Sweet Joseph (May 2019)
Is the pursuit of individuality and personal freedom much of what drives our daily actions? In many ways, yes. The desire to be a subset of the majority resonates within all, whether or not we want it to. Yet, for many, such as Sweet Joseph, embracing our singularity is much of what makes life worth living. What he’s come to realize is that his freedom is embedded in personal honesty.
With a personal history rich with technical and freeform music alike, Sweet Joseph has grown to understand the power of expression. To him, it takes physical and sonic forms, yet in both, he mirrors his personal principles of consistent change and experimentation. Whether it be with sounds unmeant to clash or waves of aesthetic development, Sweet Joseph is always willing to go a road less traveled, no matter where it leads.
To many, this is a scary way to be. To be expressive and free without care for any opinion or negativity. Yet that in itself is the beauty of Sweet Joseph’s mindset and output. It teaches all a new outlook upon themselves and life alike, reminding that the only opinion and happiness is that of our own. It is a spread of positivity unlike any other, and a rare, hopeful feeling so often necessary.
Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how have you been lately?
My day was great actually, I just got one of the greatest haircuts I’ve ever gotten in my life. It’s a completely new look. I got an 80’s, Full House type thing, you know?
To take it back to your start, and specifically your artistic formations, you’ve mentioned in the past your parents how your are musicians and you’ve grown in that space. But do you think your New Jersey environment has also had a piece in leading you towards music and does the cityscape consistently affect you?
It was, it really was. The reason my dad moved here with my mom from Boston was that they knew this was the place where all the great music was happening. The scene, when they were my age, was here. They were here in the New York golden age where so much came up, such as Sonic Youth and the Ramones. But they’re jazz musicians so it’s also a time where a lot of those old legends were still alive and teaching. I grew up going to gigs and meeting the great musicians my dad was around, and really, I never had formal teachers. My way of learning was shows in New York and having short lessons from a random bass player here and there. The environment was so unavoidable, I couldn’t avoid music.
On top of that, did you find there to be non-musical influences upon your current stasis as an artist and individual?
My environment, the way my parents really raised me, is super lovey dovey and cutesy. We sometimes talk like babies. We have this baby language and an overall cute vibe. There’s this really endearing way to how I grew up. That’s always resonated with me and even now I love babies and cute things and cuteness as a whole.
In your eyes then, what’s the cutest thing in the world and why does it speak to you in that way?
In the world? I mean babies are up there. I could really be a good babysitter, even though people think I’m irresponsible, but I would always be responsible with babies. They’re just so cute and I always want to go up to them and say “hello there dear, how are you!?”
On the topic of honesty, it is interesting that you go under the Sweet Joseph pseudonym while representing yourself. Is that apart of that honesty to you and do you think the aesthetic is the most honest representation of you in a sense?
Definitely, I’m always evolving and so is he as well. When I released Friends Forever, which is my first official label release, I was always asking what Sweet Joseph is about and what I’m trying to get across. With that entire song, it’s a nice cutesy childhood nostalgia energy, but it’s not necessarily what I’m trying to represent through my entire career. There will always be an element of that, but I’m also interested in the adult side of things. I’m going through this stage right now where I’m just experimenting in every sense. Sometimes I’ll say: “I wanna dress like a woman” and during the Friends Forever era I really just wanted to be a cute little boy. And during my time with the Lemon Twigs, we like to wear makeup, leather, girl tops and have greased hair.
Do you feel then like Sweet Joseph is a way for you to experiment with who you want to be and to allow yourself to be whatever the hell you want while extenuating your truest self?
Exactly. It’s exactly extenuating myself. With this haircut today I feel so manly and I feel what it means to be a man, as I have been wanting to feel more lately.
You mentioned that you don’t want to put in a box in the Sweet Joseph ideal, but, is there a story you want to tell with it and is there an overarching theme that resonates with your intentions with it?
