Musical: Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Mojave 3, Spacemen 3, Daniel Lanois, Malcolm Burn, U2, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Kevin Shields, Paul Simon.
Non-musical influences: Movies on Lifetime, lotto tickets, glass cleaner, lead paint, bitter disappointment, What's Happening!!, sans-serif fonts.
Sounds Like
Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Mojave 3, Daniel Lanois all mixed together and filtered through my life experience. I've also been told Pink Floyd and Sonic Boom and Spectrum. You tell me.
ask for joy is a songwriter, performer and producer in Austin, Texas. Making heavy use of lush, long reverbs of repetitive guitar chords and bright, mechanical drum machines, the music draws comparisons to such bands as My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Spectrum, etc. However, there are far more influences at play in each song.
With uncomplicated vocals, lyrics, melodies and harmonies couched in hypontizing drum machine loops, heavily effected guitars and analog keyboards, the music is druggy, atmospheric, textured and dense dream pop, seeking more to envelop and to inspire a mood in the listener than to tell a story (what a semiotician might call a Peircean Firstness). It is best experienced listened through headphones, allowing for the different layers to be better perceived.
Taking his name from a want ad looking for roommates, ask for joy began recording his songs on a four-track recorder in 1995 and distributing cassettes to friends and family. Never one for collaborating, he played all the instruments and recorded all the vocals by himself. After outgrowing the capabilities of the four-track recorder, he moved to a laptop computer-based recording system which he uses both to record and produce demos and acts as his backup band when performing live.
Earlier this year, ask for joy released a self-produced four-song EP entitled Swoon. These songs are available for download on ask for joy's MySpace.
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