walking upstream…
Joji
George Kusunoki Miller is a Japanese-Australian singer and songwriter who first found an audience through the abrasive comedy of his YouTube personas Filthy Frank and the rapper Pink Guy, both of which he retired in 2017 to work seriously as a musician. As Joji he trades the shock humor for hushed, downtempo love songs built on minimalist production, close-mic'd falsetto, and a lo-fi, trip-hop-tinged take on alternative R&B. He broke through with 2018's 'BALLADS 1' and its single 'Slow Dancing in the Dark,' and reached his widest audience with the bare piano ballad 'Glimpse of Us' in 2022.
the sound in question
2018
Slow Dancing in the DarkJoji
walk the tributaries ↓
James Blake2010s · Electronic / Soul / UK Bass
Joji has cited James Blake among his influences, and you can hear it in his approach to space and voice: the same appetite for sparse, cavernous electronic production, treated and pitched falsetto, and sub-bass that leaves plenty of silence around a single vulnerable vocal line.
listen: upstream & here
2013
RetrogradeJames Blake
2019
SanctuaryJoji
listen forThrow on Blake's 'Retrograde' and then Joji's 'Sanctuary' — hear how both hang a soft, wavering falsetto over a slow-swelling synth pad before the low end blooms underneath, letting the emptiness around the voice do as much work as the melody.
Radiohead1990s · Art rock / Alternative rock
Joji has named Radiohead as an influence, and it surfaces in his taste for dread-soaked atmosphere — a song that begins in near-whispered hush and then detonates into an overwhelming, orchestral wall of sound rather than a conventional pop chorus.
listen: upstream & here
1997
Exit Music (For a Film)Radiohead
2018
Slow Dancing in the DarkJoji
listen forPlay Radiohead's 'Exit Music (For a Film)' before Joji's 'Slow Dancing in the Dark' — notice how each holds a fragile, quiet verse for as long as it can, then lets a huge swell of strings and guitar crash in at the climax, turning quiet despair into something cinematic and crushing.
Elliott Smith1990s · Indie folk / Lo-fi / Indie rock
Joji is often placed in a lineage with Elliott Smith, and the kinship is audible in the intimacy of his sad ballads: a hushed, close, slightly cracked vocal delivered over spare accompaniment, confessing romantic hurt in plain, unguarded language.
listen: upstream & here
1997
Between the BarsElliott Smith
2022
Glimpse of UsJoji
listen forSet Smith's 'Between the Bars,' with its whispered voice and bare fingerpicked guitar, next to Joji's 'Glimpse of Us' — both strip the arrangement down to almost nothing so the frailty and small breaks in the singing become the whole emotional event.