other joe is an artist name that asks more questions than it answers. Is the moniker an in-group differentiator? Maybe it is a gesture towards the infinite. As the artist himself has stated, there’s always another Joe. The lack of capitalization suggests a humility, which the music—clicky and emotional and full of charming artifacts—doesn’t not match, even though the track names on the Australian producer’s newest release can run towards the boastful. “I Run This City” sounds like it could be the title of a Dipset single in 2004. Anyway: I wanted to get to the bottom of all of this. Read the interview with other joe—real name: Joseph Buchan—and listen to his newest EP, Flawless, below.

Talk about Flawless. Where does that name come from?

 

other joe: Some of the track titles have a bit of swag to them ... “Flawless,” “I Run This City,” “Ice in my Veins” ... I thought it was funny, having these like, braggadocious titles for otherwise quite introspective IDM tracks. I like when artists come out swinging a bit in their titles, maybe same as Erika De Casier's Essentials or Magic Oneohtrix Point Never. I was thinking about calling the record is Flawless so it would read other joe is Flawless but very occasionally I'm able to stop a joke before I take it too far.

 

My production style is a bit scrappy imo ... Low bitrates, de-noise artifacts, clicks ‘n pops. I felt insecure about my ramshackle process for a while. Now I just kinda think the tracks are uniquely mine for that scrappyness. There’s an umami to it, all the artifacts and errors all singing in concert, delayed ‘n distorted, filtered and compressed. Melodies ‘n rhythms you wouldn’t otherwise get. A flawed approach with flawless results. A beautiful mosaic of flaws … just like all of us… 

 

What is "yearn for Snow" about? 

 

I was laughing about yearning and yearners when I made that track. I’d stumbled across a copy of this manga, A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow. The comic itself wasn’t for me but the title really tickled me. Wanting what you can't have ... Yearning for something you can't even imagine. Relatable.

 

Sometimes you play live with a five-piece band. Could you talk a bit about that show and how it came together?

 

We first did the live band for the Jealousy Tulip album launch. I was really into The Field, and I thought how he did his live sets was cool—recontextualising sample-heavy tunes with live instruments. That process—samples to instruments and back again—has always been a part of my practice. Back in art school I would chop up samples, convert that audio to MIDI, and then that MIDI to sheet music. Then I’d get instrumentalists and record that sheet music, and then chop those recordings up as samples again. There are a couple tracks on my albums Alien Hazeand Blessings that use that process.

 

In its current iteration, I wouldn’t claim making a beat then having my boy Jordan play guitar on it is particularly conceptual. But there’s a throughline to that earlier process—making music in the box, then looking to re-compose outside of it. And yeah, since that first set I just kept getting asked to bring the band to play live. We’ve gotten to do some awesome shows. The album launch at Miscellenia’s Mezzanine party will remain a core memory for a long time.

What is .jpeg Artefacts all about? How did the label start?

 

I was really into time capsules when I started the label. Even just the idea of communicating across time and culture, and the limitations of that was really interesting to me. I was thinking about the Voyager Golden Record or how we communicate to future societies where hazardous waste is stored. 

 

Music seemed like a good time capsule to me. My Dad passed away when I was young, and he left me his record collection. I’d go through his records every few years. There was always heat in there—La Monte Young or Steve Reich, Eberhard Weber, Talking Heads, loads of good records. Sometimes I’d discover something new, but more often I would find a record in his collection that I’d already found and loved on YouTube or Soulseek or whatever. It was a trip, and very touching, to realise that like, my Dad and I had discovered and loved the same music independent of the others' influence. Those experiences made me feel close to him, which is not an experience I got to have much. I have a tendency to be a cornball about the ~otherworldly power of music~ but it really is true to me—my Dad’s decision to keep an archive of music he found touching, it ended up being the way we could be close to each other. 

 

The label is obviously, just a label. I started it to put out my music when nobody else would. But it’s also conceptually based in that idea of keeping a physical record of stuff I love: books on a shelf, records in a kallax, posters on a wall.

 

I've read that you are a big jazz head. What kind of jazz have you been listening to lately?

 

Some choice tracks from my jazz playlist: 

 

Bill Evans “B Minor Waltz,” John Abercrombie “Timeless” (with a shout out to my boy Nico always), Miroslav Vitous, Terje Rypdal, Jack DeJohnette “Maya,”

Ralph Towner “Nimbus,” Shai Maestro “The Forgotten Village.”

If you're a jazz head you will notice an extreme prejudice towards ECM Records which is by design ... One of my fav labels.

 

"Hey Joe" or "Cotton Eye Joe"—what do you prefer?

 

Hendrix over Rednex (who are Swedish?) ... But my favorite joe-of-note is Joe Cool. 

 

Where does Joe go next?

 

In non-specific chronological order: Northcote Plaza Donut King for a black coffee and donut holes, Reis’ living room for band practice, Eydie’s for a pint, the seat of a plane en route to some other joe EU/UK dates, the arms of my loved ones.