He's not dead!
One of the founding members of The Longest Johns, Josh Bowker has written a number of original songs for the band. When singing with TLJ, Josh takes the role of tenor.
Josh studied at NGM around the same time as the other founding members of the band. While some of the others joined NGM to study the more technical side of music production, Josh's focus was on singing. He credits the formation of the band on shared musical interest amongst the founding members during their time at NGM, writing, "I think for some of the other guys, folk music had been a longer love. Then, as soon as we started singing together for fun, we thought: 'Hang on a minute, this might actually work as a band.'"
In 2016, increasing popularity and demands on the band's time left Josh feeling stretched thin with efforts to start his own business. Feeling that he couldn't properly devote enough time and energy to both his business and TLJ, and not wanting to burden the band with a member whose focus was divided, Josh stepped back from the band. Josh opened and ran Milk Teeth (now permanently closed), a café in Bristol focused on providing good coffee and a space to create. The café showcased several musical artists, with a focus on quiet acoustic sessions. He continues to write songs (including sometimes for TLJ) and occasionally pops up to haunt chat during TLJ streams.
No publicly available recordings exist of Josh's work prior to TLJ. Though he recorded a solo album while at NGM, it was never released to the public. He performed with a number of other bands while at NGM as well, though their names are unknown.
In terms of influences, Josh credits Fisherman's Friends and Stan Rogers as having motivated his time with TLJ, and marks the work of Kimber's Men, Fore 'n Aft, Stamp & Go, and the Ballina Whalers as having helped build his interest in folk songs and chanties. He has mentioned Stan Rogers as his biggest songwriting influence, saying:
Stan Rogers was a massive influence actually in terms of writing, because he was someone who wrote loads of songs that had mass appeal even though he didn't have much maritime experience, which is something I identify with! And then just looking up naval history and maritime history in general has been massive, as I'll land upon something and think: that would make for a great song!