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Joee & I to launch first album with audiovisual concert at Fringe Manila 2017


Multi-disciplinary artist and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde instructor, Joee Mejias will release her first album with a multisensory performance that she conceptualized and developed with internationally renowned artists, on February 24, 2017 at Power Mac Center Spotlight in Circuit Makati.

Armed with a laptop, kalimba, melodica, bells, shakers and toy instruments, she churns out melodies known genres fail to categorize. She also infuses live recordings of the sounds in her immediate environment and samples from people close to her.

Her band Joee & I has performed in both local underground and international spaces, such as Southeast Asia, and Canada. 


Joee & I is reminiscent of Björk, Múm, Portishead and Massive Attack. The band draws from a myriad of influences and bizarre experiences to weave spine-tingling, soulful electronica with a pop twist. 

“The idea of Joee & I is collaboration or collection. Each song in the album contains samples from my friends just playing with the song, or some would give me samples, some are field recordings. They are my contributors,” she said. 

A natural poet, she mixes her beats with surreal prose transcribed from her stream of consciousness and dreams. Stranger than fiction, the reality she describes in her songs is often hard to believe, but really charismatic, magical and reflective of the enigma of human emotions. 

“All my songs are narrations of my personal experience. In my song ‘Teknobalat,’ I said that I was with a bear eating a bánh mì, and someone called me on the phone, then the world started to explode. It really happened. Believe it or not,” Joee said.

Joee is very spontaneous when writing songs. Calm and connected, she takes her time and lets the track finish itself at an organic pace.

“I would write new songs as they come up. When I am in a place or situation that inspires me, I record it right there and then. I write them right when I have to. And then that’s it. I leave the sketch and build it as I go along. So I guess the time it is complete varies,” she shared.

Joee started in 2005 and is one of the first Filipina musicians who made electronic music in Manila, along with Ria Munoz and Teresa Barrozo.

But it took a while for her to produce an official album, because her original bandmate was shot — in front of her — during an unfortunate Katipunan robbery.

“I used to be with a band for a long time with Tara Santelices. She was my collaborator in making music for my two bands Stormy and Saffron Speedway where I started performing electronic music. But she passed away in 2009. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to record anything,” she shared.

“It took me a while to find the energy to make music again because I was looking for that chemistry and I couldn’t find it anywhere else,” she further confessed.

When Joee started using beats instead of drums twelve years ago, there were a handful of local musicians doing electronic music and the genre didn’t have the same understanding and acceptance that it has today.

“It was really interesting because playing in a full all-girl rock band with beats instead of drums was kind of unusual back then. I was also young and I wasn’t sure how people felt about it. Sometimes it made me feel like I should play the drums again instead. I had a lot of sound experiments before, but they were all in a secret vault. I felt it was too weird for a crowd at that time,” Joee said. 

Under the mentorship of British producer Mark Hobbs and encouragement of Dott Seki and Franchesca Casauay, Joee is producing her album independently with Tengal Drilon, and Arvie Bartolome.

 


Interestingly, Joee said that her music can’t be experienced fully without visuals.

“I write my songs with a clear visual in my head. When I do a performance, I’m able to translate this vision into reality. This is the complete presentation of the song. That is why I try to do these audiovisual shows and get to work with amazing people for the visuals,” she shared. 

However, her album won’t come with visuals. It would have a downloadable lyric book, and she will release music videos that go with singles throughout the year.

The album, "To The End of the World", reflects her passion and extensive experience in theatre, arts, music and technology. The official launch is supported by the country’s leading multi-arts festival for independent acts Fringe Manila, and is part of the fête’s must-see series of events for this year.

It will be co-presented by HERESY, a female-focused multidisciplinary arts-tech collective. An equally genre-agnostic band that provides multisensory performances, Wilderness, will open for the concert. — AT, GMA News

"To the End of the World" will launch at the Power Mac Center Spotlight in Circuit Makati on Feb. 24, 2017. Tickets are available at TicketWorld. You can also follow Joee & I’s official Facebook page for updates.

Tags: fringemanila
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