JOVM mainstays JOSEPH‘s fourth album, the Tucker Martine and Christian “Leggy” Langdon co-produced The Sun is slated for a Friday release through their longtime label home ATO Records. The album reportedly sees the group — Natalie Closner Schepman and her two, younger twin sisters Meegan and Allison Closner —working with a collection of new collaborators and making yet another vibrant sonic shift while retaining the craft, three-part harmonies and hard-fought and harder-won lyrical wisdom that they’ve been known for throughout their career. But unlike its predecessors, The Sun sees the sibling trio taking a decidedly more hands-on role in the production process. The result is an album of material that sees Joseph spinning incredibly complex concepts into anthemic, sing-along ready pop that serves as a backdrop for the trio’s fearless and deeply personal storytelling from each of their perspectives.
Thematically, the forthcoming album sees the trio focusing their soul-searching songwriting on the quietly damaging forces that keep us from living fully in our truth — e.g., gaslighting, cultural conditioning, unconscious yet painfully limiting self-beliefs and the like. Drawing on hard lessons from relationships and personal growth through therapy, The Sun reportedly shares stories of taking control of your own fate, making difficult decisions in the name of becoming yourself and weathering the highs and lows of love while keeping the faith — and importantly, tending to ourselves with presence and compassion. “All of our therapists were a huge influence on this album,” the sibling trio say in press notes.
In the lead-up to the album’s release later this year, I managed to write about two of the album’s singles”
- “Nervous System,” a punchy pop song rooted in deep. personal experience, the rousingly anthemic, sing-along friendly choruses the trio is known for, and big-hearted, earnest compassion. Fittingly the song — and its narrator — discusses being our own lifeline during times of anxiety, struggle and uncertainty. “It’s about self regulating and tending to ourselves with presence and compassion, rather than frantically reaching outside of ourselves,” the trio explain. Alison Closner adds “I’ve struggled with a lot of anxiety over the years, at times a constant inner storm, and it’s been easy to look outside myself to feel safe and secure. I’ve fought to find my inner peace, and through that process I’ve found that so much of the time I already have what it takes to calm my nervous system.”
- “The Sun,” a shimmering, buoyant and fittingly summery pop anthem and a righteously defiant tell-off to a relationship that has made you feel small and insignificant while recognizing — and perhaps for some, reclaiming — one’s own power, integrity and sense of self. Much like the previously released material from the album, the song is rooted in universal yet deeply personal experiences, which add to its rousingly anthemic nature. “Many times I have found myself in a position where I’m stuck in cycles of negative self-talk” Meegan Closner explains. “Times when I have seen myself as bad and struggle seeing any other possible truth. This song is my higher self speaking to that me. It’s me reminding myself that I am more than I think I am.”
The album’s latest single “Fireworks” is a lush, stadium-ready bop built around the trio’s soaring harmonies and their penchant for shout-along worthy choruses paired with twinkling synths, strummed acoustic guitar and a propulsive backbeat. While seeming like a slick mesh of 80s pop and country, “Fireworks” is a feminist anthem about knowing your worth and refusing to settle or compromise your romantic ideals. The song is rooted in psychological realism though, with the song’s narrator admitting that she’s taking a leap of faith, while expressing self-doubt and frustration.
“This song was inspired after my sisters and I binged the UK version of Love Island season 6. Everyone is walking around in bathing suits and falling in love – it’s perfect,” JOSEPH’s Allison Closner says. “I was fascinated by how many times ‘what’s your type’ was asked, only to have the response be ‘tall, dark, and handsome’. I would think, why isn’t anyone saying ‘fireworks’? There’s a line in the song, ‘I don’t want to just settle now, put my fire underground’, and to me it symbolizes wanting to feel like that fire is being fed by something deep and meaningful – not settling for anything less than FIREWORKS.”
Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Justin Frick, the accompanying video captures the Closner’s deep and affectionate bond with following them on the road, and their obsession with Love Island in a fun, playful fashion.
The JOVM mainstays are currently on an extensive tour that includes a June 22, 2023 stop at Irving Plaza. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
2023 Tour Dates
April 26 London, UK Royal Albert Hall (Opening for James Bay – SOLD OUT)
April 28 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
April 29 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco
April 30 San Diego, CA Music Box
May 2 Tucson, AZ Congress Plaza Stage
May 3 Santa Fe, NM Meow Wolf
May 5 Dallas, TX The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
May 6 Houston, TX Last Concert Café
May 7 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
May 9 Oklahoma City, OK Tower Theatre
May 11 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater**
May 12 Salt Lake City, UT Commonwealth Room
May 13 Boise, ID Knitting Factory**
May 15 Missoula, MT The Wilma
May 16 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory
May 18 Seattle, WA The Showbox**
May 19 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
May 20-21 Portland, OR Revolution Hall**
June 9 St. Paul, MN Fitzgerald Theater**
June 10 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall
June 11 Indianapolis, IN HIFI Annex
June 13 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
June 14 Ferndale, MI The Magic Bag**
June 16 Toronto, ON Opera House
June 17 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom
June 18 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
June 20 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club**
June 22 New York, NY Irving Plaza
June 23 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
June 24 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
June 25 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
June 27 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
June 29 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl
June 30 St. Louis, MO Delmar Hall
July 1 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall**
**LOW TICKET WARNING
Fireworks” is an epic, stadium-ready anthem about refusing to settle, accompanied by a gorgeous music video showing the three sisters on the road, directed by Justin Frick. The band speaks to the self-doubt and frustration that sometimes accompany refusing to compromise your romantic ideals, and the song was inspired by an unlikely source.
Says Allison of JOSEPH, “This song was inspired after my sisters and I binged the UK version of Love Island season 6. Everyone is walking around in bathing suits and falling in love – it’s perfect. I was fascinated by how many times ‘what’s your type’ was asked, only to have the response be ‘tall, dark, and handsome’. I would think, why isn’t anyone saying ‘fireworks’? There’s a line in the song, ‘I don’t want to just settle now, put my fire underground’, and to me it symbolizes wanting to feel like that fire is being fed by something deep and meaningful – not settling for anything less than FIREWORKS.”
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