Wolkoff – Audiofemme

TRACK OF THE WEEK: GEMOLOGY “Come Around”

“Come Around” is a song that celebrates that rare friendship you consider yourself lucky to have, if you can find one like it at all; someone who’s always there for you, wherever they happen to actually be at the moment. That’s the situation the GEMOLOGY duo found themselves in when they composed “Come Around,” with singer/songwriter Joanie Wolkoff living in Brooklyn and producer/instrumentalist Natasha Chitayat in Los Angeles. They started the project after being stuck together in a recording studio during a rainstorm, and though there’s a whole continent between them now, they haven’t let that diminish their friendship or their sound. They describe their process as writing together “through the digital ether,” which is reflected in lines like “I get my heart worked up every time you dial.”

Propelled by synths and layered in a shimmery haze, “Come Around” is a reassuring burst of warmth. The track opens with a chiming melody that settles into a steady beat for Wolkoff’s voice to float over and takes its time opening up, adding layers and themes before ending with a soft whisper.

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Epoch Failure

Last Superbowl, while Peyton Manning cradled the Lombardi Trophy and showered Budweiser with delicious, beery shout-outs, Jersey boys Billy the Kid and Nickey Knoxx (of Camden and Trenton, respectively) were huddled around their family televisions with baited breath. A music supervisor had more or less greenlighted the duo’s song, “Champion” for use during the annual football bonanza, but as as lives go, those of professional musicians are rife with uncertainty. Plans are made and changed, nary a certitude. At last, they both heard it: their track echoing behind Manning’s words while confetti rained down in Levi’s Stadium. And just like that, Epoch Failure (pronounced epic) turned over a new leaf.

Joanie Wolkoff for AudioFemme: What was that fateful moment like for you guys?

Nickey Knoxx: I was about to give up and zone out cuz the show was wrapping up, but then while Peyton Manning said something about going home and drinking a lot of Budweisers, all of a sudden I heard our song. I definitely lost my shit.

Billy the Kidd: I mean, Superbowl is the mecca of American sports. I’m gonna be honest, I’d been drinking tons with my family and I just teared up.

The American American Dream came true!

Billy the Kidd: We always say we didn’t do too bad for two kids from the inner city.

Nickey Knoxx: When I was growing up, my mom- being from South Carolina- listened to a lot of country and gospel…Dwight Yoakam, Dolly Parton, Travis Tritt, Donnnie McClurkin, James Brown, Reba McEntire… I’m a Brown American. My mother’s Native American and Black and my father’s Black and Puerto Rican with a Jewish-German mom. So, I am the melting pot.

Billy the Kidd: I’m just Puerto Rican, first generation American. My dad’s a South Philly guy, so I grew up on Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, a lot of Harlem renaissance swag, also Bellamy Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, the Bee Gees, Bon Jovi and Metallica. Every Friday my dad would pour a glass of gin, smoke a cigar and listen to the Stones on vinyl for hours.

So you guys cut your milk teeth on American music?

Nickey Knoxx: Definitely. Then, when we started exploring other music in high school it was all hip hop- Biggie, Naz, Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Tupac, Jay Z. My sister also got me into rock and a lot of Prince.

Billy the Kidd: I loved all the heavy hitters in rap but I also got into punk and pop. It’s just that at the time… well, you can’t tell people in the hood you listen to five white boys singing in harmony. I love Iggy Pop, too. Saliva, Limp Biscuit, Slipknot- I went the rock route.

Your live performances are bursting with kinetic energy. Did seeing any of your influences in concert shape how you carry out your music in front of an audience?

Nickey Knoxx: We go apeshit! After watching all those pop-punk bands growing up, seeing the energy those guys bring to the music- the way they pour their heart and soul into it- that’s what we do. We end up chest-naked.

Billy the Kidd: You could say we get that full blown rock energy combined with the hip hop demeanor. It’s urban pop: full of hooks but still very much blended with hip hop elements, because this is the time we live in. We’ve got a dope drummer- Mad Mike- and our bassist Lowdown Dirty Shane and DJ Big Jay. We’re each other’s hype men.

Is it possible that a band name like Epoch Failure might come across as… anti-hype?

Nickey Knoxx: We’re from the inner city and we’ve been on this musical journey together for four years together. It’s been a new epoch for our failures (laughs)… but we’re gonna make it epic! I’ve lived on both sides of life but it’s what made me and it’s what made Billy. It gave us the drive to see the other side.

What does the other side look like?

