SINGAPORE — joan‘s latest “Something Special” hits digital streaming plaftorms today alongside the accompanying music video. The track is from “hi”, one of two upcoming EP’s (“hi” & “bye”) set to hit later this year via Photo Finish Records.
joan, about “something special, say, “this song makes you feel so nice, and if you disagree, we can’t be friends. sorry, but it’s true. this song started as a doobie brothers tribute song, just having some fun one day. we were just messing around with keyboard sounds and came across the chords to what are now the chorus chords. we looked at each other and said “wow this feels special, ohhh special. let’s write around that word.” and then all the sudden the lyrics to the chorus fell into place and we just got more and more excited with each minute that passed. the rest of the song just kind of worked itself out.”
They continued, “we’re both happily married to our wives, and both of our stories include us feeling like we connected like best friends and then realized “oh, i’m in love with my best friend, that’s so lucky.” that’s what this song is about, knowing there’s more than just a friendship there, and hoping the other person feels the same. there isn’t a feeling quite like that, feeling so deeply about someone on a friendship level and also feeling such a deeper love than friendship. we’re lucky to have both experienced that, life is good.”
joan’s new chapter ‘wave era’ will see new singles from two EPs landing on the first Thursday of each month, soundtracking the rest of 2021 with their trademark alt-pop bops, tinged with the sweetest hint of 90’s R&B influences. Titled hi and bye, joan explain “After we released “cloudy/partly cloudy”, we got straight to work, writing so many new songs. we found that the songs were naturally falling in two different camps. so, we decided rather than trying to force them to work together, it would be more interesting to release two ep’s over the course of the year. welcome to the wave era – here comes a new joan song each month through the end of the year.”
joan (Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford) have spent the past few years building their musical empire, single by single, tour date by tour date, with the past two years being landmarks for them; their debut EP, 2019’s portra, and last year’s EP cloudy have been streamed well over 90 million times, with over a million listeners a month across streaming platforms.
The guys spent much of 2019 on the road with major US and international tours supporting the likes of The Aces, COIN, Bloc Party and Jeremy Zucker, as well as playing to fans across Asia with headline shows and festivals in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Early 2020 saw them playing to sold out crowds across the US on their first headline tour, including having to add additional shows in LA to accommodate ticket demand. Their virtual cloudy release show in August 2020 boasted thousands of ticket sales from fans who tuned into their livestream. 2021 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for joan, they’re only just getting started.
Enjoy the music video for “Something Special” below: