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JOESEF
releases highly anticipated
debut album
‘PERMANENT DAMAGE’ 

+ Supports
PAOLO NUTINI and RINA SAWAYAMA
on tour

++ BIGGEST UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR TO DATE IN MARCH AND APRIL 2023

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Photo credit: Nathan Dunphy

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“A debut album of burning blue soul” – ROLLING STONE UK

“It’s a rare thing: a transportive, moving and soulful body of work by an artist who sounds like he’ll be doing this, at this wattage, forever.” – i-D

“Permanent Damage is an unravelling of the self, as Joesef disappears into the bare bones of who he truly is after a complete shattering of the heart” – DIY

“…a word of warning. You won’t be able to get Joesef out of your head.” – RUSSH

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Today, Glaswegian soul star Joesef releases his highly anticipated debut album Permanent Damage, out now via AWAL. Representing the multilayers of the Scottish singer’s character and heart, over the past two years we have all witnessed an artist who has grown from bedroom pop to master and co-producer of new soul born from new heartbreak. Writing songs that are nakedly, wrenchingly honest, but with a sense of humour that “underlines the harsh punchline”, Permanent Damage is a “transportive, moving and soulful body of work” (i-D), which digs deeper into heartbreak with each listen, and the permanent damage left by lost love.

“I’ve always found it quite difficult to find peace in myself. Always moving, always thinking, always dreaming, always searching. Until I started making music it was the more destructive aspects of my personality that took over in order to cope with an ever changing landscape of feeling I couldn’t maintain control of.” Joesef explains.

“Permanent Damage is about fighting in the street on the way home, kissing in the taxi, having nothing to say in the morning.  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.” 

Inspired by Radio Dept and Beach Fossils, on new single Moment Joesef explains “I wanted something with pace, to tell the story of a desire for a fleeting moment of how it used to be together, before it got bad. This song lived a few lives before it became what you hear on the album, definitely something i can’t wait to do live.”

The album comes fresh off the back of joining fellow Scottish singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow as a special guest playing to 14,000 people a night (with a viral reaction video from his mum), and supporting Rina Sawayama on her colossal Hold The Girl pop tour.

The East-End Glasgow local’s recent stunning single Just Come Home With Me Tonight also marked Joesef’s first BBC Radio 1 playlisted track and Clara Amfo’s Tune Of The Week. Recording the vocals in his bedroom in Glasgow before he started work on his debut with Barney Lister  (Obongjayar, Joy Crookes, Celeste), the co-producers realised that the demo vocals contained the magic and true feeling of a heartbroken boy. Joesef decided to keep the younger “Joe” alive on the final track, which he now looks back on and wishes he “could tell that version of myself I’ll be alright soon.”

Writing songs that are nakedly, wrenchingly honest, but with a sense of humour that “underlines the harsh punchline,” Joesef recently discussed how he found inspiration in his city and navigated queerness in a recent Rolling Stone UK interview with fellow Glaswegian, the Booker Prize winning author Douglas Stuart. A fan of Joesef’s music, Douglas spoke to him about the parallels in their story and stated that East End Coast would be the theme song to his critically acclaimed new book Young Mungo. This zoomed out, new perspective in finding home away from one’s home, having both moved away from Glasgow, ripples through Permanent Damage.

Already releasing two blistering singles from Permanent Damage, including the Fleetwood Mac inspired Joe, which questions the universal feeling of never perceiving yourself to be good enough, and dancefloor favourite It’s Been A Little Heavy Lately, both songs introduce the tone for an album that captures the anxiety and heartache of confrontation with a new-self, from a queer kid who grew up in a city of bullshit-free, grasp-the-thistle honesty at all the times spirit. The magnetic power of “Joe” live has already set audiences alight in the summer, seeing fans with “their arms in the air holding each other singing the chorus” at his stunning intimate live shows at London’s iconic 100 Club and King Tuts in Glasgow to celebrate Permanent Damage. Now Joesef is gearing up for his biggest ever UK and European tour to date in March and April 2023.

