Joakem at Bloodstock: Blending Genres and Building Community in Progressive Metal

0:04 Hi, you love done too. That's true for Wow, cra you you. This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here. With where Joe came from Cyprus. Nice man. I just keep getting everybody from your country. I feel like I'm going to cover every metal band that's from your country. Twelve of us. I know. See it's not hard. So Bloodstock, do you fucking love this festival or what? Oh?

0:45 Yeah, this is awesome. I mean uh, I mean I the other guy, the other three guys came yesterday. I'm I'm going on two hours of sleep. I am absolutely buzzed out of my head. I know the feeling. So it's all. This is all like a fever dream for me right now because I'm so tired. But yeah, I pumped. I just it's to caffeine and here we go. There you go. Well, well I love about this festival and they can testify to it. Is this is the festival that is like a family. Yeah, I'm getting and true metal. Like you have other festivals that they have metal, but then they have other things. This one's true metal and such a community and there's no assholes here. They're not allowed well, yeah, everyone's so kind, is like a big family here. We feel like we feet writing and so warm atmosphere.

1:34 Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly. So tell me a little bit about your band for the listeners from your perspective, not necessarily a genre, but how you view yourself as an artist and how you view your music. Well, it's quite a unique blend of genres. I'm have to till the genre. It's a progressive metal. That's fine, yeah, but it's not the progressive metal that you expect traditional sense. You know, we have the complex rhythms and melodies, but at the same time, we have this hook and catchiness that people can relate to, and it lingers in your ears even after the show. It's epic, atmospheric, heavy, so many elements into one, and I think a lot of people are gonna be into our music yeah after they do.

2:22 Yeah see. And that's the reason I say. It's not that I don't want you to say a genre, but it's more like people like to box you in as an artist, and I think artists shouldn't be boxed in. Play whatever you want, whatever you feel. And although it's it's prague, has other elements. So somebody might say, oh, well, that doesn't sound progue to me, because they may be the gatekeeper that have to have the purest mentality. There is no box exactly. There is no The box is only in your mind exactly. And your musicians, you want to experiment, you want to evolve, get better at your craft. You're not gonna do that if you're playing the same three chords all the time.

3:03 No, absolutely, you know. And I mean we have like a pretty diverse mix of influences on backgrounds, like the type of music we play, the type of musical background we each have, there is variety in there. I mean we all play in other bonds as well. I play in like a crosspunk bond and the power metal band Bob and Nuggies playing like a what is blind Thrush? This metal bands? Like, So you're like Possessed? Yeah sure, yeah. You know why I say that. I was joking because I used to see Possessed back in the day and they used to say they were a copy of Slayer, but then they were also the original death metal band, so they were thrash and death metal back in time where those labels didn't really mean much of anything. And I always I was a huge Slayer fan, but I didn't think Possessed was a slag your copy and they did that.

4:01 I think it happened, you know, it wasn't boxed in back then. Like if you listen to an old record of Led Zeppelin has everything, it's got a label after that, and then you have to keep producing the same thing exactly. We don't align with that. See that's why I said what I did originally because I hate that because nowadays it seems to me like there's certain bands that they just use this formula and then I sound like everybody else. I think there should be a. Blending of genre exactly, because that makes it unique. Truth told, we can't even do that because he's writing the guitar IFFs on keyboard and then he expects writing everything, so I have to have ten fingers. I'm saying, how does the transld to guitar? You know? And that's pretty interesting because we got guitariffs, like huge guitariffs, but it's something that no guitar player would ever compose. And I got to make that happen on the dark and that's like very unique.

5:01 I think, well, it's kind of like Sabbath like that Sabbath was a mistake because of Tony, you know, having his fingers like damaged and chopped off, and so he had to improvise and do something new and look at what happened. We might not be sitting here right now if that. Didn't you sound Yeah, totally new sounds. So each one of you, who would you say if you tamed one band that was your most influence, what would it be? Oh that I knew that consciously. For me, it would be Dreamy Theater. Okay, when it comes to problem that's pretty much a king right there. But it changed through the years.

