Tag Archives: Joan

Acclaimed alt pop duo joan today release a special version of their hit single “superglue” featuring Zach Tabudlo off of their highly acclaimed debut album superglue via Photo Finish Records. “superglue” is one of the most powerful, poignant, and poetic moments on the record. “As new dads, we were like, ‘What if we wrote this about our girls?’,” recalls Alan. “We want them to know we’re superglue for them. We’re the guys you can run to when you’re sad or you want to rejoice because something happy happened at school. If you’re not a parent, it can be about someone you really care about. We’re singing it to our little girls though.” The new version features superstar Filipino singer- songwriter Zach Tabudlo who lends his warm and honeyed vocals to the emotive and impassioned track. joan and Zach Tabudlo have been fans of each other’s music for years and the collaboration began organically online with the result being an intoxicating and cathartic alt pop single full of lush instrumentation and soul-drenched vocals. The new single is a love letter from joan to their dedicated Filipino fanbase and a welcome addition to their musical catalogue.

In addition to the new single, joan has announced an Asian tour complete with shows in Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and Singapore where they are set to perform to over 160,000 at the Singapore Grand Prix. The band are completing their U.S tour, performing to thousands of fans across the states.

The Little Rock, Arkansas based twosome is known for creating expansive pop music from inside their bedrooms in deepest Middle America. Their infectious blend of pop eras, DIY, self-sustaining aesthetic and deep connection with their fanbase has resulted in international success with over 150 million streams and sold out shows across the globe including headlining 15,000+ capacity venues in Asia.

joan (Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford) have spent the past few years building their world, single by single, tour date by tour date; from their debut EP, 2019’s portra, to the much-loved cloudy & its sister EP partly cloudy, to 2021’s hi & bye EPs. Their songs have been streamed over 150 million times, with well over a million listeners a month across streaming platforms. joan have enjoyed U.S. and international tours supporting the likes of Jeremy Zucker, COIN, Bloc Party and The Aces, as well as playing to fans across Asia with headline shows and festivals in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong – they return to Asia for the biggest shows yet, includes dates at a basketball arena and a theme park.

joan’s infectious blend of pop eras & styles belies their roots in Little Rock, Arkansas, but their sense of warmth and community from those around them at home gives their music a sense of belonging often missing from others’ and that extends to their fanbase, with whom they interact via a successful Patreon page and through free meet & greets at every show. 2023 promises to be the band’s biggest yet, with the release of their debut album and worldwide touring & festivals.

joan tour dates

June 16 – Little Rock Music Hall: Little Rock, AR September 14 – Lido Connect: Bangkok, Thailand September 16 – Singapore Grand Prix: Singapore September 17 – Singapore Grand Prix: Singapore September 19 – New Frontier Theater: Manila, Philippines September 21- Sibuya WWW X, Tokyo, Japan

Acclaimed alt pop duo joan today have released their highly anticipated debut album superglue, which is over three years in the making. The full length album is shared with accompanying visuals for the title track. The album follows their beloved EPs portra, cloudy, hi and bye. superglue is an existential journey influenced by the duo’s recent transition into fatherhood.

The duo also have a 20 date nationwide U.S. headlining tour beginning May 13th, to support their album and have just added a special global Roblox listening party on April 21st, 22nd and 23rd where users can participate in fun and interactive activities together with their friends while listening to superglue in unique community based experiences. joan is set to pop into these experiences all weekend (as their avatars) and hold exclusive live Q+A for fans.

With their album superglue, the duo have shared their most personal music to date. Life shaped the subject mater like never before and joan have crafted an undeniably cathartic, candid and expansive indie pop album. “We naturally felt comfortable in the world of love songs,” says Steven. “This time, we were like, ‘Let’s get more personal’. We both had babies in the past year. We’ve grown more than we have in a long time. It’s so cool watching your baby crawl for the first time and see the world. It organically informed the writing. The whole body of work is so personal—like we’re giving a piece of ourselves to listeners. It’s by far the most special thing we’ve done.”

Highlights include the highly emotive and nostalgic single “flowers”, which discusses how time is fleeting and how people grow and change. Paired with wistful acoustic guitar riffs under cinematic synths and heartfelt melodies, “flowers” is a reflective and important musical release. While on “loner” the duo capture the autobiographical feeling of being an outsider and the internal struggle of imposter syndrome. Featuring a hypnotic hook and fervent pop rock soundscapes, “loner” is an intoxicating listen.

“nervous” takes listeners back to their own memories on the school yard experiencing their first crush. This kind of infatuation stirs a myriad of intense emotions and with “nervous”, joan brilliantly depicts that thrilling yet unsettling feeling of intoxication. The single entices with honey-dipped vocals over a unique kaleidoscope of sounds including beatboxing, clapping and lush acoustics.

The title track “superglue” speaks to their fatherly bond with one of the most powerful, poignant, and poetic moments on the record. “As new dads, we were like, ‘What if we wrote this about our girls?’,” recalls Alan. “We want them to know we’re superglue for them. We’re the guys you can run to when you’re sad or you want to rejoice because something happy happened at school. If you’re not a parent, it can be about someone you really care about. We’re singing it to our little girls though.”

In the end, joan elicit a reaction through simply being joan. “I’d love for our name to be synonymous with our sound,” Alan leaves off. “We hope you hear this album and go, ‘That’s the best first joan record they could’ve possibly mustered up’. At the same time, I hope it encourages you to ask questions and know it’s okay not have an answer to everything. The human experience is very nuanced. It’s not all black-and-white; it’s okay to live in the gray. We’ve found joy and peace in there. Maybe our music gives you a little bit of joy in the middle of chaos.”

