F L A U N T
Consider this your personal introduction to Joey Dosik. His name might not ring a bell yet, (unless you are an avid Vulfpeck listener or possibly have seen his music video with a love story between a clam and a meatball) but in the upcoming months, I’m sure we will see his 17k followers on Instagram grow to 70k with the release of his debut album, Inside Voice. And how could it not? After exposing your ears to any song on the upcoming album, the rich, buttery vocals paired with catchy beats will whisk you away to another world where you can’t help but press play on the next song. With an interest in music beginning in his youth, Joey Dosik has been in the game for a while, and it’s apparent his songs which manage to get you belting along like pop music but still retain a substance that most pop songs don’t have. And this he does seamlessly, blurring the lines between empty, Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers and songs fill your soul all the way to the brim. A blend that has earned him a stamp of approval from the legendary Quincy Jones.
We here at Flaunt got the chance to chat with Joey about Inside Voice and and want to share what we learned with all of you
FLAUNT: How long have you been working on this album?
JOEY: As far as this music specifically, I started working on it maybe four years ago. In the process of making it I had to take a break because I had to have reconstructive knee surgery and actually, it was due to a basketball injury and while I was recovering from surgery I ended up making this sort of, basketball, therapy related EP. And I released that first and after that I went back in and finished the record. It’s been a long process, it’s been four years. I made a whole EP in the middle of it and now it’s time for it to get off of my hard drive.
F: So what does the song-writing process usually look like for you?
J: You gotta start somewhere so it’s either like, sitting down at the piano with some chords and improvising melodies and then the melodies might turn into words if a word fits in. That’s how it starts a lot of times. Sometimes it just starts with a concept. Usually when it starts with a concept, it has the best chance of surviving and getting finished because that’s sort of the most important part. One of the songs on the record is called “Past the Point” and actually I was listening to the show 'The World' on NPR and I heard someone say, “Past the point of no return” and I was like “Oh okay, there’s a concept!” So, sometimes it starts with the radio somehow. Yeah, it can start a lot of different ways, the trick is finishing them though.
F: Do you usually write all the pieces in your songs? Like all the instrumentation as well as the lyrics? Or is it done more in post-production?
J: For this album all the songs were around 98% of the way there before I recorded. So it was pretty old-school, traditional method I would say. I wanted the songs to be as airtight as possible because if I could sit down at the piano and play the song, just the piano and my voice, I figured that the song was strong enough to be done in different styles or different tempos. So, when I went in the studio I could really experiment and find it. So yeah, most of the work was done before hand.
F: That’s very impressive! So, how many instruments do you play?
J: My main instrument that I play on stage is piano and on the record I’m not playing all the instruments but I do play all the piano and keyboards and then I play some bass on the record, I play guitar on the record, I play some drums on the record. Yeah, I play I lot of instruments that I kind of picked up as I got more and more into production because it’s just really fun playing them in studio and learning and getting to be around a lot of great musicians.
F: Like a quintuple threat?
J: Nice, nice. Maybe a nonet?
F: So how many instruments would that be?
J: I don’t even know how many. It’s a lot, I just make stuff up. Saxophone was my main instrument for a while. I’m always trying to learn new instruments and get better. They’re just tools, tools to use in the studio basically.
F: I know you’ve work a little bit with Vulfpeck in the past, in the future with you publishing more of your work, do you think you would do a song with them but on one of your albums?
J: It’s very possible! We’re all friends and Vulfpeck kind of happened by accident, it’s kinda like this collaboration between friends that’s masterminded by Jack Stratton who does an amazing job producing the albums and coordinating everything. So, I could definitely see it. Two of the members of Vulfpeck do play on my record now. One of the other ones, Joe Dart, is coming on tour with me when I take the record on tour and Woody Goss, who also is in Vulfpeck is coming to open the Troubadour shows that I’m playing, which are my album release shows on the 23rd and 24th. We are all kind of intertwined with each others work and art and it would be so fun to actually get in the studio with one of my songs in a different context. But also it’s really fun to do it in the Vulfpeck context because it’s like out reunion that happens a few times year because we don’t get together that much.
F: Yeah that’s fun! I think it’s always good to create music with friends because that way you can bounce ideas off each other and I feel like it flows very well.
J: Totally, I totally agree. I feel like friends are my main muse. When I write songs, they are the ones that I’m almost thinking of to play the songs for and they are the ones who are gonna hear them first and it’s like your muse, your test audience, your critic, your support system, your fans, your collaborator. They are kind of everything.
F: With Inside Voice being your debut album, what do you hope people take away from you as an artist?
J: Man, I hope that people like the music. I hope people like the songs, it’s pretty simple. I hope that the music can have simple effects like brightening someone’s day. Little stuff like that goes a long way and it’s the way that I connect with music. Like when I hear a great song it makes me reflect on my life, it makes me reflect on a moment, it makes me love my partner, it makes me deal with a breakup in a different way or it makes me reflect in a different way. So yeah, I’m amazed at the power of the internet and how my music has somehow been able to cross the ocean and reach someone in the Philippines or something. I like to think that even though we are an ocean away from each other, we are still going through the same basic human things. The humanity of us all is similar in a very, very basic core way and I hope that my music is able to just connect with people. I mean my record isn’t out yet and I’ve been working on it for so long and I’m ready to just hear some feedback. I’m really excited for it to come out.
Check out his album Inside Voice dropping tomorrow on all music streaming platforms.
Written by: Lotus Kaufman
