Joseph - Im Alone, No Youre Not on CD

Description

Joseph is a bewitching band of three sisters from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Expect honest words and genetically perfected harmonies. There is nothing like the sound of siblings singing together. Whether it's the Beach Boys or the Everly Brothers-or, more recently, First Aid Kit-absorbing the same breathing rhythms and speech patterns adds an element to vocal harmonies that can be pure magic. With the release of I'm Alone, No You're Not, the mesmerizing, hypnotic sound of the trio known as Joseph-made up of sisters Allison, Meegan, and Natalie Closner-joins this elite company. "It's just second nature, like a fifth limb that's already on you," says first-born Natalie. "There's an ability to anticipate what's going to happen and blend with it. When Meegan and Allison sing, they know exactly what I'm going to do and when." But the Closners didn't actually start singing together when they were growing up in Oregon, the children of artistic parents (their dad was a jazz singer and drummer, their mom a theater teacher). Natalie was the performer-"the older sister who stood on the edge of the fireplace and told everyone, 'Watch me!,'" she says. Twins Meegan and Allison stayed out of her lane, joining in for their mother's musical theater productions but otherwise avoiding the spotlight. When Natalie was in college, she began pursuing music more seriously. The summer before her senior year, she went to Nashville to check out the scene and work on her guitar playing and songwriting. She had recorded an EP and done a few rounds of touring when a friend sat her down one day. "It was kind of dramatic," she says, "He took me aside and said, 'I don't think you really believe in this.' It stopped me in my tracks." She thought deeply about the music she was making and had a curious epiphany; she decided to ask her sisters if they would consider singing with her. Initially, they didn't really get it. "We thought she was asking us to be background singers, so we didn't take it that seriously," says Allison. "It was more commitment than I was expecting-I even tried to leave at one point, but after a while, I was convinced." A transformation occurred when the Closners were in the process of recording their first album, Native Dreamer Kin. At the time, they were calling themselves Dearborn, but their producer felt that the name didn't fit the strength of the music. They went to visit their grandfather Jo, in the eastern Oregon town of Joseph. Allison made a playlist for the trip and called it "Joseph," which is what influenced the band's name. "Once she said it, it just hit us all-that's what this is and who we are, these are the sounds of the land that we've lived on," says Natalie. With this new sense of themselves, Meegan and Allison began taking a more active role in the group's songwriting. Meegan notes that while the process was a "totally new journey" for her, it felt similar to the candor and vulnerability of her long-time journaling-just "pulling out the gold and arranging that into neater lines." She and Natalie both point to the song "Honest" as a keystone for the development of I'm Alone, No You're Not. "We were trying really hard to write a song, but nothing was coming," recalls Natalie. "One night, Meegan was working on some lyrics and getting frustrated, so she wrote in the margin of the page, 'I can't say a true thing. It's hard to be that honest.' Immediately after that, her most honest sentence spilled out-'There's always two thoughts, one after the other: I'm alone. No, you're not.' And she thought, 'Oh, there's the song.' " Meanwhile, the group was cultivating a devoted fan base in the most traditional ways possible: touring the Western states playing living room shows, backyard parties, and secret house party gigs; reaching an audience directly through such platforms as Noisetrade; selling their self-released CD and building a loyal following step by step. By the time they were approached by ATO Records, Joseph had alre

Track List:

Canyon 2.55
SOS (Overboard) 3.05
Blood & Tears 3.58
Hundred Ways 3.18
Planets 2.28
I Don't Mind 3.22
Whirlwind 3.09
White Flag 3.19
More Alive Than Dead 3.15
Honest 2.48
Sweet Dreams 3.50