Joy Weather Takes on a Nostalgic Innocence in New Single “A Little While”
BY OLIVIA LEON
Three piece indie rock band Joy Weather, composed of Brian Ishiba (lead singer-songwriter), Ed Baida (bass), and Joey Grabmeier (drums), has just released their latest single “A Little While,” with guest vocals from singer-songwriter Maggie Gently. The track embodies breathtaking in the most figurative sense. From its soft guitar strums to the narrative lyrics, the song leaves you in awe of the space it gives you to just breathe.
Being the first thing listeners hear, the acoustic guitar develops the sound of the track, creating a space of quiet reflection. The strums give way to relatable storytelling as the song leans into the complexity of living in a memory— the longing to feel young and lovestruck just once again. “Just for a little while / Let my mind run wild with / The thought of a life and time / Where I could be yours.” The track leads listeners into the familiar mindset of having a crush. With soft instrumentals and melodic vocals, it replicates the emotions we keep to ourselves— the quiet, thrilling feeling of daydreaming, hanging onto threads of hope that beam brighter than anything.
Speaking to the nostalgic innocence of having a crush, “A Little While” develops an emotional landscape from start to finish. It documents the highs— comfort, nostalgia, hope— and the lows— disappointment, and the snap back to reality. “There was something comforting about living in a daydream, and feeling the way I did when I was a kid, but I wasn’t quite ready for the reality of a relationship. I knew that it couldn’t go on like that forever, and I didn’t necessarily want it to. I just wanted to hold on to that feeling for a little while,” the band explains.
“A Little While,” is, however, far from alone in its complexity and grappling of human emotions. From tracks like “Ghosts” to “Fake It Til You Make It,” the band delves into a range of relatable yet complicated emotions that draw listeners in again and again. “We're really just three friends who love making music together, and we hope that playfulness and thoughtfulness comes through in the music. It's also important for me personally to show that you can create art around sadness and mental health struggles without glorifying or romanticizing those things,” songwriter Ishiba explains. The band takes the bright, upbeat sound of the indie-pop genre, and transforms it into a familiar outlet for emotions more complex and honest to the artists, as well as listeners.
While the band strays away from their usual style for a more stripped down acoustic track, they stay close to their sound in lyrics and in their collective product. Ishiba says “ Personally, The 1975 is a pretty big inspiration and influence. Not their sound necessarily, although I do like their music, but what they’ve been able to accomplish. It’s inspirational to see a band that’s been together a long time, grow together, and not be tied down to any single genre. It’s very cool to see them be so genre-fluid yet still sound like themselves.” As the band releases new music, they seem to be accomplishing exactly that. Their music, while grounded in the Indie genre, is fluid in its style and consistent in its sound that is purely Joy Weather.
The band plans to release a string of singles in the upcoming year, “A Little While” and “For the Weekend” being firsts of the set. Stay on the lookout Joy Weather in 2022 and tag along for the journey.
