Four years after Joesef's breakthrough, the debut album Permanent Damage has arrived. Navigating heartbreak and healing, the Glaswegian soul-pop star presents a body of work that explores "...fighting in the street on the way home, kissing in the taxi, having nothing to say in the morning," Joesef says. "Holding grief in your hands and carrying it with you indefinitely.  There is a permanence in what we went through together and it’s affected the way I carry myself and the way I see the world. It's about grieving for a version of myself that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get back." We spoke to the artist about the Permanent Damage creative process:

Your album is so beautiful. We love that it’s a heartbreak album but also very much a healing album. Tell us about creating it - when and where did you begin writing it? Did you go into it once you’d gone through this heartbreak to did you begin writing as it was happening?

"Thank you, I really appreciate it. It took me about a year and a bit to completely finish it. I was very much living the subject matter while I was writing the record for a while, which sort of made it easy to tell the story of the album as it happened.  I wrote most of it in Brixton, London after I'd moved from Glasgow to start working on it.  It was all a bit fucking mad to be honest still can"t believe i've managed to finish it sometimes."

What was the process of creating Permanent Damage like, compared to previous bodies of work like the EPs that you’ve released?

"I'd never worked with another producer before I moved to London, most of my first two EP's were done completely on my own so that aspect of having another person in the room changed the dynamic immediately.  Barney Lister was the first, and only producer I met with before I got to work on the album.  I was always really protective over my work, as the subject matter was pretty delicate but Barney has this comfortability about him, he made it really easy to  be honest in my work without fear of judgement.  It was definitely more difficult creating a longer body of work, it felt like it was sucking the fucking life out of me at times, but it's for sure the most satisfied i've felt musically."

You worked with Barney Lister - what was that like? What did he bring out of you?

"Barney is my brother now for sure. He's an incredible producer, and his taste is almost identical to my own.  It made it really easy to bounce off each other and explore different sonics together.  He was always pushing me to take risks, and experiment with different sound and recording techniques.  It was a bit jarring at first when I'd been so used to being alone with my work, but we literally spent every waking moment together to the point I saw more of him than any of my family or mates.  I think I'll always work with barney in some way or another forever."

We absolutely love your lyrics - they’re so clever. Are there songwriters, authors or poets who inspire you? Whose work do you admire?

"Thank you!  I've always had a bit of an affinity with literature, I fucking love reading. I think if you're writing in any capacity you need to read whenever you can. Anything Patti Smith writes I'll read it, I bought a book the other day purely for the foreword she'd written in it. I also love Douglas Stuart's work,  his subject matter can be gruesome at times but he has a way of viscerally describing brutality in a really beautiful way.  Musically I think Carole King is my favourite writer, Tapestry is such an important album to me."

Is there a song you’re most proud of writing on the album?

"I'm not sure of one specifically, I love them all for different reasons, but I really love Blue Car at the moment.  I really wanted that song to explain the complexities of a codependent relationship that's starting to rot from the inside out, like two souls circling the drain together."

What did you learn about yourself while writing this album?

"That I'm entirely capable of things I'd never even dreamed of doing.  Making an album is so fucking hard, but I did it.  I feel like I can do anything now, anything I set my mind to."

How has heartbreak permanently influenced you?

"It changes everything about you to a certain extent.  Each step feels a little bit heavier for a while, until the way you carry yourself is completely different.  The most devastating thing about a relationship ending is how much of yourself you lose with it."

Was there anything aside from music that guided/helped you through this time (can be totally random)! Or were you completely zoned in to writing?

"I think I did a lot of partying at first, but that wasn't really sustainable.  It was honestly such an isolating experience finishing the album, I definitely let a lot of things suffer as a result personally, I don't think I'd ever be as intensely in it as I was then.  Reading really helped, and spending time with my mates when I could."

You’re from Glasgow but now based in London. How did Glasgow influence you sonically? And how do you think London inspires you now musically?

"I think my music is kind of the antithesis of where I grew up in Glasgow.  The east end was always a pretty brutal place so maybe my music is the complete opposite of that in a sort of unintentionally escapist way.  We are a painfully honest bunch in Glasgow, but also extremely self deprecating and can see the funny side of most situations.  I think that seeps into my writing sometimes.  I'm not really sure how much London has influenced me musically, maybe just some of the mad situations I've ended up in there, those stories falling into the album in some way."

You’ve been through it and written a heart wrenchingly epic album to accompany it - what is your advice to people going through heartbreak now?

"Nothing I can say will make you feel any better, but time really does make things a bit softer eventually. The grief of it all will get a bit quieter, and in the end you'll be a better person for it.  Just feel your feelings, don't avoid them."

How do you hope people feel listening to the album? Where would be an ultimate place for them to listen to it first time through?

"Probably a little bit less alone in whatever it is they are going through, if nothing else. I'd say there's a space pretty much anywhere to take the album in, in your bedroom, pulling out of a station to somewhere else, in the taxi home from a night out."

How will you celebrate when the album comes out?

"I honestly don't even know i think i'll be catatonic for a few days before it sinks in that i've got a fucking album out."

And then give us the quick 2023 Joesef lowdown - what else can we expect/look forward to?

"I'm going on a big tour, in the UK/Europe.  Will get to the US, and hopefully get to Oz at some point.  Fuck know's where i'll be in a year, hopefully not killed or maimed by the album campaign."

Listen to the album HERE.

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