5:42 Yeah, like every band, what about Humigill? If I say one, like, okay, there's two within the context of John camer would say Symphony X. Within an overall context, is the reason I picked up Base in the first place, would be Iron Maiden. Nice Well, Steve Harris, I mean, yeah, come on. Yeah, then the right like if you sit in my car you listen to my playlist, you'll it's it's very confusing. It's like it'll I mean when I say jumps Genres, I mean one moment it will be like Slayer, then it'll be like Tupac, and then it'll be like your Poppy, and then it'll be like Behemoth, then clown core and then I don't know, like classical music or so it's it's, it's, it's, it's a it's it's. It can be very upsetting for people to listen to.

6:28 Well, but no, you know what, I'm glad you brought it up because people don't realize. They think if you're a metal head, that's all you listen to. Oh yeah, I mean, I mean, uh, I I went to I did a degree in music, studying a classical music and orchestration. I played double bass and orchestra, and I took a very I had a very classical education in that sense, and I I play in a in a cross punk bang that sings about like, you know, necrophilia and cannibalism. So it's uh, it's you know, it's it's a bit of a mix. A joke came somewhere like sitting in the middle. It's between it's between the classical, between like maler and cannibalism. Well, you know what the thing is metal, It's a derivative of classical music. People think it's not that aren't into metal, but totally is.

7:17 Yeah, one hundred percent. I'm also a classical pianist. I've been playing pianos since the age of the age of six. Now, my initial education on music was classical music. It's the foundation of everything, speaking on behalf of everyone. We all have so many broad influences. In our music. And my playlast is the same as Miguel's. It's so confusing. It's like I'm having an identity crisis every day. But I think that's the point, not putting yourself in the box. Like I said before, Like for me, you lose the point of music when you listen to only one genre and you think that's the best, and you can't listen to anything else and you look down on any other I don't think you really appreciated. Yeah, exactly, exactly, because there's. So much good music. Like even when I get back from going on tour doing the festivals where I live, every Friday night, there's this place as live Latin music. Yeah, so I come up love these metal band and that's where I choose to go. Yeah, you know, because I think it's fucking awesome, so fun.

8:14 Yeah yeah, yeah, you grew up to it, yeah right, And the women are hot. You can dance with them, and. I'm actually I'm really jealous because I'm a fucking gringo and I look at these Latin guys. I'm like, fuck, man, I need to learn how to do that. What do you want to say about that? Well, because I'm half Columbian, so you're by your name. I kind of grew up with hearing that ship on repeat in the car though my mom was playing, and it's it's burned into my subconscious whether I want it to be or not right, and sometimes it comes out, you know sometimes, And I mean like as I got older, there there were some incredible musicians working with him, like one of my one of my biggest bass influences, Gambos, who was like unbelievable bass master Nice. It plays like Latin Latin jazz, all that stuff. It's it's insane. The stuff they play is completely mental, like technically, but like with the feel and the groove and whether I want to or not, because I will never sit down and consciously listen to it, but because I was so flooded with it at such a young age, it's part of me, whether I want it.

9:18 To be or not right, and I think it The vibe also depends on where you're at. Like, I go to Costa Rica all. The time, and so when I'm there, I don't know how the vibe is to listen to the Latin music. Yeah, Like I don't go to a club to go to a metal show. I'm going anywhere, right, I'm going to local places and listening to Latin music. You know, why not go to Caribbean. I'm listening Caribbean music. Like, you're not a music fan if you only listen to one thing. So absolutely though, absolutely not. So continue with what you were saying before I. Rudely interrupted, and oh yeah, our influences my main influence in music, that's what the question was. Yes, well initially it was open ope, But.

