It was the first real summer day in Amsterdam, so the mood in the city was already bright as I rode around the corner to Klassified Studio to meet Joiah for the first time. With her debut EP released this month on Klassified Records, it was a real pleasure to get to know the newest edition of their family.
I sat down with Joiah for a very intriguing conversation about her upbringing, her journey through music, psychology, and the challenges women still face in the music industry.
Born and raised in Padua – Italy, fifty minutes away from Venice, she grew up as a classically trained pianist. She started private piano lessons at six years old and began playing at the conservatory at eleven. The environment was strict and very old-fashioned in the Italian institute, so she quickly knew that she needed to move on. She was competing in equestrian show jumping at the same time, so she quit the conservatory to focus on the sport. Anything she does, she gives her all (she was also a competitive wake-boarder and a passionate windsurfer in the summer season – still is now); which she attributes to her mother’s motivation and father’s love for extreme sports and disciplined character. Sports became a big part of her life, but music was always in her heart.
Through her childhood friend Francesco Gastaldi, a multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, and producer who now masters all her tracks, she began exploring electronic music production. They spent hours in his studio experimenting with sounds and writing lyrics, which helped fuel her to continue on her own when she eventually moved to Miami when she was 19.
Those years in Miami played a big role in her life and took her musical journey in a whole new direction. She began studying music business in college, DJing, and then started teaching herself to make music on Logic Pro X. She got inspired by her peers and a professor who is a salsa composer who gave her a lot of energy and kept her creative juices flowing.
She then found a job with Mixed In Key, creating music for beta testing the software. This helped give her practice in creating different genres to test on such as house, drum n bass, etc. Her friendship with the CEO (Yakov Vorobyev) helped introduce her to a lot of software that is geared toward making music more accessible for everyone. This partnership continued to drive the creative mindset she needed to work on her own tracks. By that time, she started getting familiar with the DAW and plugins to create music and continued teaching herself and increasing her knowledge. Meanwhile, she was also writing lyrics and singing and collaborating with R&B/hip hop producer Cameron Coombs, one of her classmates in college.
She also got inspiration from going out to clubs and venues in Miami, which opened up a wide variety of music for her: Latin, indie-rock, hip hop, etc. but she always had a special connection to electronic music, especially house, minimal, and techno. This passion began as a kid when her mom would grace the house’s environment with sounds from Buddha Bar, Hotel Costês, Jamiroquai, and more. Joiah knew her path would lead to starting her own electronic music project one day.
Finally, her first EP on Miami’s Future Culture Records at Rakoon Studios was released in 2020.
By then, she had already moved to Amsterdam to start studying sound engineering at SAE, to deepen her research in music and sound. She also got into music journalism with Numero Magazine Netherlands, where she interviewed Parallelle for their ‘Day At’ album, which is how her relationship with Klassified began.
When discussing the tracks on her EP and the inspiration behind them it became clear that this young talent is full of wit and seems wise beyond her twenty-six years.
“I am a very existential person, I like to observe and analyze the behavior of people, how they move, think, and relate to each other. In the Western world, we give a lot of importance to the ego and that makes it difficult to fully connect to one another. I am trying to expose and share my journey of what I experience with people, especially to empower women that might have gone through troubling situations, and reassure them that they are not alone”.
Although there is progress in women’s rights and the challenges we face as she says: “The scene is flourishing, but a lot of males still want to take advantage of women for their own gain. Women have to be strong and firm and set clear boundaries from the beginning. Or at least try”. Her advice for other women is to “focus on the craft and if you don’t feel respected then leave. Don’t take shit from anyone and be harsh if you have to”.
It was hard to choose a favorite out of the three tracks on the EP, each with its own fresh vibe. She wrote the lyrics, sang, and produced each track, and once I learned of the meanings behind them, it was easy to appreciate them even more.
‘Different’ – is making a joke of the differences in personalities in a relationship. She intends to enlighten the beauty of human relationships within the opposites. For Joiah, it’s in accepting and understanding these differences that love and unity can fully blossom.
‘Personal Issues’ – I laughed when she told me she used vocal messages of ex-flings on the track (one of her getting dumped). Her ability to take such a careless message into ammunition for such a groovy track is a testament to her ideology “I’m not going to let your issues affect me”. Emotions are chaotic and actions are afflicted. Her lyrics in the song describe her picturing these feelings, dancing off the wall, making movements – and the sound bouncing around. With this image in her mind, she alienates from the frustration and embraces music as her trusted companion.
‘Playing With My Ego’ – is about trying to break the pattern of being with a narcissist, which feels all too common these days. The song depicts the fragile ego of these types of people, the love/discard cycle they put you in, as well as the manipulation tactics they can throw at you. Change is constant and nothing is permanent. “The only way to set yourself free is to be aware and strong enough to notice the red flags and move on”. Her straight-up advice: “Don’t waste your love or time with a narcissist, you deserve better”.
Joiah’s sound is warm, gritty, and peachy, fluctuating between house breaks and minimal with soulful vocals. Her DJ sets will incorporate many of the latter and surprisingly shift to a faster pace of shades of techno. A juxtaposition of 90’s grooves, sensual ethereal vocals, and deep synthesized sounds. Her music is meant to be listened to in various scenarios and at different times of the day, not only on the dancefloor.
I am sure this is just the beginning of a very bright future for Joiah. With her passion for music and her humility, she will also inspire many in her path.
You can catch Joiah performing at the Klassified Records party with label heads Parallelle and Anthony Middleton (former Audiofly) who remixed Different, at Colorado Charlie in Scheveningen on August 5th.
Joiah’s new ‘Different’ EP is out now via Klassified Records. Purchase your copy here.
Follow Joiah: Soundcloud | Instagram | Spotify | Facebook
