Events

[ROCK] The internet often seems like a separate reality with its own rules, regulations, and ways of categorizing our lives. Things can become downright surreal if you have a common name, for instance, as you start fending off social media inquiries from folks assuming you’re someone else – a long lost ex, perhaps. As a fan of Tanya Donelly’s band Belly, I’m regularly getting notices from the app ‘bandsintown’ about appearances by a rapper named Belly. It’s far from perfect.

While they’ve had a pretty damn successful year, Portland’s Joseph has also experienced some interesting hiccups due to using a name that’s a popular first name, last name, and biblical figure. It also happens to be a town in Oregon where the trio of sisters spent summers together growing up.

“In general, since it’s a generic name, we’ve had to organize the internet a bit,” Natalie Closner Schepman said over the phone from Los Angeles where Joseph recently holed up in between weekend Coachella performances. “Fans that follow us on Facebook got a notification not long ago that our new track “Horny Brat” had been added, which was a hilarious moment… and definitely not our song.”

Listening to their strident second album, I’m Alone, No You’re Not, which came out last summer on Dave Matthews’ ATO Records, it’s clear that a track called “Horny Brat” just wouldn’t fit — although it could easily have been something sung by The Roches, another sisterly trio that Closner Shepman says she’s begun listening to since so many people have made the comparison. Fact is, there just aren’t that many groups of singing sisters that have penetrated mass consciousness in the last 40 years.

Actually, the trio only came together after Natalie, who’d been pursuing a career on her own as a singer-songwriter, recruited her sisters Allison and Meegan Closner to sing harmony for an as-yet unnamed project; Joseph was the result. The Closners have made waves because their collective talent is so striking and — rare occurrence — the label is really behind them. They’ve landed appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS This Morning, Ellen,  and CONAN; they scored the opening slot on a sold out tour with British artist James Bay, and just recently opened shows for Faith Hill & Tim McGraw. Their music has also gotten decent play on Spotify and on the Billboard Heatseeker’s chart.

As they begin writing for their next record, which turns out to be precisely what they’re up to during the week off from Coachella, Closner Shepman says the ladies of Joseph are feeling reflective.

“We did a lot of experimenting on this record,” she said. “We love pop music and we definitely leaned into that. I’m very excited to expand and blow the lid off of this, to make it more human, express a broader palette of feelings – the exact question we’re asking ourselves right now is how do we want to grow, and take all these incredible experiences we’ve had and make what we do even better.”

Regardless of what direction they choose, Joseph’s creative M.O goes against the grain of mainstream pop in nearly every respect: it’s harmony-based folk music at the core that showcases their voices without lots of pitch-controlled showboating. There’s nothing remotely urban about Joseph, either – no dropping bass lines, no street-smart sass. It makes this moment in the group’s career that much more remarkable.

“I’m happy to report that I feel very much taken seriously,” she said. “On the broader stage, by definition, what we do just isn’t as loud, deep, and bass-y as what seems to be most popular these days. I guess the thing we come up against with this as women and as sisters — very close sisters— is that we don’t have any of the cool kid mystique. Our music is open and earnest on every level, and it’s up to the listener to find the mystery and the dark corner of it. People have a tendency to think ‘Oh, they’re sisters and they’re singing – so sweet,’ but, y’know, there’s a broader human experience involved, so we’d like to avoid the cake-and-ice-cream sentiment that thinking implies.” Joseph plays Town Ballroom on Friday, June 2, with Overcoats.