Catching Up with Joe P
Interview and photos by Lindsey Dadourian
Having been on the road with Joywave and Middle Kids, alternative singer-songwriter Joe P is continuing his trek across the nation with Spacey Jane. Despite having a busy touring schedule, that did not stop Joe P from releasing his highly anticipated EP, French Blonde, which includes the viral hit single “All Day I Dream About”. Following this release, PLEASER got the chance to chat with Joe P about his sophomore EP, the inspirations behind creating his film, and his most memorable fan interactions.
PLEASER: So you have a lot going on right now! The release of your EP, French Blonde, tour with Spacey Jane and your movie, “If We Run,” coming out October 25th!
Joe P: It’s busy, yeah! It’s crazy, so much stuff, it's really great.
The trailer looks amazing, it's so beautifully shot, I'm super excited. What was the inspiration behind that?
J: Lack of wanting to do music videos anymore, I think it's like..cause when you start doing music videos, you're just trying to hit a certain level of legitimacy, like this looks like so and so's stuff, so it makes you feel really cool. But then once you do that, you're just kinda like “Let’s try doing something different”. So for the “All Day I Dream About” music video, that was the first one we really really tried to push it with more narrative and everything. And then it was like “Time to do this EP!” and all the songs, and you gotta do videos for all the songs, and I was like “What if we just took all the money that goes into that and just put it into one big thing”.
No yeah! The idea of combining those two is so new and fresh while still being able to incorporate that live music part, which is obviously very important. Going along with this, how was the release of the EP and the response so far?
J: That's been really good, which is awesome. It has some songs on there that are newer versions of older songs. With that whole thing, it was like I made demos of those songs forever ago, like just made them alone in my room from start to finish. And what happens is when you record, you get like a producer, an engineer, and someone who mixes and masters it. By the time it comes back, it's like a game of telephone, where if you're lucky it's kinda how you wanted it. But usually it's very far away from it. Usually it's kinda like “Alright it's the seventh mix we've done, even with all the revisions you gave,” but because you're not the one doing it, they can't hear what you hear. You learn to compromise because there's a week left and we have to put it out, so you gotta be like “Ok this sounds okay, you know?” It was just one of those things where I was like “Alright, let me try doing this now, alone” and see if I can just—, this way I know that that was what it was meant to be. I'm done and don't have to feel like they are still in there. So I felt like I'd strike out all these songs out of my system and now I can move on.
Yeah that's awesome! Is there a favorite one that you've been performing live?
J: I like “French Blonde” because people either like it or they are freaked out because “Off My Mind” is like the most normal and simple song, so I kinda like that you just have to hear both of them at the same time or in the same set. So you're just like “Oh ok,” it's a nice wide variety. I think I will always wanna do that thing where there are two ends of the spectrum as far as like what I'm allowed to do because if you stay too far in one world, I think people can only expect that, so this is a good like, ‘Alright just be ready for anything’ in between those two things.
How's the tour been? Any cities you're super excited about going to?
J: I'm always the most excited about Salt Lake City. The east coast thing is cool, like Philly, Boston, New York, that whole thing. But there's just something about the places where there isn't like a major city, because the people at the show arent there for any other reason than just to have fun because they don't do that much all the time—no one stops through there. So like, when you play in the Midwest and stuff, I think you just have more of a fun interaction with the crowd rather than like trying to impress the New York crowd. With the New York crowd, you're trying to impress them, so it feels almost a bit like a circus act, and then when you play in the Midwest it just feels like a party. You're not even on stage, you're on the same floor. It's not like it's more fun, but like you just turn off a little bit. It's less like “Who’s here that I need to impress?”.
Have you had any fan interactions that really stuck out to you recently?