Billy the Kidd: Music is a grind. You have to treat everybody you meet like a somebody because you never know what they’re gonna bring to the table. I think young musicians need to know not to quit their day job. If you’re an artist, living by the skin of your teeth can’t work that way…. but as Will Smith said, if you focus too much on plan B, you’ll forget about plan A. The dream is music. To live it, breathe it every day, wake up and do it.

What do you do to supplement your music career?

Nickey Knoxx: I’m a combat photographer in the US Army. Billy is an electrician.

Billy the Kidd: Our day jobs feed our creativity. My work is blue collar- it’s the way I was raised. It motivates me. When I get off of work I’m all dirty and grimy and sweaty and I just want to go home and make the best song ever, so that maybe tomorrow I won’t have to go and get dirty and grimy and sweaty.

Did anyone in particular transmit this wisdom to you?

Billy the Kidd: When I was in seventh grade and my grandfather was ill and on his way out, he said, “Never give up.” Whether you’re making music or in the military or marketing or flipping burgers… be the best fucking burger flipper there is. Have some pride. We were meant to be great in what we do. A guy with a million dollars could have a penny attitude, so stay humble and dream big.

Nickey Knoxx: The best advice I ever got was to floss my teeth and wear underwear. Clean underwear make the world go round.

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NEWS ROUNDUP: LCD Soundsystem, Andrew Bird & Wolkoff

LCD Soundsystem Is Playing NYC This Weekend!

Guess the breakup didn’t last too long- after announcing plans for a new record and festival dates, the band will be playing at Webster Hall 3/27 and 3/28. Tix are first come, first serve, so you’ll have to enter a lottery to even get the chance to buy them. Do it here!

Tickets For RBMA Festival Are Now On Sale

The energy drink sponsored festival will take over NYC at the end of April, bringing select performances, events and lectures to a variety of venues. Highlights for 2016 include a talk with Spike Lee, Dizzee Rascal (Performing ‘Boy in Da Corner’), a performance with Kamasi Washington, Pharaoh Sanders and The Sun Ra Arkestra and a Brooklyn Flea Record Fair. Plus many, many more.

Stream Are You Serious by Andrew Bird

The 13th album by the whistling violinist is streaming on NPR ahead of its April 1st release date. It includes “Left Handed Kisses,” a duet with Fiona Apple. Check out the song’s video, which features a playful singing showdown between the two, below:

Wolkoff Releases “The Homecoming” Video

The song is frenetic yet hopeful, and its video stars a dog (played by a girl in a mask) who struggles to fit into a domestic life. It’s both strange and heartwarming. You can read more about its origins and meaning on Jezebel, and watch it below.

Ty Segall Is Scary (In A Good Way)

First he terrified the audience of Stephen Colbert’s late night show by throwing candy at them while dressed like a more low-key version of The Joker. Turns out, he also likes haunt your dreams by wearing a creepy baby mask. Check out the getup on his Conan performance, where he plays the song “Californian Hills:”

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RIP Phife Dawg

Phife Dawg, aka Malik Taylor passed away on Tuesday at age 45. A founding member of Tribe Called Quest, his unique style resulted in classic songs like “Buggin’ Out,” “Electric Relaxation,”, and “Butter.” For a full obituary, click here.

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ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Andy Ferro

To begin with: Andy Ferro’s Dad. The man remembers the the first time Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” aired on Australian radio. But more importantly, he crammed his son’s young ears with as much jazz and blues as they could contain. Meanwhile, Ferro spent his childhood ping-ponging back and forth between the the UK and Nashville, where he’s planted his flag since the tender age of 10.

Today, Ferro’s hometown is teeming with artists drawing from the communal psych-folk pot, but Ferro’s austere creations err on the side of minimalism, which is why his forthcoming LP Muirhead might be the exact sort of winningly raggle taggle rarity your ears have been craving.

Inspired by White Fence’s Tim Presley and drawing insight from the likes of The Kinks, Capain Beefheart, Bob Dylan and 70’s Krautrock darlings Can, Ferro also cites his friend group, lady, and mentors as a primary source of artistic stimulation. These auspices can be warmly felt throughout his new lo-fi solo project, much like his off-kilter upbringing.

Crowning Ferro as AudioFemme’s February Artist of the Month, Joanie Wolkoff of Wolkoff, formerly of Her Habits, and Artist of the Month herself, Wolkoff shared a conversation with Ferro over his music, growing up, and what’s shaking these days in Ferro’s neck of the woods.

Joanie Wolkoff: How’s life in Nashville?