Thematically, I guess it’s really just that childhood, teenage angst that I’m trying to channel, or the Spirit smoking man with the leather jacket. Or, a beautiful woman sometimes. I’m actually really into the concept of glam, and I was watching this Noisey doc on the history of glam. It goes from the 1800s with Oscar Wilde and then eventually it gets to Bowie and all that. It went all the way to Lil Uzi, which when I thought, is so true. It is cool to see trap as glam, as hip hop is never glam, so when they put him in that box it opened up something for me.
To see someone in a genre usually much more masculine and to see someone say screw it? That young thug type energy where they’re just totally themselves?
I love Young Thug too. I think any facet of glam is fantastic. It just keeps popping up in my head as a concept.
If you could put yourself in any movie you’ve seen, which would you put yourself in? I guess that was already done with Friends Forever, with that Sandlot style, but would you have any others?
Shit, I don’t know. I should be thinking of this stuff more. But in terms of movies I’ve liked lately, I’ve enjoyed Logan’s Run, but I don’t think Sweet Joseph would be in that. I like Breaking Bad as well. Although my music comes off as sweet, I have a lot in the vault that’s going to come out and it’ll be more aggressive and hardcore at the same time. I was thinking Breaking Bad because the whole concept is the revenge conflict. The fact he’s considered the beta male and he comes back and becomes an anti hero, a lot of people see themselves in that. It’s appealing to succeed when people didn’t see it in you and to prove others wrong about yourself. So I’d like my music to have the energy of ‘fuck you and fuck this and I want to destroy everything’. I want to be angry sometimes at the same time as my happiness.
How would you say you are approaching your new work compared to old work and what is your current thought process when you’re going into this new time of recording with?
it’s funny because a lot of my plans right now are to release old songs that I’m redoing. Corner Store is actually an old song I totally redid. For the new audience, they have no clue what it is. I’m making them sound better and really more honest, but I’m also trying to bring everything to the drawing board now as I’m looking to release an EP in the next months. It’s going to be a mixture of old work, some of it is my first work and others relatively new work. Personally, I’m pretty stressed as I’m hating the old songs. I’m not at the most creative point right now. I’m just chipping away at the practical, tedious elements to the music, finalizing stuff and whatnot. Starting is so fun, getting the piano and drums down, but it’s harder to finalize. It’s so difficult after sitting on it for so long and nitpicking and saying every little piece you hate. It’s procrastinating finalization. But really, it’s the fear of putting it out and I believe you never are done with music until you put it out. You keep changing it endlessly before you do. So you never are finished until you put it. When I put out Friends Forever it was tough as I kept mixing and perfecting it, and then I hated it, but I had to submit it and actually a day later I had to take it back and change it completely.
Within that process of creativity and really the infancy stages of new work, how are you looking to balance your stronghold upon technical jazz to your very free and visionary ideas? Do you ever find them to clash or is it more a symbiotic relationship?
I mean, when I was playing jazz I was still obsessed with melody, and my favorite part of jazz was the improv part. With writing music, it’s like improv slowed down. With improved it’s on the spot, but writing a song it’s the same thing you just have stretched out time and you can just think about every second of the music. A three-minute solo you barely thought of will take hours to think of in a writing space. So when I wrote more music, I actually felt more control. That’s why I got into it more. I balance them as I have always, by allowing myself to accept every aspect of music. It’s the fact that the love of the art came before any sense of technically for me. I listened to so much growing up that it just became my connection. At a certain point, my love for music was at the same pace as how much I was learning about music. So at a time, they became one thing. I was able to hear a melody and learn it instantly. I also realized I loved being a frontman and the idea of melody always sticks with me in relation to the frontman.
You mentioned that you have an EP in the works, but, with your unique aesthetics and vision, it asks how you want to see it come together. Do you see it more as a compilation of hits or something more cohesive, like Loveless.
