet unreleased single off the album, entitled “Flight Risk.” (Listen to it below!) The acoustic-driven song laments on a relationship where one side is ready to end it, while the other keeps hanging around hoping for it to click. It’s an honest tale of holding on, only to realize that the best result of some bonds is for it to end.
Exclusive premiere: Listen to “Flight Risk” off Langhorst’s upcoming album, Deer Park!
The signature tone and character of Josie’s vocals pulls at your heart, while eloquently telling a story in self confessions and frail admissions:
But you wish you weren’t talking to a wall
I would plead guilty
I don’t take pride in admitting I’m conditioned to be small
“Flight Risk” is another bread crumb to the untapped potential behind Josie’s songwriting.
For all the optimism, Josie doesn’t gloss over the harder days. Moving cities, finding stability, and starting over creatively have brought their share of emotional whiplash. “Some days I’m so happy writing and playing music with friends,” she says. “Other days, I just think, what am I doing here? It’s kind of fifty-fifty.”
That blend of fear and determination is what makes her story resonate to me. It’s the quiet, unglamorous part of being an artist and the work of rebuilding a life around the thing you love most. It’s also a lesson that sometimes before you can take the stage, you have to have a routine.
Stay tuned for chapter 4 in December!
About the Author & Photographer
Tom Smouse. Photo Credit: Chris Taylor.
Tom Smouse is an innovative collaborator with 20 years of experience in the Minnesota music industry. As a professional photographer, podcaster, and music journalist, sharing stories from the community remains his core passion. When not at a show you can find him at a record store.
