There is something that hangs haziness and tranquility variation on nocturnal over slowcore duo Joyer’s new album ‘Sun Into Flies’. It’s a beguiling, taut-like yet calm listening experience for anyone who invests their time to really listen to this record.
Below we had a quick chat with Nick & Shane of Joyer about their favorite films, influences & their far-reaching new album out now on Z Tapes Records.
For anyone unfamiliar with Joyer, give us a brief insight~
Shane: Joyer is my brother Nick and I. We started writing together because we have the same taste in music and it was convenient to collaborate since we lived together and shared musical equipment when we started it. It’s really fun and different from other projects we’ve worked on either together or separately since, being the only two collaborators, we both get to play any and all the instruments we use to write with.
Congrats on your album release! Can you tell us something about the record? What’s the track that took the longest to finish?
Nick: This is a different album for us because not only is it the first time we’re releasing something on a real label, it’s the first collection of songs we didn’t record ourselves. We pretty much had the entire album tracked but weren’t 100% happy with it so we reached out to Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio who we had some brief interactions with in the past and who has recorded some of our favorite artists. We were kind of nervous inviting someone into the process of recording and also having to re-record the entire album but I definitely think it worked out because Brad really took the songs to the next level. I’m not sure which took us the longest to finish but I know “Concrete” was particularly hard to write/record. It’s just so slow and minimal that any mess up would have been really noticeable and awkward, but I think it ended up being my favorite on the record.
We did a little music background check on Joyer and found something interesting on your band’s Facebook About Section. It says, “Talk to us about movies”. So out of curiosity, what’s your favorite film?
Nick: Wow I forgot that I put that there but I’m glad someone’s finally asking us about it. We’re both film majors so movies play a big impact on everything we do. It’s so hard to pick a favorite but I have been really into Tsai-Ming Liang’s movies recently, specifically the older ones like The Hole or The River. They all have this slow warm feeling to them that if you really take the time with them they just wash over you and suck you in. That’s the type of feeling I like to try to invoke when I approach writing music so his work is definitely one of many inspirations I find in film.
Shane: Narrowing down a favorite film is tough for me but I was recently blown away by La Cienaga by Lucrecia Martel. That movie just has such an interesting slow and lethargic pacing mixed with an ensemble of super complex characters that have such interesting dynamics with each other that I really fell in love with. I’ve been trying to get into more of Martel’s films and she’s definitely becoming one of my favorite directors.
Within or beyond music, can you share us some of your influences?
Shane: I think I can speak for both of us in saying that movies have a huge influence on us both in our lyrics and instrumentals as we kind of touched on in the last question. As far as musical inspirations, I feel like we’re influenced by a variety of different kinds of music. We listen to a lot of 90’s indie and post-rock such as bands like Pavement or Unwound but also a lot of current DIY bands. There’s so much creative stuff being made right now so we definitely gravitate towards lesser known artists, having found them through playing shows or through friends who also play music. Aunt Ant and Pulsr are two that come to mind right now and are both amazing.
Lastly, how’s it like working with Filip of Z Tapes?
Nick: Filip is a really amazing person. Having never worked with a label before I don’t really have much to base it off of but it really seems like Filip goes above and beyond for his artists. Actually the first form of recognition we ever got was when Filip put us on the Z Tapes Spring 2018 comp. Before that our music didn’t really get heard by more than just our friends and a handful of people, so we really credit a lot to him. With this release he’s been super helpful and supportive, which is good for people like us since we’re always kind of unsure of ourselves. I feel like Filip puts a lot of care into his artists and label, and emphasizes artists’ growth and success over clout or personal gain which is something I really admire.
Listen to the full album ‘Sun Into Flies’ & buy a cassette tape here.