motel void

MOTEL VOID: I haven’t found much information about you on the internet. Where are you from and how would you describe the current music scene there? Do you feel that you’re part of it?

JOEY DATA: I am indeed alive and not a ghost, even though I wish my music could have a supernatural effect. I was born and raised in Southern California and currently in Los Angeles. It is technically the biggest music scene in the country, so there are many sub-scenes thriving throughout that you may have not heard of yet. I’m originally just a drummer, and I’ve played in dance-pop, grunge, r&b, folk, shoegaze, and punk artists out here.

It’s not really one cohesive scene, LA’s a big enough town that it can support multiple layers of music industry. The variety of talent casts across a gargantuan range. Regardless of music taste, people who believe they stand out in someway or another from their original scene, reputable or infamous, will make their way here and I love it. It keeps you on your toes and gives motivation to up your game.

MOTEL VOID: Your biggest music influences right now?

JOEY DATA: So so so many, I’ll go with current artists. If I had to pick a top five right now I’d say Charlie Martin, SZA, Kelela, Alex G, and Preoccupations.

MOTEL VOID: ‘Iced Tea’ was released last summer. Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process?

JOEY DATA: This project for me was created to be a rebellion against every band I played drums in. I had this Boss looper that I would mess around with, and a few years ago I started putting some instrumental loop videos to my instagram for fun. Nothing really serious, just me trying to make a sound bite that I thought was cool. I kept getting better feedback from my peers than I expected, and during the pandemic I mustered up the courage to try out singing. Vocals are usually the last thing I complete for the song, but vocal melodies are the first thing that give me an indication that whatever little section of drum/guitar/paino could be a song. In “Iced Tea” I was strumming my guitar, and from that I was mumbling the melody from the “I hope you’d be with me” line in there. For “I Have to Go” I was obsessed with saying “maybe I love you too much” when the baseline changes. And then when it’s 99% done, I’ll have a crisis and think, “Should I be thrown in prison forever for asking my friends to listen to this? Is my brain broken for thinking this is a song?”

MOTEL VOID: Your plans and goals for the rest of the year/the beginning of 2024?

JOEY DATA: Before, I would complete a song and immediately put it out. As time has gone on, there are more songs that I’ve come back that I took a break from, and in turn it takes less and less for me to complete all of them. I have a good number of songs ready to be released as we speak, but I’ll start off by putting two out in January or February . Then a few months later put out another two songs.

I’m a fan of so many genres that a lot of songs I’ll end up making are completely different styles. For the most part they come out indie-bedroom pop style, but I have this four-on-the-floor edm house song that I think rips! It’s such a departure from anything else I write so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing to temporarily break from the normal identity. I’m already thinking too hard about it, if I can get anyone to listen to it then it doesn’t matter.