Joe Unknown, an ideal for living
With just five songs gradually released since 2021 (“Ride”, “Kicks”, “Silent”, “Gang” and “Hell Of Mine”), this enigmatic British dude has become one of the fresher sensations in alternative music (call it punk, post punk, hip hop, urban or whatever you can think of). He will be playing festivals all over Europe this spring and summer. We caught up with him before his name is more known and famous.
Interview David Saavedra Photography JC Verona
Do you have an album in the works?
Yes, I’ve got my first mixtape. That’s a compound of nine tracks and that’s coming really soon. It has been finished for a while, so I’m just waiting for the label to put it out. There’s a lot of music coming this year, I’m currently working on the second mixtape.
The first four singles are very different from the rest of the mixtape?
Yes, I think there’s a lot of noise on the mixtape, there’s a lot of stuff to jump around to, and it will take you on a journey. There’s a darker side and it’s more song based. There’s also some stuff to listen to when you come back from the party.
How do you build the songs normally? Where does the inspiration come from?
I don’t really know, to be honest, it’s a hard one to work out. I think I’m definitely inspired by lots of things that I listen to, and it doesn’t exist right now, like Talking Heads and Joy Division, and I also watch a lot of films. My love of music initially came from film, watching all movies and seeing how music fitted perfectly into certain scenes. I always have a filmic idea in my head when I’m writing. It’s the soundtrack for a film I’m having in my head.
But you have another real film, the videoclips for each song. I suppose you think very much about the videos?
Yes, man. Everything in the visual aspect is very important for the project, and maybe where the project is more well known for. I feel like sometimes listening to the music you only get half of the story and sometimes you need to watch. That’s how I always liked the project to be received but there are many factors: money, budgets... As soon as you start working in the world of visual it gets expensive. But now is an exciting time because if you have a strong idea, you can do it with no budget. You can actually do what you want to do.
“If we’re losing the art of an album, that’s a fucking problem, man.”
Do you have also any poetic references in your way of writing?
I don’t really know where my inspiration for writing comes from. Maybe it’s just how my head works. I don’t read any poetry but, obviously, I’ve grown up with some words I listened to, like Slim Shady (Eminem) and stuff like that (laughs). Everything else is things I listen to a lot, like Joy Division. But I’m not very good at listening to lyrics. I seem to have a short attention span. The hardest thing for me is learning my own songs because I kind of write them not very consciously and when I listen back, I don’t really listen to what I’m saying. I find it hard to take lyrics in, so I have not fucking clue to be honest, man (laughs).
How are your live shows?
Live is probably one of the most important aspects on the project. Like the visuals, it’s another great way of displaying your music and getting the feeling of it across. I haven’t got down the route of having a full band, having ten people on stage. It’s not really what the project is. It’s a lot of like loneliness invaded into the project. At the moment, it’s a very digital set up: just me and my DJ, Alex, and I’m just keeping it like that. And it’s very full on, man, it doesn’t really stop, there’s no slow songs to find your friends or your phone that fell on the mosh pit. I wanna kinda create this experience, where people completely forget whatever it’s going on in their life for that half hour or forty-five minutes. They just live the moment and nothing else matters. The shows have been crazy, last year was the first year I started going and releasing music and doing shows and I didn’t really expect to go like it was. The festivals are such a good way of working out what new music I’m playing. Crowds don’t lie, you know? So, when you’re playing music in front of them you know if the music is good or not. I’d love to get the show bigger and bigger, and have more digital and analogue elements involved, like synths, but definitely not a rock band, that’s not what it is.
You’re going to play Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Madrid. That’s a huge festival. How do you feel about it?
I’m so excited, man. First of all, I’m, obviously over the moon to be playing a show in Spain, anyway. Playing outside the UK is always something I massively liked to do and it’s happening a lot faster than I thought, which is cool. The fact that it is Primavera is even better. I feel I make music that is designed to be played in big volume spaces with good sound systems. I played a lot of small venues, to a hundred people, and they’re amazing as well, but I think the overall goal of what I’m doing is playing big festivals and arenas. I know a lot of people who make music who won’t say that, but it’s not for seeing my name in flashing lights. I couldn’t give a fuck about being famous and all that stuff. I just spend so much time on the sonics of music that I feel like I will only feel truly appreciated under a big sound system with a big crowd, so I’m really pleased of being to Spain and have the opportunity to do it in such a big scale already.
How did you start making music?
I think it was for my love of hip hop and drum ‘n bass, that’s how it came about. I started as a drum n’ bass MC. I first got into it in London when I was really young, I didn’t know what it was, but I just wanted to do that, I thought: “This is me”. I found where I belonged. I was there for a while, but then I felt I wasn’t doing my own thing and then, I know it sounds cliché but when the lockdown thing happened I didn’t really know if I lost my purpose in life, because I was doing some live shows with the drum n’ bass thing and I didn’t know what to do. I was playing around making hip hop before but never really took it seriously. I really didn’t think that it suited me that much, so I applied to punk, basically, I started sampling old punk riffs and stuff, because I’m shit playing guitar. Everything about it spoke more to my soul than everything else I played before, so I found my love for what I was doing, and it felt right. I put out my first song and as soon as I did that it was like: “Whoa! I kinda found my purpose!” That’s definitely one of the best feelings that you could ever do, man. I have never been happier since.
“It’s the soundtrack for a film I’m having in my head.”
What do you think about the current state of British music?
There’s an audience for everything but I don’t really see there’s any fucking great music that I really feel anymore. I think people like Idles or Slowthai have some of the most beautiful stuff that came out from the UK in recent years, and it makes me very proud to be from this scene. Apart from that, I don’t listen to the radio, I kind of living in my own world, I’m still listening to records that were made in fucking ‘79. We were very famous for music in Britain, obviously, but I think some people are making it just for business these days. I’m not against good business, fair enough if that’s your thing. I do worry I was having this conversation with someone the other day and it was like: when you look at festivals, will it be headliners in twenty years, or will it be whoever is trending in TikTok? How is it going to work? If nobody’s worried about making albums anymore, what the fuck are we going to listen to? If we’re losing the art of an album, that’s a fucking problem, man.
Finally, where does the Joe Unknown name come from?
I used to DJ as well when I was doing drum n’ bass. I remember playing that illegal rave, one of the older kids was an MC and he wanted to introduce me, so he asked me: “Hey, kid, what’s your name?”, and I said: “I don’t know”. He said: “Hey, guys, this is Joe Unknown!”, and it was it.
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