Next Wave #1022: Wesley Joseph
In Association With Fred Perry
*Wesley Joseph* is one of a unique set of modern-day creatives to have built a name for themselves in the middle of the pandemic. “It’s kinda weird,” says Joseph in response to the somewhat intangible hype he’s managed to accrue while bound to the four walls of his bedroom. “I can definitely feel a real energy from responses to the music. I just didn’t expect this much this early.”
Joseph is a fiercely ambitious London based songwriter, producer, director and all-round creative entrepreneur. His musical roots as a youngster stretch back to the OG Horse Collective back in his hometown, Walsall alongside the likes of Jorja Smith. “The collective was integral to everyone’s journey,” says Joseph who then later moved to the capital in 2016 to study film as well as make beats from his makeshift home studio which formed a catalyst for his DIY ethos as an artist.
The same fire that sparked in Joseph’s belly from a young age continues to burn strong today. He attests that this raw ambition allowed his vision as a creative to really come to life recently: “When I was younger, there was no one to rely on to do music, videos or anything like that for me. Nothing is ever good at the start, but after so many years you start to pick up valuable skillsets. Now, everything I’m doing feels relevant and it allows me to connect to a bigger vision every day.”
Having already worked with the likes of Lexxx and electronic pioneer Joy Orbison, Joesph’s newest upcoming body of material hones in on the ocean as a poignant metaphor for the themes he explores in his music. In his latest single ‘Thrilla’, Joseph explains that the ocean acts as an equilibrium point for his reflections on the world around him while feeling underneath the surface of it all. It’s this deeply visual, almost synesthetic aspect to Joesph’s work which stands out and his creative process as an artist constantly calls upon both the musical and visual worlds of his mind.
With so much more material already in the pipeline, Joseph’s year ahead looks to a be colourful one. “Music never stops, it’s a way of life,” says the talented young creative, and if his fire and ambition continues to grow, the possibilities of the post-COVID creative world will lay at his fingertips.
*WHAT:* Soulful poignancy with links to club culture.
*WHERE: *London-via-Walsall
*3 SONGS: *‘Thilla’, ‘Martyrs’, ‘Imaginary Friends’
*FACT:* “When I lie on my back, my dreams are 20 times more intense.”
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Words: *Jamie Wilde*
Fashion: *Zarina Shukri *
Photography: *Sophie Mayanne*
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