Joywave

Joywave

Sun 7/13 @ 6:00 - Warsteiner Stage

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“Anxiety caused by feeling too content” is just the first aspect of the double-pronged paradoxical rumination that is Content, the sophomore full-length album by Rochester,

NY-based indie quintet, Joywave, slated for release July 28 with a tour supporting Young the Giant and  Cold War Kids to follow. The title, Content, sees Joywave apply their trademark irreverence and  humor  to two large yet interrelated ideas springing from the dual meaning of the word, “content”, and  signaling a move  into a deeply personal terrain for Joywave frontman Daniel Armbruster.

About the duality reflected in the album’s title (CONtent the noun  versus conTENT the adjective), Armbruster says:”I loved that the two words  were associated with completely opposite feelings for me  (one pure, one not), and that only a human hearing the two words  in the English language could tell the difference between the ideas represented. To a search engine, they are identical. How can you explain to Google that one of these things makes you happy  and helps fill the void in your soul, and the other is just flooding your senses?”

Three years have  passed since Joywave’s “Tongues”and their collaboration with Big Data on the hit song “Dangerous” first put the band on the map.  Creating their own imprint Cultco Music via Hollywood Records, the five members of Joywave—Daniel Armbruster (vocals), Joseph Morinelli (guitar), Sean Donnelly (bass), Benjamin Bailey (keyboards), and  Paul Brenner (drums)— embarked on an intense tour schedule in support of their debut album, sharing the stage with Foals, The Killers, Brandon Flowers, Metric, Silversun Pickups and  Bleachers. They played at Coachella, Lollapalooza (US & Berlin), Reading & Leeds, Okeechobee, Osheaga, Hangout and  Bumbershoot, with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel and  Seth  Meyers’ shows. Glowing reviews followed in Rolling StoneBillboardSpin and  Entertainment Weekly

This success enabled Armbruster to seriously adult on a whole new level, and  this year he finally moved into a place of his own, a few blocks away from his childhood home. For Armbruster, who sold stationery and  paper goods at Staples before Joywave took off, the musical dream born when  he started writing songs aged fifteen was finally coming true. The single “It’s A Trip!” began with two basic ideas in mind: “Haunting” versus “haunted”. “I wanted to make  something undeniably beautiful that would outlast me,  but at times verged on the absurd  and snapped the listener out of a dreamy haze.  “It’s A Trip!” moves pretty  far in the absurd  direction, juxtaposing a pretty  friendly arena-sized chorus against versus straight out of a haunted house. The song  is a little disorienting, much like the past  few years of our lives have been”. The music video for “It’s A Trip!” features the band slowly aging as they ride jet skis in

Miami and  underscores the sense of endlessly being on tour, just getting older while the girl on the back  of the jet ski stays the same age.

Touring—which Armbruster describes as “an episode of Louie where  it’s funny but somewhat soul crushingly sad at the same time”—took its toll on the band both  physically and emotionally but had  an upside.  “Playing our instruments was second nature at that point,” notes guitarist Joey Morinelli, that allowed us to focus and  interact with crowds, and  each other  on stage, in ways that we never  had  before.“

Post tour, Armbruster who had  been dealing with chronic illness was diagnosed with pancreatitis, and  had  to stop drinking on doctor’s orders. Sobriety “really affected the sound of the record,” he says. In contrast to Joywave’s playful debut, the tone  of Content is more confessional, sometimes combative, as it questions how connected we really are in this hyper-connected world—which brings us to Content’s second theme, stemming from the collective angst of a generation whose art (and very lives) are now mere  content for the Internet.  Sonically, Content is more  cohesive than  Joywave's LP1, How Do You Feel Now?  It’s focused and  deliberate, loud and  cinematic featuring a more  prominent vocal throughout LP2.

 As a clear example of conscious, positive content; the title track  “Content” is accompanied with a video shot on vintage Super 8 on location at Kodak Tower in Rochester. The building, once the global epicenter of film photography, is a monument to the pre-Internet world in the Rochester skyline and  a place that’s close to the hearts of all bandmembers, as most of their parents worked  there  before Kodak filed for bankruptcy. In addition, Kodak has afforded the band the opportunity to utilize some of their iconic equipment which inspired Daniel to take  up film photography to help fill the existential void. “Film is slower and more  deliberate, and that’s calming in a way. It's not disposable, it's not easy,  which in turn, forces you to care. I like that.”

At the end  of the day music is at the core  of what Joywave is and  drives the creativity in every aspect.  Brenner sums it up, “We're always working on new music and  new ways to make  our live performance better and  better. Joywave will not be confined to a certain genre or niche. We do what we want.”

Content is produced by Joywave’s Daniel Armbruster & Sean Donnelly and mixed by Rich Costey (TV On The Radio, The Shins, Interpol) and will be released on Hollywood Records/Cultco Music on 7.28.

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