Andy Ferro: It’s growing really quickly now. There are a lot of good opportunities, but we’re dealing with traffic, which is a new thing. It’s an inspiring place to be, with lots of people doing great stuff. I don’t know what it’d be like to make music in a place where I wasn’t connected to my community. There’s a lot of… not competition, but I’d say that the bar is set high. It definitely makes you try harder. And I prefer the smaller hang; the typical Saturday night is about finding somebody’s house to have dinner at.

No all-night ragers or underground raves?

Oh, they happen. I’m just not there when they do.

What would you say is happening instrumentally on Muirhead?

It’s stark. There aren’t drums, or a lot of lead guitar or electric guitar at all, for that matter. I’m really into the Leonard Cohen and Syd Barrett solo records, and I recorded everything on the LP myself except for some of the weird noises and piano which were sourced by my friend Mitch Jones. As you can imagine, you run out of space pretty quickly when you’re only recording with a four track.

It’s a medium that could certainly account for your minimalism here.

Yeah, I just worked until I felt I’d done my part and then I took it to Mitch who put it on a computer and did a few things here and there; what he added brought a lot to the album [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Ferro’s voice cracks]… excuse my voice, I lost it two days ago and it’s only just coming back now.

The first time I ever lost my voice I was really excited because I thought it made me sound like a character I idolized on GI Joe, so when I got to school and spoke up in class I remember thinking, “Finally! I sound interesting!”

I know what you mean. I’d been sort of excited about losing my voice, like “Maybe when the release show comes around, I’ll have this gruff voice!” but I tried to sing some of my songs last night and it wasn’t working.

It makes you sound like you’ve been through a lot! Seasoned!

Ha. Seasoned.

Are all the the tracks on the LP tied into a theme or are they just moments in time for you?

It’s a story but not intentionally encoded that way. For example, the song “Crystal Tongue” is about being with my dad in Tennessee two Christmases ago. I woke up in the morning to the sound of his voice saying, “Merry Crystal Bum!” So I wrote this little poem in a card for my girlfriend about a child with a crystal bum. Anyway, later on I turned it into a song.

We also say “bum” in Canada, where I grew up. In America, people say “butt.” Anyway, if you close your eyes and look at a visual version of Muirhead, what do you see?

I can tell you easily. Since the beginning it’s been green. It feels like standing on a creaky, rickety boat dock thats rocking back and forth a little and it’s dusk. You can’t see the horizon across the water.

Tell me about your recording setup with the four track.

Most of it was at my girlfriend’s apartment. I hit this two-week window of time where she and her roommate were gone for the first part of the day and I didn’t have to go to work til mid-afternoon , so I would just sit there working on songs. My girlfriend lives on a main road, which is why you can hear cars and birds and stuff on the tracks. I’d already demo’d a few songs on Garage Band with iPhone headphones plugged into my computer.

Garage Band is a good, sturdy little donkey that’ll take you over the mountain. Some people get snobby about what “digital audio workstation” you use, but Garage Band’s so user friendly, and a great gateway drug into music production.

Absolutely, Garage Band is approachable. So then, I bought a four track from my friend David Stein, who sold it to me when I mentioned that I was looking to buy one. He said if I gave him a ride home, he’d sell it to me for $150.

Are you friends with your four track recorder?

Oh, man. I didn’t have any problems with it at all, besides not knowing how to use it and erasing bits of songs that I didn’t want to erase for the first little while. But now I feel comfortable with it. It opened the door.

How does your girlfriend help to shape your music?

Friends and family and the people I see every day are the primary source of influence on my music, aside from stuff I listen to. I want to articulate my girlfriend’s role in a good way: I’ve been playing with a band of best friends for a long time but this album was a first go at showing the public what I can make on my own. I don’t want this to sound like [Ferro uses a sappy voiceover drawl here], “Without love, I wouldn’t have written these songs.” But it certainly plays a role, this relationship, having someone so genuinely supportive and honest. It’s encouraging. For me, it’s a really sweet validation.

Give me three adjectives for this album.

Stark. In terms of instrumentation, anyway. And rich. Or… sorta thick in a way? The analog approach made it… textural.

It has teeth?

There you go.

How does the omnipotent beast that is the Nashville’s music industry affect your life as an artist?

It provides opportunities, but it’s up to me to take the right ones. This year I just want to make lots of music and share it with lots of people. I’m not gonna worry about quote-unquote success. That can stifle your creativity if you focus on it too much. At around fourteen, at which point I didn’t have an inkling that I’d end up playing in bands at all, I met my friend Mitch. He’s played in bands for almost as long as I’ve been alive, and that’s when I figured out about jamming. Later, I started going to college and my band Ranch Coast formed one semester into my studies. I didn’t want to do both. But I still try to learn every day.

