interviewing artists is an amazing experience because you get to learn things about them that you would never have learned just from their music – the task of finding artists to interview is also an adventure, and i really enjoy it
you get to listen to so many artists from all over the world and get the chance to ask questions that albeit sometimes simple, they end up making you feel closer to their records
the latest great artist i ran into is a great example of that, he is joey joesph, a prolific artist based out of cincinnati, ohio, who is very clearly an avid fan of the bongos
as someone who is trying to figure out what role my passions play in the overall thing that is my life, i resonate a lot with him
add to that the fact that his double albums triple fantasy and taking it easy are great, and i highly recommend them – the interview was inevitably a fun experience
as always, i look forward to his next project whatever genre or medium it might be
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interview
1) i find that certain artists enjoy being as involved in their creative processes as possible, whether it be designing, mixing, writing, or anything else in between. do you find that the journey in learning all these different mediums is worth it?
for me, learning everything that i’m doing now has been out of necessity, at least to begin with.
i always wanted to be making records, but i didn’t have any money, and a lot of the music i was most excited about was all really home made, or at least had that aesthetic. so from the beginning i was excited about the whole diy thing. i’ve really enjoyed learning design and art stuff, because i’m already interested in that anyway.
i just like making things. but, if there’s ever been something that i felt like i “should” learn how to do, but couldn’t get interested or motivated then it would just never happen. i think that’s true especially when it comes to the business side of things. there are tons of videos teaching you how to “hustle” but for me, that just leads to burnout. if you can hire someone to do something you don’t want to do, you definitely should just hire them. that is, assuming it’s a legitimate thing. i don’t know about paying someone a bunch of money to get on playlists and stuff. over the years i’ve just tried to not even think about that.
my advice is, just make what you want to make.
2) what is eyebrow palace? is that what you release everything under as in all of your creative works and merch? i saw that at some point, it was some sort of artist incubator. is that something you are interested in?
eyebrow palace started as a label. or i thought it was going to be a label, but i’ve since realized i’m not very interested in participating in the music industry in that traditional sense. it’s what i call my studio, and when i self-release any art that i make; music, comics, whatever – it’s under that label.
i like the idea of releasing music for friends in the future, if my resources ever grow to that point – i’m definitely interested in helping people develop their own diy thing / sharing what i’ve learned from the past ten years of making and sharing art on my own.
3) you’ve had quite a few different eras. pomegranates, joseph, and now joey joseph. how would you describe these when it comes to stages in your career?
i joined/co-founded pomegranates when i was pretty fresh out of high school. at that point i feel like i was just all optimism and creative energy, it was great. i had never been in a band before, but i had already started recording music at home, and i had played a handful of shows just with acoustic guitar, and singing with my sister. i continued making and releasing my own solo music all throughout the pomegranates years, as firs. my friend sophia cunningham was a part of that with me. we made an album together in my bedroom called “man in space”, that i’m still really proud of. we also made an album called “i’ll come back as a volcano,” that i sort of re-imagined, re-recorded and released as joey joesph early on in the pandemic.
joesph was the beginning of me trying to believe in myself more, and really make a go of being a solo artist that played shows and actually existed in the “scene,” if that makes sense. that was a really exciting time in the beginning, because i’ve always felt more like an album artist than a single artist. so, while it was really fun and great being in a super collaborative setting with pomegranates, i also wanted to see what i could make when i had total control of the overall vision for things. during this period i was newly married, and working my first full time, office job with traditional day hours, and i turned 30, so that was a huge adjustment from what i had been used to, which was super flexible, part-time service industry work, and going on 1-3 week tours several times a year. i think i had been depressed for a while, but it really hit its worst point while i was working that office job, and not touring, or hardly playing any shows at all.
pomegranates was a moderately successful, lower tier indie band, meaning, we had labels, booking agents, and management, but still no one knew about us and we weren’t making any money. we could sell out shows at home, in cincinnati, and do pretty well in a handful of other midwestern cities, but we never broke through, in any meaningful way. i started the joesph phase thinking at least some of that momentum would carry over, but if it did i definitely didn’t notice it. it felt like a total slog – just grinding away to get nowhere. i was so depressed, and burned out. in november 2019 i told the joesph band i was done. i just couldn’t do it anymore.
in the summer of 2020 my wife and i talked and i finally decided to take the leap to work freelance, only really doing creative work that i enjoyed doing. this was a huge positive for my mental health. i also finally got on anti-depressants which, i can’t express enough, completely changed my life for the better. so, in this “joey joesph era” i feel like i’m finally really homing in on what it is that i want to be making and showing to the world. i feel more clearly focused on what my art is, and what i want to say with it, and how to present it than i have in my whole life. i’ve also gone through so much disillusionment that i no longer really feel depressed or angry. or, those at least aren’t the overriding emotions anymore, haha. now i just feel like my eyes are mostly open, and i’m forging ahead, trying to not be distracted by the things that i know won’t help me.
4) while reading some older interviews, i read one in which you spoke about how capitalism and the pressure that comes with it to make art commercially viable affected you. have your views on this changed over the years, or has it remained the same?
no, i think this is still true, sadly.
i don’t mean for this to sound cynical, but my perspective now is pretty much: i don’t expect to basically ever make any real money off the art i make. certainly not a “living.” but the up-side is, that takes pressure off the art. i don’t have to make anything i don’t want to make. i think it would ultimately be better for art, in general, if the people making it were able to put any thoughts of money, or making it appealing to anyone, completely out of their heads.
make what you need to make, and make it how you imagine it. honor the idea. if you let that get corrupted then i think it becomes a waste of time almost immediately. but if you assume that the best case scenario is, you have a job that you don’t hate, and it allows you to, in your free time, make the thing you need to make – that’s pretty good. but if you’re constantly checking streams, and stats, and those things really matter to you – i don’t know – i had to give that up. it was killing me.
5) lastly, do you have anything in the works? how’s the punk project coming along?
yes! always something in the works haha.
i’m about to release the first issue of a comic i’ve been dreaming about for a while. it’s called “who’s haunting binkle bay?” it’s kind of like, those 60’s beach party movies meet scooby doo, meets 90’s nickelodeon – at least in my head. the punk project kind of turned into a new wave project haha, but it’s done and coming out this year as well and i’m really excited about it! i’ve also got another album mostly done, it’s the soundtrack to a movie that will probably not ever get made (although, i hope it does) and it has a ton of super talented people on it, i’m so excited about that. it was really fun to write a bunch of songs, and then hear these other people that i really admire and look up to singing them. i’ve never done that before. that probably won’t be out in 2024, but it’s coming along beautifully.
i’m also working on a tv show that i’m really excited about. think pee wee’s playhouse, meets mr rogers, meets mtv when it was cool.