Joie De Vivre Interview/Bandcamp

Bandcamp

I literally, quite literally, love Joie de Vivre. They play beautiful, wonderful, fantastic music that will bring out your sadness when you sit alone on your bed, letting your laptop get to hot, listening to summer months over and over. Here is an interview with the beautiful Patrick Delehanty and a link to their bandcamp. He did the entire thing on his mobile, well most of it.  So I thank him exponentially, this was a dream come true. Aside from seeing them live, which I have yet to do.

1. How did the name Joie De Vivre come to be?

It was really pick and choosing.  It just kind of was.  It was running down a list of names and just getting over that first hump of choosing one.  It was originally going to be something like Not Just Scottsburg, But Towns.  Or Not Just Phillipsburg...Something 'burg.  Either way, it was bad.  Joie De Vivre was least lame apparently!  Haha.

2. Haha, And when did the band start up? How did you guys meet, and all get together and decide to start the band?

We started in the summer of 2007.  I went to high school with Chris, I have known him about a decade and he was always playing in bands and so was I- we also hung out with the same circle of people.  Brandon and Stevie played in various forms of this band called Your City/State which Chris eventually joined and recorded with.  They broke up, we formed from that, and started as a "let's just record some songs and play a couple shows".  Chris worked in a studio in Rockford that we pretty much had free reign over, and that's how what would become Summer Months happened.  A lot of drunken nights went into that EP, haha.

3. I'm sure you crushed more hearts than just mine when the news of your previous break up spread, would you say you're just bad at breaking up, or did you just feel it wasn't time to end it?

Haha believe me, the embarrassment of how that all went down is shared by all of us.  There really were good intentions with that break up- it wasn't planned or staged or anything like that- we were all making plans that would have made Joie hard to continue at that point.

I moved, Brandon and Stevie had desires to go back to school full time, Chris moved to NC, so on so forth.  It was amicable and it was all good hearted.  But then we thought about how we were together all the time recording the record, enjoying it, and then getting an offer to tour Europe; we just decided to let it be a play it by ear situation, and it still is.  We just needed a break; when you are with each other almost everyday for 4 years, you're going to frustrated with each other.  It really is like being in a relationship haha.

4. Oh man, so is the tour to Europe a definite possibility? Or would a tour across the U.S. be a more feasible task at the moment?

Well we already did Europe over the summer- it was incredible- we met amazing people, saw amazing things, drank amazing beer/wine, ate amazing food, and played with really incredible bands; like, insanely good bands.  We are planning on doing the UK again next summer, but we will see.

We would love to do a pretty healthy US tour, and we will at some point, but we have a 7 inch we want to do and also a split with The World Is A Beautiful Place... and another with Prawn.  I would bet on 2013.  We miiiiight be able to squeeze one in before but I think right now we don't have the most time on our hands to.  But yeah, we would love nothing more than to tour this great land.

5. You mentioned a 7 inch, when is that going to be making it's way around? As well as, has the writing changed any since the last record?

We'd like to have it done by the end of the year, but I think it'll be next year.  We are trying some new things on this, Zach moved back and will be playing on it, and recording it too actually.  We are taking our time, the new record just came out so we aren't by any means rushing.  We also have a new guitar player, Geoff Schott from The Please and Thank Yous to take over for Chris, so we need to get him comfortable with everything.  What we have written so far I am extremely proud of.  We want to do a more stripped down version of what we have previously done, so it's going to be exciting to see how we do it and come up with.  We have had a lot of fresh air pumped into this band as of late, and we are in a really good place to want to write and play out more.

6. Why haven't you done an american football/braid cover set?

Haha I don't think we ever have because we are God awful at learning covers and even worse at pulling them off live. We did a Pedro the Lion, Band of Horses, and Mineral cover. The unfortunate part is that the Mineral cover is documented haha. We did a Saves the Day cover set once and it went well, but that was because of Paul (our old horn player) cracking the whip on us learning it. We are also doing a Jimmy Eat World cover set this Halloween though!

As far as band specific to American Football and Braid- I couldn't tell you, maybe one day we will find the time to do it!

7. Would that be the Geoff Schott who is mention in the Hit Me With Your Best Schott album? As well, the words sung in the songs hit people very deeply, me especially, will those change any? Or do you have more sad stories to tell?

Haha dude, it still cracks me up that people know "At Least I Tried" as "Hit Me With Your Best Schott" or "Bubbletoes".  Our joke song titles always stick better with us as a band, we can never remember the real names!

Brandon is constantly writing lyrics, so I am sure he will have more sad stories to tell.  Probably good ones too.  You'd have to ask him!  He's a wildcard.

8. He's the wildcard! Would you say you have a favorite show that was played? From the final show video, it looked wonderful, you playing The Upperdeck, with a crowd of men. But what is your own favorite?

Haha the final show was amazing- we rarely get a chance to get all of our friends together in a room to play a show together so it was just perfect in every way.  That Upper Deck San Diego last show video was a dude fest, but an awesome one.  We've never done well with the ladies haha.

I have many favorite shows, most specifically that "last" show, and then also when we played London.  Mostly for Brandon and having kids across the ocean sing along with something he wrote.  That's a connection that I know he has never taken for granted and that had to be surreal for him.  It just made me proud to look at what city we were in, with that many kids, with a band I have been in and watch grow into something that people have a connection with.  It's a feeling I will never ever forget- one of the most proud moments in my life to share with my best friends.

9. With a tour in London, where people knew the words and could sing along. To all the records you have put out, and the astounding fan base you have. And having a close call to ending the band. Would you say there is always more that you can do, that Joie De Vivre isn't done yet, and we haven't seen the last of you? That there are still so many sad songs for people to sing along to, and shows to amass the men?

I think Joie is one of those bands that will always have something to do in some varying form or degree.  I think we all hate looking at it like "Okay, we need to do this, this, this..." it's pointless at that point, it really is.  When we need a break, we will take a break, when we want to do Joie stuff, we will do Joie stuff.  Whether that is releases, shows, tours, whatever- there is always something that you can do in a band, but "something" sometimes means taking a break for a couple months or longer.  It's never a bad thing- it's a really good thing at points.

But I think now the way we look at Joie is just as something that we really love doing with our friends, whether in the band or at shows or what have you, and keeping those times alive and well.