JOESEF
UK & EUROPEAN
2023 TOUR DATES

Fri 10 Mar 2023 Belfast The Empire Music Hall
Sat 11 Mar 2023 Dublin Whelan’s 
Mon 13 Mar 2023 Liverpool O2 Academy Liverpool
Tue 14 Mar 2023 Bristol The Trinity Centre
Wed 15 Mar 2023 Manchester Academy 2 Manchester 
Fri 17 Mar 2023 Leeds Leeds University Stylus
Sat 18 Mar 2023 Birmingham O2 Academy Birmingham
Sun 19 Mar 2023 London The Roundhouse 
Thu 23 Mar 2023 Edinburgh Queens Hall
Fri 24 Mar 2023 Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
Wed 12 Apr 2023 Paris Le Trabendo
Thu 13 Apr 2023 Netherlands Paradiso Noord
Fri 14 Apr 2023 Brussels Botanique 
Sun 16 Apr 2023 Hamburg Kent Club 
Tue 18 Apr 2023 Berlin Lido
Wed 19 Apr 2023 Munich Strom
Fri 21 Apr 2023 Switzerland Exil Club 
Sun 23 Apr 2023 Cologne Luxor 
Tue 25 Apr 2023 Barcelona Sala Upload
Wed 26 Apr 2023 Madrid Sala El Sol

Known for his cinematic visuals, drawing inspiration from films such as Trainspotting, Kids and Beats, Joesef has worked with longtime collaborator Luis Hindman on the official video for Just Come Home With Me Tonight, Joe, and East End Coast, which was evocative of the scenes and the queer community captured in Jeremy Artherton Lin’s “Gay Bar” and Wolfgang Tillman photography, and praised by Attitude Magazine as a “celebration of queer intimacy”. Understanding he was queer from an early age, but “the kids made fun of my trainers more than my sexuality,” Joesef was raised in his tight-knit community of East End Glasgow to celebrate his identity and understand it. 

Moving to London last year, the only place that felt like home was the studio with Ivor Novello Award Winning producer Barney Lister, who has co-produced with Joesef debut album Permanent Damage. During an intense period of creation and hedonism in the uncharted city, Joesef developed his craft, confiding in Yorkshireman Barney, which felt like “therapy everyday”. Containing the motifs we have come to love the BBC Sound of 2020 star for seeking pain and pleasure in heartbreak, addiction to the afterglow of a relationship, and throwing his heart into the “fire” again and again. Having supported Mercury nominated Arlo Parks at Shepherds Bush earlier this year, only to headline the same venue a month later, Joesef has bewitched audiences across the country and played his most raucous homecoming show at the 2500 capacity Glasgow’s O2 Academy in May, but not before his “f***ing mad” moment at the iconic Barrowland Ballroom, having blizzarded the city with flyers a few years before for his first pub gig at King Tuts.

Writing with such full-force candour as he enters his new phase, Joesef says “When I hear people singing and I don’t buy it, it doesn’t move me. That’s your job as a musician: to move people, and give them music they can make their own and attach their own feelings to. That’s why and how I love music. A song can make my day, or ruin it. I love that.”

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PERMANENT DAMAGE – OUT NOW VIA AWAL 

Permanent Damage 
Track List

1. Permanent Damage
2. It’s Been A Little Heavy Lately
3. East End Coast
4. Just Come Home With Me Tonight
5. Borderline
6. Didn’t Know How (To Love You)
7. Apt 22
8. Shower
9. Joe
10. Blue Car
11. Moment
12. Last Orders
13. All Good

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About Joesef

It was only nine months after pulling pints that Joesef was catapulted into the public arena in 2019 with his immaculate, critically acclaimed debut EP Play Me Something Nice, whilst being lauded by Sam Smith to Mark Ronson for his “sad boy bangers”, the 26-year-old has a talent for capturing soul and the nerve of a song. His new music shows the astounding development of a self-taught artist, exploring new realms with production, but always centred on the vast emotional weight of his lyricism, self described as “pure working class torch songs.”’ Not coming from a musical family, but owing his musical references to his mum’s kitchen radio, with Al Green, The Cure, and The Mamas and the Papas playing all day in the background, Joesef’s exploration of the past is apparent in his deeply personal songwriting, having released his critically acclaimed second EP Does it Make You Feel Good? in 2020, which featured the lauded single I Wonder Why with Loyle Carner. Garnering over 30 million global streams, Joesef released a cover of Sister Sledge’s iconic Thinking Of You showing the breadth of his soul, and stylistic influence of Northern Soul ballrooms.

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AMNPLIFY – DB