What do you think you might’ve studied if you hadn’t pursued being in a band full time?

Philosophy. Or writing.

By osmosis of making and being around music, I’m pretty sure you do both of those things all the time!

I hope so.

Well, none of your songs are about going to the club and finding out who’s wearing the best thong. Then again, that’s its own philosophy.

You’re right. That’s the next record.

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TRACK REVIEW: Wolkoff “The Homecoming”

A star by any names, Joanie Wolkoff, formerly performing under Her Habits, an AudioFemme Artist of the Month, is back. Wolkoff’s addictive collaboration with The Hood Internet, “Going Back” is still stuck in my head, yet her latest release, “The Homecoming” might just be the first song by any artist to start a new reign in my grey matter.

“The Homecoming” is the Canadian-turned New Yorker’s first song off her debut album, Without Shame, due out April 15. Indeed, shame is for humans, in the synth-pop artist’s transformation to surname recognition she flutters into goddess territory. On “The Homecoming,” Wolkoff’s signature vocals remain, delicate yet undoubtably lethal, like assassination via tai chi. They’re paired with glittering and hypnotic synth beats; the song and album were “inspired by symphonic 90’s euro-pop and deep house coupled with new wave motifs.” Adding spice to the cauldron, the album was engineered by the Grammy-winning Ariel Borujow and produced by Icarus Moth.

“The Homecoming” just premiered on Noisey, take a listen below.

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Wolkoff “New York Grand”

Captivating by design: That’s how Joan Wolkoff describes a lover in “New York Grand.” And just like she was, the song’s video pulls you in with images that, on the surface, are bold and pretty. But, you’ll realize they’re too perfect to be real when the backgrounds fracture and fall apart, and Wolkoff shifts and dissolves from one persona to the next as she sways. The music, including a gentle shower of synths and a heart beat-like bass, attempts to cover up the existential crisis she faces: “I fight for you, tear myself in two,” she whispers as she morphs, from blending in with beige wallpaper, to a bold, modern look, then covered in glitter and draped in a headscarf. Finally, all versions of her blur together as she becomes lost in the search for someone else’s ideal of beauty and perfection.

Originally from Toronto, Wolkoff now resides in Brooklyn. “New York Grand” is the final video from Wolkoff’s Talismans EP, and was directed by her sister Zoe. Check out the video below:

LIVE REVIEW: Wolkoff @ Baby’s All Right

While most of New York fled the city for Labor Day 2015, Wolkoff, aka Joanie Wolkoff formerly of Her Habits, performed at the venue famous for those lights, Baby’s All Right. She covered the entirety of her EP “Talismans” and finished with a few new tunes. She started the show covered in a cape – removed to reveal a shiny jaw-dropping black mini-dress, a look completed with her signature white Reeboks and tube socks. She was joined by two talented and flexible modern dancers, complementing Wolkoff’s moody pop with sweat on muscles and even a samarai sword. Her EP “Talismans,” which you can stream here, shows Wolkoff’s lyrical emotional depth and alt-pop writing chops, but seeing her live truly takes the experience to the next level. Sure, she’s blonde and pretty – but far from appearing traditional or boring. Joanie Wolkoff is just one of those goddesses who is on to something and found a way to exist in this world that is wholly unique to herself, yet captivating to all. Those attributes shine through in her stage presence, performance, aesthetic and of course, music, to create quite the enchanting package.

If you missed this show, come see Wolkoff at Atypical Beasts and AudoFemme’s CMJ takeover show Friday, October 16th at The Delancey. Until then, watch Wolkoff’s video for “Too Quiet” below:

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Wolkoff “Going Back”

Joanie Wolkoff, former vocalist of Her Habits (and my forever crush) has moved onto something new and isn’t going back. She recently released “Going Back,” the first single from her new project, named straight to the point – Wolkoff. If Her Habits was a persona, from the name alone I’m excited to fall in love with the person.

Putting aside all music blog jargon – I love this song. Like, listen on repeat love it, play it on a rooftop in the summer love it, put it on my sex play list love it, cry in the shower love it. “Of the lies you told when you kept me down now I’m building speed just cant turn around…Not going back again.” It breaks my heart to hear about anyone hurting the goddess that is Joanie, but dear girl, your artistic expression of pain (with a triumphant ‘tude) is musically pure pleasure. It’s slowed-down synth pop that hits the soul, something pop music rarely achieves, but when it does it’s enough to make you dizzy.

Wolkoff is finishing up her new EP, a collaboration with producer Icarus Moth that we can expect to see out in late August.

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Tag: Wolkoff