“I truly believe superglue has something for everyone,” Steven concludes. “Hopefully, everybody in the entire world can hear it…not a hard task,” he laughs.

watch the video for superglue here

superglue tracklist

life death & everything between simple

loner nervous

backseat driving coffee shop

don’t wanna be your friend monsters

hi

feeling like dancing falling in love flowers

superglue

Listen here

The Little Rock, Arkansas based twosome is known for creating expansive pop music from inside their bedrooms in deepest Middle America. Their infectious blend of pop eras, DIY, self-sustaining aesthetic and deep connection with their fanbase has resulted in international success with over 150 million streams and sold out shows across the globe including headlining 15,000+ capacity venues in Asia.

joan (Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford) have spent the past few years building their world, single by single, tour date by tour date; from their debut EP, 2019’s portra, to the much-loved cloudy & its sister EP partly cloudy, to 2021’s hi & bye EPs. Their songs have been streamed over 150 million times, with well over a million listeners a month across streaming platforms.

joan have enjoyed U.S. and international tours supporting the likes of Jeremy Zucker, COIN, Bloc Party and The Aces, as well as playing to fans across Asia with headline shows and festivals in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong – they return to Asia for the biggest shows yet, includes dates at a basketball arena and a theme park.

joan’s infectious blend of pop eras & styles belies their roots in Little Rock, Arkansas, but their sense of warmth and community from those around them at home gives their music a sense of belonging often missing from others’ and that extends to their fanbase, with whom they interact via a successful Patreon page and through free meet & greets at every show.

2023 promises to be the band’s biggest yet, with the release of their debut album and worldwide touring & festivals.

joan tour dates

May 13 – The Masquerade (Hell Stage): Atlanta, GA May 14 – The Basement East: Nashville, TN

May 16 – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY May 17: The Lounge @ World Cafe: Philadelphia, PA May 19 – The Black Cat: Washington DC

May 20 – The Sinclair: Boston, MA

May 23 – The Velvet Underground, Toronto, ON May 25 – Subterranean: Chicago, IL

May 31 – Parish: Austin, TX June 1 – Club Dada: Dallas, TX June 3 – Valley Bar: Phoenix, AZ

June 4 – Voodoo Room @ HOB: San Diego, CA June 6 – Constellation Room: Santa Ana, CA June 7 – Teragram Ballroom: Los Angeles, CA

June 8 – Popscene @ Rickshaw Shop: San Fransisco, CA June 10 – Polaris Hall: Portland, OR

June 11 – Barboza: Seattle, WA June 13 – Soundwell: Salt Lake City, UT June 14 – Larimer Lounge: Denver, CO

June 15 – Resonant Head, Oklahoma City, OK June 16 – Little Rock Music Hall: Little Rock, AR

Much-loved Arkansas duo joan today share their sixth single of 2021, ‘so done’, a punchy, guitar-laden kiss-off to a relationship gone sour. Alongside the track, joan have shared an accompanying video in which Alan from the band gets entangled by an ever-growing telephone wire during a break up. ‘so done’ is from bye, one of two upcoming EPs (hi & bye) due for release in December via Photo Finish Records, while hi lands a month earlier.

Speaking about ‘so done’, joan share: “growing up we always heard artists say things like ‘we wrote this song in 20 minutes’ and always thought it was a bit dramatic because it just doesn’t really happen like that. but listen, we basically wrote this song in 20 minutes. we sat down in the studio and alan started humming ‘called to tell you that it’s over’ and from there it seemed like every line wrote itself one after another, it was a really cool experience. the music side of the song was a little tougher for us to figure out, though. sat in a dropbox folder for a few months until one night we had a session with hazey eyes who loved the song and really helped us bring new life to it. we usually do everything ourselves and you never know what it’ll be like going into sessions like that, but hazey eyes was such an amazing collaborator on this.

“this song actually was the counterpart to ‘so good’ which became the two songs that jumpstarted the thought to create a double ep called hi and bye based around the start and ending of a relationship.”

joan’s new chapter, the ‘wave era’ will see new singles from two EPs landing on the first Thursday of each month, soundtracking the rest of 2021 with their trademark alt-pop bops, tinged with the sweetest hint of 90’s R&B influences. Titled hi and bye, joan explain “after we released “cloudy/partly cloudy”, we got straight to work, writing so many new songs. we found that the songs were naturally falling in two different camps. so, we decided rather than trying to force them to work together, it would be more interesting to release two ep’s over the course of the year. welcome to the wave era – here comes a new joan song each month through the end of the year :)”

joan (Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford) have spent the past few years building their musical empire, single by single, tour date by tour date, with the past two years being landmarks for them; their debut EP, 2019’s portra, and last year’s EP cloudy have been streamed well over 90 million times, with over a million listeners a month across streaming platforms.

The guys spent much of 2019 on the road with major US and international tours supporting the likes of The Aces, COIN, Bloc Party and Jeremy Zucker, as well as playing to fans across Asia with headline shows and festivals in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Early 2020 saw them playing to sold out crowds across the US on their first headline tour, including having to add additional shows in LA to accommodate ticket demand. Their virtual cloudy release show in August 2020 boasted thousands of ticket sales from fans who tuned into their livestream. 2021 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for joan, they’re only just getting started.