Next Wave #642: Joywave

Thriving on the unexpected...

Joywave like to do the unexpected.

A band who make mixtapes, a live experience which thrives in the studio, the New York group seem to relish their ability to upturn expectations, to subvert definitions of what it is they can and cannot do.

“From day one we wanted it to be like, the only rule is there are no rules,” explains Daniel Armbruster. “Where we could use it as a vehicle to just do whatever we wanted to, creatively. As far as genres are concerned we generally disregard them and pull from whatever feels right for a particular song or particular message.”

Working via their own, loftily titled, Joywave Industries imprint, the group set about constructing sounds in a quite unique fashion. Debut mixtape ‘77777’ dropped in 2011, and almost immediately caused a stir with its refusal to sit in any one pigeonhole.

“We took a hip-hop mixtape approach to how we put that together,” says guitarist Joseph Morinelli. “Which was kind of an unconventional thing for a 'band' to do, but it felt right and cool for us to do that. Sampling Drake, sampling things that bands aren't supposed to sample. Everything happened really quick but everything after that was fair game.”

Since then, Joywave have quietly, insidiously spread across the web. A cult sensation in the United States, debut album ‘How Do You Feel Now?’ arrived earlier this year and saw the group impact upon a bewildered mainstream. “Up until this record,” Daniel explains, “everything our band has done has been on a zero dollar budget and with a laptop because that's all we could afford to do. So I think… for a second, when we were starting the recording process it was like, OK we have to be professional now. And then very quickly it went out the window.”

Joywave, it seems, thrive on doing things they’re not supposed to. Joseph states: “I guess you just realise that by doing things your own way, you're able to create something unique if you disregard what you're supposed to do in the recording process.”

Out now in the UK, ‘How Do Feel Now?’ is a stunning array of sounds and ideas. There’s a freshness, a vitality to the production which is matched to the physicality of Joywave’s live performances. “We try to keep 'em separate,” Daniel muses. “We like the live show to be a little bit different. The live definitely leans a little bit more rock because we try to do as much as we can using guitar, bass, drums, keyboards. They're a completely different experience.”

WHAT: Sample based guitar pop with hip-hop hooks
WHERE: Rochester, New York
3 SONGS: 'Tongues', 'Somebody New', 'In Clover'

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