J: Yeah! I mean whenever people say they've come from far away, like literally an hour is far away. So when people say “I came from Memphis or like Montana,” or just really really far away, I'm just blown away. You gotta learn, I guess, how to answer that or respond to that because Im just like…why? You're crazy! And it just kinda comes off as “Well, just be happy that I came,” but it's just so crazy! I wouldn't do that for my favorite bands, so I can't even imagine. But it's amazing that they even like me that much which is really cool…Someone’s gotten a tattoo before. Actually no, this is it. The craziest thing was, a couple weeks ago we played somewhere, and after we played, these couple people ran around the back of the stage and were like “Hey, can you write your signature? Like just sign my hand with a sharpie,” and I was like “Okay,” so I did and then she was like, “I'm gonna get this tattooed,” and I was like, “That's funny! You're not gonna do that, that's insane!”. Then I got home right away and in the next few hours, an Instagram story was like with the tattoo. It's the little things like that that are starting to happen where like its so strange but definitely memorable. So people have been doing some tattoo stuff and whatever, but yeah it's all good. It's the coolest thing ever!
Have any pre-show or post-show rituals that you kinda stick to? Or does it just depend?
J: Yeah, it really depends because if I'm nervous, my favorite thing to do is just to get away from all the people the best I can, which is like kinda hard to do. But it's just so nice to like go for a walk—I like coming in at the last second. I think this is my ritual, because everyone is like “Where the fuck is Joe? What is happening, like we are on right now?”. And I think I like the commotion of the last minute scramble because it makes it feel like a show. It feels like the uncertainty of playing a show because you practice your instrument, and the set, and the songs, and everything, but when the show comes, all of that goes away. I don't go out and do the things I've practiced. You have that there as like a little safety net thing, where you practice so that you can fuck up alot. You know what I mean? That's kind of the idea. So I think I like that last minute chaos because it makes me get into show mode. If i'm sitting there doing yoga and meditating and stuff, I think…I just don't wanna be that aware. I do this thing where I go out with an apple, and I never thought about it right, but like I had an apple one day and generally was like “Oh I'll go out there, whatever,” and then I started doing it because I like it. It makes me go out there doing something as stupid and mundane as eating an apple, and then it makes the whole thing for me feel like I'm connected to the crowd immediately. Even though we haven't talked or anything, there's just this immediate thing of “I'm just eating an apple,” this can't be that crazy, like this can't be that big of a thing, you know. So, I think it's just this nice comforting thing to keep me down to earth.
So you've been on tour now with Joywave and currently Spacey Jane, are there any artists you would love to go on tour with?
J: Hmmm I don't know, like I love anything. As a big band…Tame Impala or anything in that world would be so much fun. But I definitely want to headline. At that point then, I have a bunch of groups I’d wanna bring. But yeah, that's kind of my next thing that I want to finally do because the set has become very “headline-y” in the sense that all the songs end very dramatically with very big moments that I just feel like when you're the opener, there's a cap on it. I also love that because you have this like weird thing going for you where no one’s rooting for you, it's weird–– you have to win over everyone. I definitely wanna start to get used to like, “Everyone’s here to see you,” because like the opening thing is easy where you go out and no one's expecting anything, so anything you do is gonna be good or we're back to 0, like they dont really care that much. If everyone paid money to see you and then you fuck up, it’s like now I have to feel bad. So I kind of want to start feeling that scary pressure.
Yeah, and I saw you have a few record store shows coming up! Which is exciting!
J: Yeah! Those will be cool. Those are like all the livestreams and shit, where it's going to be like that without a comment section. I'm very excited for that.
Last question for you: Do you have any guilty pleasure songs or like hype songs to get you going before a show?
J: Wow. Love that! Hmm, it's not really a guilty pleasure at all but I would say we always used to listen to Rosalia, or honestly anything in that world. ‘Cause it's like if I listen to rock music or something like Radiohead, or in the world I wanna be in, it's too similar so I start to freak out. But if I just put on Tyler, the Creator or something totally out of the world I'm in it is a lot better.
Catch Joe P on tour now and watch his trailer below!
