Songs that began in Joe P’s New Jersey basement have since traveled their way around the world–and to millions of listeners.
Between TikTok and touring, Joe P has gone from playing in his eighth-grade band to a rising solo career. But his unfussed performances and raw social media have built Joe P a fanbase that goes deeper than surface-level likes and views. After sharing stages with indie rock favorites like Spacey Jane and Joywave, he's now going on a national headline tour with flipturn this summer.
You used to eat apples while performing. How did that come about?
I brought an apple out one time on stage, because I was that comfortable before a show. But apples are kind of sticky and not good for singing, and I’m a little allergic. It was really not a good idea, but I committed to this bit for a whole tour.
I would keep it on my amp most times, so it was definitely not a clean situation, but in that setting, nothing really is. It would fall down, I would lose it, and it would be on the stage for the next band, so I was finally like, ‘I gotta stop this apple thing.’ It was just ridiculous.
That must’ve helped build up your touring immune system.
I feel like I always get sick on tour. It’s inevitable. I always, always, always get sick. We never know what it’s from, and there’s never a way to trace it back. I guess between all the gas stations, and all the bathrooms you’ve been in, and venues, and people you’ve shook hands with, it’s just so easy to get sick.
Is going on tour different from what you first thought it would be?
I didn’t realize how much of tour was driving and waiting.
It’s a lot of just waiting, and waiting, and waiting, just so you could play a bad show. The whole day was waiting to play a show that you’re now overanalyzing.
That sounds challenging. Do you enjoy it?
As much of it is hard work, and grueling, and whatever, I still look at it like this is the easiest thing in the world. You get to live like a cave person. It’s just, ‘Lift amp, put on stage, play show.’ And that’s the whole day. That’s the worst it can get. You have one thing to do every day, like you’re back to hunting and gathering.
It really only gets bad when something happens with whatever relationships or friends back home, and you can’t do anything about it. There’s a double-edged sword, where it’s nice that you’re out of reach from everyone you know, but at the same time, if anything real does happen, you aren’t there. You missed it.
When did you first start playing music?
I remember I first started playing music when I was probably like five or six. I have an older brother, and my mom brought home this terrible guitar from an auction, but he didn’t care about it. So I just started hitting it and playing it like it was a toy.
That’s what started me on music, was just tricking myself into going from Legos to guitar and back to Legos. I didn’t think of it as a thing I had to be disciplined and work on.
How have you protected the joy of making music now that you’re a full-time artist?
Music, and songwriting, and recording, all that stuff has never changed. I like it for the same reason I did when I was that little kid. You think you get better at it as you get older, but you’re not actually ever getting better, and that’s why it’s fun.
I didn’t like school because you had to get better at it in order to do better. Whereas with music, there are days where I write terrible songs, and the very next day I write a good song. I like the mystery of. I’m not in control of it, and all I can do is show up and try.
That’s an interesting perspective and definitely goes against the “practice makes perfect” mentality.
It makes it easier to not care what people think of it. If you don’t feel like you could have made something else, you can’t care if someone doesn’t like it.
If practice doesn’t make perfect, then what has growth looked like for you as an artist?
With music, there’s never that calm progression. The progression comes just doing it long enough that you see things move forward. It’s happening because you stuck around and kept showing up to do the work.
The first song I wrote was to this girl I liked that didn’t like me back. I used this instrument, and this songwriting thing, that I didn’t even know what that was, to get this sixth grade or seventh grade crushed heart out of myself, and I felt better after. I guess that’s what got me hooked, but I don’t know if doing it means you get better at it.
Flipturn wsg Joe P
The Intersection
133 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
July 31, 7 p.m.
sectionlive.com
