Joseph Billy III-or simply Joe Billy-contacted me recently with a link to his new comedy single 'I'm The Motherfucking Spiderman'. A great new single but I instantly knew there was much more to this musician than the release of a funny song and so I had to catch up with him for more info. This is his story........
Thanks for taking the time with this interview Joe, can you tell us about your musical background and how would you describe your sound?
I started playing music in 2010 because I was very interested in the drums. I started taking drum lessons and today I make a living off of drumming. Deep down though, I’ve always had a strong passion to be a performer and a frontman. After a few years of drumming for bands, I decided to start up a side project where I would be the singer for a punk band. That unfortunately only lasted about a year due to creative differences, but I continued to try and make the band something. After a long while of not being able to find consistent members who shared the same vision as me, I decided to say “fuck it, I’ll learn a few chords on guitar and just try it solo!”
So in 2016, I took my family’s dusty old acoustic guitar and learned 3 or 4 chords and wrote some loud, angry songs and called it an album.
I honestly never thought that it would take or that anyone would enjoy it, but sure enough, I have a growing fanbase, more releases and here I am a few years later.
I typically label my sound as “Acoustic-Punk.” I’ve always found a home within Punk Rock and I was so intrigued and fascinated with the stripped down, intimate version of “Folk-Punk” and solo singer-songwriters.
So, while trying not to limit myself too much, I consider “Acoustic-Punk” to be pretty descriptive but it’s also broad enough to allow me to branch out and experiment creatively with my music.
Has lockdown impacted you creatively at all and how have you found the past few months?
Well, leading up to the pandemic’s peak, I had a bunch of gigs and tour dates scheduled, both for drums and solo work. Unfortunately all of those had to get cancelled. But then, as soon as lockdown started it’s as if I found myself with more time than I’m use to handling. I was still working to some extent from home, but I now had time to work on all these projects and try all these things to the point where, after a week, I completely hit a wall of exhaustion! haha.
So once I found my balance again, I started working out ways to progress in areas I could, like doing prep work for the album I’m currently working on, recording more from home, doing covers, learning how to live-stream better, doing remote collaborations, trying to promote myself more over the internet, etc.
Most importantly, I think, is my decision to take more time for myself and my self care. My life is, most of the time, very busy with packed scheduling and so, I realised how far away I had strayed from the healthy habits I’ve made in the past. I was able to exercise more, practice meditation and yoga more, just go outside and appreciate the sun; smalls things that, I too often forget, make a big difference for me in my “life balance” so to speak.
So needless to say, I’ve tried to make the best of it.
Your latest release is the comedy single 'I'm The Motherfucking Spiderman', can you tell us the idea or theme behind the project?
Haha, so this was honestly a random song idea that just became something more concrete over time. One day I woke up feeling this overwhelming urge to write a song from the perspective of a drunken, belligerent, cocky, self centered Spiderman. In retrospect, I think I was mostly inspired by replaying my Spiderman 2 for the PS2, which I revisit from time to time, on top of the newer Spiderman games that have come out. So I think there was just plenty of content to get influence from.
Who's worked with you on the single?
All of the composition, production, music, lyrics, and performances on this song are me, with the exception of the Lead Guitar being my brother Matt, who does
awesome guitar work with Our Wits That Make Us Men, and his solo project Circledropper.
What other releases have you put out?
So far, I’ve released 3 albums, 2 singles, a 6 song EP from when I was live on a radio station in Ohio while on tour, and a 2 song EP from my old punk band I mentioned, Point of Anxiety. I dug up those songs after years of never using them and figured “fuck it, show the people where I came from.”
Where can folks get to listen to your work?
My music is currently on every streaming platform and store, including Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and many more.
You can find all of the links to the various sites in the MUSIC tab on my website JOEBILLYMUSIC.COM.
You can also find my store, links to my various social medias, and any updates about shows and such on there.
What's next for you?
I’m currently working on a new album, which I am very excited about. As opposed to my other albums, which were mainly just acoustic guitar and vocals, this one is going to have mostly full band songs with a myriad of instruments, as well as plenty of friends featuring on the album. I honestly think it’s going to be the best piece of art I’ve made yet.
On top of that, I’ve been doing collabs with some friends which has been loads of fun and will be out eventually!
And also doing drum work, as usual, with any bands that need a session drummer or someone to track from home.
Anything else you'd like to add about the project, or a message for the readers?
My main hope for my music has always been to bring people together in any way I can. Most of the time, while writing music, I think about what the listeners will interpret or take away from the song they just heard, so a lot of the time, I’ll leave lyrical content open to interpretation. The messages I try to deliver with my songs and the relation it has with the listener is very important to me because not only am I writing music for myself, but I’m writing to hopefully invite others to think outside themselves a bit and to engage in some introspection. To have them think of something, anything, from a different perspective and come back to the realisation that we’re all just humans trying to figure this shit out. Anyone who thinks they know everything about everything most likely doesn’t, and there is more to you than meets the eye. We humans are pretty limited in our knowledge of every fact of existence, both outside ourselves and within ourselves, so it’s important to keep an open mind, be willing to be wrong and check yourself on a consistent basis.
I hope to see you all out there at some point and have a deep conversation haha.
Comments