The thing about Loveless is that those are hits in a way, even though they have transitions and whatnot. But I was listening to Lil pumps album, which is that style of hit after hit after hit, and it’s so funny to listen and hear a whole album of it. It’s all party party party. Loveless is all intense then goes sweet, then by the fourth track, it’s sad and makes you want to kill yourself. For me, It’s about eventually having a mapped out album with later projects, but for now, I’m working to just do the collection of solid songs that stand strong both on their own and together. I’ve always had the thought that my first album will be endless hits, but I really want to see the range of emotions created throughout. Ideally, I would model it after Peter Gabriel's’ ‘So’, which I think has the perfect mix of everything I’ve mentioned so far. Ultimately I do want to make pop that can fit both energies and really have the geography of emotions.
Is part of that vision also creating an aesthetic universe along with the music? Kinda what you did with Friends Forever where it was a movie that fit with it.
I didn’t even intend for it to be a movie it’s just how it came together. Because I had so many ideas it just all went into the melting pot. One day I’ll probably make more videos and movies, but I’m trying to just trying keep experimenting off those first two music videos as I’ve now learned how to the process goes.
Another part of that universe is also live shows, and you did one recently in Paris which I’d love to hear about, but as well, is that an avenue you hope to continue exploring and how do you hope to transition your personal aesthetic there?
It used to be a band, but now I’m really into hip hop, so I like the idea of playing to a track. I like aesthetic of it, and it comes off as karaoke, but I think at the same time I’m trying to make it visually cool while dressing cool with a nice background. Even if people are weirded out by it all, I’m more interested in the mystery than the show itself. A lot of my stuff is lo-fi, so it doesn’t go great on speakers at all times. Live can sound karaoke for me, so I’m looking to have more of a slap effect through it. More electronic and something that you can play on any speaker and slap hard.
Would you say that at this current state of yourself that you are in some sense artistically fulfilled? And if not, is that something you hope to reach and find?
You know what, I am becoming artistically fulfilled. I am very fulfilled. Although I’m not perfect and there are things I want to work on, I’m in this vibe lately that I know what I want. 90% of the time I know what I want to be, how I want to come off, how I want to dress. Some things in life I’m uncertain about, such as people. I’m more sensitive about people and sometimes I don’t know who my friends are. But what I’m certain about is what I like and the things I like to study, and I know my inspirations.
But that’s also growing up, right? As much as you say you like being youthful and young, part of it is that you’re learning to become adult and keeping yourself close and not spreading yourself thin, but saving it for who matters.
That’s exactly my vibe right now, I’m trying to keep my circle tight. That’s part of growing up. If I’m at a party I want to be everyone’s friend, but when you’re just hanging out you just want to be careful with who you allow in. The planets are really aligning for me, I feel connected to those I’m around and I have found the time to be with myself and really allow myself to value my alone moments.
So then, as a whole, what do you hope the mark you leave upon the human world is when it’s all said and done? To you, what would be the most worthwhile memory for people to have of you?
At this point, I want to be an underground genius. Being considered influential even if I was never famous, just some underground inspiration. To have a band that’s super popular 20 years from now just said: “oh yeah, Sweet Joseph was the reason we started this band”. It’s very Lou reed style. I like the idea of giving something to the world which spread, and I personally think that’s a great place to be in the world. I would only be mad if they did the same thing as me, but not as good. But I have this fantasy of being at an award show and having everyone respect me even if I was never really big, but I was just ‘the one’. Or, who knows, maybe I do want to be a Prince type figure with an extensive discography. I do want to keep cutting the bullshit out of my life, and making sure that what I didn’t do matters just as much as what I accomplished.
Do you have anyone to shout or promote? The floor is yours.
I want to shout out my friend Ashwin, he is a really good friend of mine and we haven’t talked in a while. His music is so good. He inspired me to record my own music and he showed me so much stuff. I need to hit him up soon, he deserves to be recognized. He makes such beautiful indie pop and he showed me so much coming up and really was my muse for a lot of inspiration.