Joyeria gets existential on new single, ‘The Swimmer’
The key to ageing gracefully is to simply quit giving a fuck about how people perceive you, and to allow yourself to exist in your truest form. Your youth is where you experiment with all sorts of different ways to present yourself; that punk phase may not work out for you, but as you get older, you’ll allow yourself to become more at ease with who you’ve always been.
The thing is, nobody really knows who London-based Canadian songwriter Joyeria was when he was a young man, and there aren’t many people who know exactly who he is now.
Avoidant of sharing much information about himself, aside from dropping hints about the fact that he’s played in a few other musical projects over the years (all of which are easily discoverable with a little research), he’s been operating under this guise for the last four years, and isn’t exactly a spring chicken compared to his peers.
While he may want to remain semi-anonymous as an individual, you get the feeling that at the same time, he’s proudly exhibiting the loosest incarnation of himself, and allowing all inhibitions to fall by the wayside. Since the launch of debut single ‘Here Comes Trouble’, released by Speedy Wunderground in 2021, Joyeria has showcased an EP worth of material in FIM, and is set to follow this up with his second short collection of songs, Graceful Degradation, on October 31st.
Following ‘I Don’t Know, Who Cares’, ‘The Swimmer’ is the latest single to come from the forthcoming EP, and sees the artist enter danceable art-rock territory, with a bouncing bassline and frenetic synths introducing themselves from the getgo. While Joyeria’s vocal delivery in the past has been compared to the likes of Bill Callahan and David Berman for its dry wit and husky baritone, there’s far more aggression packed into the vocals this time around, with the singer practically growling the chorus of “start swimming down the road”.
It’s still got that literarily-informed slant to it, but is perhaps more akin to something that Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage would summon up. Taking inspiration from the short story of the same name published in the New Yorker by John Cheever in 1964, ‘The Swimmer’ works in existential themes of trying to escape a place of discomfort through the metaphor of being stuck in a swimming pool that spans an entire neighbourhood, and seemingly not being able to escape yourself or your demons.
That being said, escape is something that Joyeria seems to have been able to do. His past projects are firmly behind him, and he’s thriving in this new creative outlet where he can be himself, no matter how full of unusual quirks it might be.
The upcoming release of Graceful Degradation is set to mark a new chapter in the arc of Joyeria, which has already proven itself to be a fascinating one to follow since emerging at the start of the decade. The man behind the moniker may be well-travelled on the circuit, but his latest offerings display more urgency and willingness to push forward than most songwriters half his age.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Post-Punk Newsletter
All the latest Post-Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.