Neighbors: Josh Tuttle

Josh Tuttle always wanted to be a firefighter.

From the time he was 3 years old, Tuttle had his heart set on following in his father, Mark’s, footsteps. But his father and, ultimately, his own stomach had other ideas.

“My dad said ‘Don’t do it,’” Tuttle says. “I always second-guess myself, because my mom is a nurse and my dad is a paramedic firefighter, but I can’t handle human blood.”

Instead, the Lakewood Ranch High alum turned to another passion he had developed as a result of his parents — music.

“Ever since I was little, we always had jazz on,” Tuttle says. “That was all I ever knew. That’s how I got into this genre. My parents really got me into it.

“It kind of just grows on you and becomes part of you,” he says. “Although I’m trying to open up my horizons to more than just jazz.”

Tuttle, now a working saxophonist, first picked up the instrument while a student a Haile Middle School. He went on to spend four years in Lakewood’s jazz band and ensemble before earning his associate’s degree in general music last spring from the State College of Florida. This past fall, Tuttle began studying cohesion music at Florida Atlantic University.

In addition to earning his degree, Tuttle also has his own radio show and is in the process of releasing the first of two albums, a collection of songs from different bands at FAU, which should be released later this month.

Tuttle also has plans of creating an album with at least 12 of his own original songs.

“That’s been my dream to do just an album of my original songs, so people can hear my stuff and get absorbed into my sound,” Tuttle says.

Although for Tuttle, for a song to truly captivate, it needs to have a deeper meaning.

“Some people can just sit down at the computer and just start writing music, but I can’t do that,” Tuttle says. “I have to have a purpose to a song. Something that happens to me in that particular day. It takes me a while to get a song that’s really solid.”

In the future, Tuttle has aspirations of going on tour. But for now, Tuttle is focused on earning his degree while captivating as many people as he can along the way.

“I love playing for people, and if one person comes up and starts talking to you because they were listening to you and paying attention — that’s the best satisfaction,” Tuttle says. “As long as I’m playing, I’m happy. It’s about sharing a universal language with someone else without having to talk. If I can connect with one person, then I did my job.”