Joywave is at an exciting point in their career. Not only have the act survived the pressures of their major label debut and the dreaded sophomore slump, but they have also established themselves as the kind of band that you are as likely to hear at a hip record store as you are at the grocery store. That said, there is a difference between ubiquity and evolution, and with their fifth full length, Permanent Pleasure, Joywave, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Armbruster, guitarist Joseph Morinelli, and drummer Paul Brenner, lean into guitar and string sections without sacrificing the signature sound that has endeared the band to countless fans, whether they know it or not, over the past eleven years.
The trio’s hometown, Rochester, New York, is integral not only to the theme of Permanent Pleasure, with audio samples from the 1984 historical compilation release The Rochester Sesquicentennial bookending the album, but also to Joywave’s overall identity. Despite international acclaim and major-label success, the band maintains a DIY work ethic that keeps them grounded in the present while always reaching toward the future. “We go to our studio and make a record with total creative freedom, and we turn it in, and the label tells us we did a great job,” Armbruster explains. This arrangement is a rarity in the music industry these days, but like all things Joywave, it works in a way that makes perfect sense for them.
Once again produced by Armbruster at the band’s own Rochester-based studio, The Joycave, Permanent Pleasure is an unfiltered vision of the band’s creativity, seeing them stepping out of their sonic comfort zone. “I think this is probably our least keyboard-heavy record,” Armbruster explains, adding that in some ways Permanent Pleasure was a reaction to the more cohesive and linear construction of 2022’s Cleanse. “On Permanent Pleasure, we blew everything apart again. We are switching out drum components and everything we can between songs and freeing ourselves again from the box of ‘it has to be super cohesive’ because I always want to rage against what we did last time. But five records in, we are a lot better at writing and recording, so it is bringing back a little bit of the all-over vibe of the first record, but on the other side of the experience. We have gone through a wormhole.”
That feeling of artistic liberation is the album’s unifying sonic characteristic, from the futuristic downtempo groove of “Sleepytime Fantasy” to the hypnotic dancefloor vibe of “Brain Damage.” Permanent Pleasure also sees the band expanding their musical conventions, most notably by enlisting an actual orchestra to play on these songs rather than relying solely on software, as they have in the past. “We have always done virtual instruments before, but we wanted to have it real this time around, so we had the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra play on five of these songs,” Morinelli, who wrote out the sheet music, explains. That amalgamation of electronic and organic instrumentation is evident on songs like “He’s Back,” which is political, personal, petrifying, and playful, seemingly all at once.
However, as much as Joywave is pushing toward the future with this album, there is also an element of nostalgia present as the trio looks back at what they have built since they began playing together, as heard on shimmering pop songs like “Swimming In The Glow.” “That song harkens back to an era of Joywave before we were in the beam and before anyone really cared what we did. It really draws lyrically on that time in my life of feeling like me, Paul, and Joey had everything all together,” Armbruster explains. “Sonically, I think that song is a side of the band that people who have heard our 2012 EP Koda Vista know is there. It is a side of the band that people who saw us in our very early days at local clubs like Bug Jar know is there, but it is something that deserves to be in the spotlight.”
“I want to touch you, but I’m scared,” Armbruster sings on the infectious single “Scared,” an ode to codependency that is as much about connection as it is existential dread. Ultimately, that dichotomy between humor and hopelessness lies at the core of Permanent Pleasure. “I think the job of an artist is to explore every side of being a person, and self-awareness is a huge part of being a person,” Armbruster summarizes. “I think artists who ignore humor are not being true to themselves, and it is a huge part of who we are, despite having thoughts on the record that are on the darker side of things. You have to wink a little bit to make it okay. You have to make a joke about the asteroid as the asteroid is about to hit.”