Duo John & Joe Talk Upcoming Single “Honeyman” In Exclusive Interview! (@JohnandJoeMusic)
We recently had the chance to chat with duo John & Joe about their upcoming single “Honeyman” which is set to debut on June 15th! Check it out!
- How did you form as a duo?
Joe and I have been playing music together since we were 14 years old. We started our first band in our early high school years and have played in bands together ever since. We just always wrote songs well together. So when our last band ended it felt right to keep working together, so we decided to move to Nashville to push ourselves to our full potential.
- What are each of your roles in the duo?
John plays guitar and handles lead vocals while Joseph plays bass and does backup vocals.
Joseph is a great motivator and does a great job at keeping us focused on the task at hand, which is very important when writing. I (John) record and mix all of the music in our home studio. We write our best when we’re collaborating, so all of our songs thus far were written in a room, playing our instruments until something comes out. The way we write separately is very different, so when we’re collaborating we balance each other out. it is very yin and yang.
- What inspires your music?
One thing that we both share is the passion for music, not just that but, also the vocation. We feel as if there’s no choice but to be creating music. When we’re away from it for too long, we feel guilty. That alone is a huge part of our inspiration. Aside from that, life in general provides inspiration every day. The songs we’re about to release are about life. Even if they’re about our personal lives, we think they’ll be very relatable.
- What is the writing process like for your music?
Usually it starts with a bass line or a guitar idea. From there we usually try to develop the structure of the song completely before we record at all. We’ve learned in the past that recording ideas before they’re finished usually leads to the song never getting done. Our successful process has been, sit down, play our instruments until we hear something we like, we write the musical part entirely, record it, and then lyrics. Lyrics take a while for us. We’ve really tried to improve our lyrical content since moving to Nashville.
- What is a typical day like in the studio?
We start by listening to all the songs that we have so far. We determine if the songs need improvement or editing, from there we usually pick up our instruments and see if we can come up with anything new. It’s best for us to not force a song. A great song comes naturally and easy. It depends on what mode we’re in. Right now, we’re preparing for this release. So we aren’t as focused on developing new sounds or reinventing ourselves. Right now, we’re mostly rehearsing for upcoming shows.
- What do you think makes you stand out from other artists?
We’re really proud of not only our vocal melody hooks but our bass and guitar lines. We really put a lot of time and energy into making catchy instrumentation. Often, we watch other artists sing lyrics over a couple chords and that’s it. Nothing is wrong with that, but we just really try to focus on having interesting and catchy guitar and bass. So many of our idols write the same way and it’s something that some newer music lacks.
- What can you tell us about “Honeyman?”
It started out with a bass line Joe had been playing for a couple days. I (John) had heard him playing it a few times and didn’t have any ideas to bring to the table. We kept jamming on it until I had something we both liked to go with it. The song had a different sound than we were used to and that excited us. We then structured it out and recorded it. We wrote this at a time when we were listening to a lot of The Pretenders. Their guitarist the late Honeyman Scott was a big influence, we decided to use his name as a temporary title for the song and it just stuck as our permanent title.
- What is the song about?
The song is about being in your early 20’s when it seems like nobody is interested in committed relationships yet feels very lonely most of the time. It’s about the ever changing belief of who your ideal partner is and the countless conversations we have with each other about that, hoping for clarity but usually never finding it. The song tells a story of two friends who end up becoming romantic but aren’t interested in committing to each other at all.
- How will it be different from your previous music?
We moved from Washington state to Nashville TN. We feel like Honeyman as a song has a little bit of everything we’ve done and everywhere we’ve been. This song has a touch of Nashville in its sound and behind that is how much harder we pushed than before to make sure the song was good. Compared to our previous music this is much more simple, but in a good way.
- Where and when can fans listen or purchase the single?
Where can’t they! It will be available almost everywhere online June 15th. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Youtube etc.. You can also pre save our single on spotify now through our Distrokid page. Link: https://bit.ly/2GhRdCM
- Are you currently working on anything else you’d like to share with us?
We’re in the process of getting a lyric video for Honeyman made. That should be out with the release of the single. We will be releasing more music ASAP. Now that the ball is rolling, we want to keep providing people with content!
- What are your social media accounts?
https://www.facebook.com/johnandjoemusic
https://www.instagram.com/johnandjoemusic/
https://twitter.com/johnandjoemusic
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