10:05 Like I said, I listened to so many different bands now and so many different genres, so that I really can't answer changes. Yeah, changes I still listen to obviously, like Nagies Nighties. You want to say something about your influences. My biggest influence one Kindred percent is Dream Theater's my favorite band, and Mike Porno is my man. Of course, we listen to all germs of music. We like all germs of music. I did just studied in the past and also popular studies on drums. So we're trying to mix all gerens and make our music. Our story was the world. That's why I say about the blending genres. You get the uniqueness your music, not the music of the genre.

10:48 Yeah, absolutely your music. Yes, I think that's what makes you stand now. I think that's what makes you be noticed, because if you're lost a sea of people playing this name refs and the same songs and all that, how did they know the difference between one band and. Another's that's that's cool, I guess. So how do you end up here at Bloodstock? Well, we took part in the medal to the Masses Cypress competition. We took part last year. Our friends Speaking Whispers caught the spot and yeah, I mean the great guys, absolutely great guys, are good friends of ours. While I was obviously a bit disappointed that we didn't get it, I was like, yeah, they totally deserved it. I was really proud for them, you know, they they came out, they killed it, they paid buck in this year. Absolutely great band, great guys, fantastic. So we tweaked a few things.

11:44 We got some very very helpful advice. We tweaked a few things about from Simon Hall. He gave us like, look, you know, tweak a couple of things we did that, we came, we came out again this year stronger, and we we got it, which is I mean, he was quite an achievement because of the standard. The standard in Cyprus is actually pretty high. There are a lot of very very talented, very high quality bands in the very small country, so managing to get the spot was quite an achievement in and of itself. So we're very proud to be here. And like you said, this is like this is like a family, you know, you come here, the vibe is so chill. Everyone was like cool with each other. There's no assholes. I mean I haven't encountered any yet. That's always a year. Yeah, So it's great to be here.

12:28 And Melts to the Masses is another thing that was really cool was last year's Melts of the Masses kind of brought out all of these Russian bands which are now based in Cyprus. The just they all just came out of the work. So we made so many contacts just from that, and there's now another one of them, Copper, they're also playing. They're playing tomorrow as well. They they're from Cypress too. We met them lash I didn't even know they existed until last year, and so many others Guilterra, why Monkey. There's other bands of like Russian Ukrainian people sometimes even working together, which is a whole other story in itself. They call themselves Cypriot bands. Yeah, so they they there was this whole other community that we didn't even know existed, and now we're all we all play shows together, we all help each other out now, and so Metal to the Masses really kind of helped bring the entire medal community in Cyprus together, which was amazing, you know it was. It was so cool. Now there's like we're like, hang on, we didn't know you guys even exist. It's like, yeah, we've been here. We didn't know you existed, all right, and now shows are happening, festivals are happening. We worked together. Yes, it's awesome, and we made very very useful connections. And that's all because of the Metal to the Masses. So, even even if only one band one last year, very very deservedly so everyone won in the sense that the community became stronger, the community, community became more united, and the community became more varied and deep, and it was more of the

13:58 same this year. So that just goes to show how amazing Melts and the Masses is not just for the winners who gets to come and play at Bloodstock, but for the community as a whole. And that was a truly great thing. I love everything you're saying because I've been talking about you know, that's a great thing about Metal to the Masses. There's no negative. Worst comes the worst. You network with other bands. Oh yeah, you make friends. You don't have to win to get all the benefits. No, no, to tell you the truth. It helps us elevate our stage presence, because that's what kept us from playing last year. I played keyboards and sink, and in terms of you know, stage prisons, it's a bit lacking. So I dished the second mike. I just play and sink. I don't sink and play at the same time. I do either of the two. And it's more you feel that from the vibe that you can interact with people, and that helped us actually mental to the Masses.

14:53 The first one. Helped us to improve our game, like our stage presence in general. I think it's important what you said too, because like it's so hard to play two. Instruments and singing as an intra at one time. It's kind of like rubbing your belly and your head at the same time. Like it doesn't work, it's coordinate. Well, it works if you play guitar, it looks cool. About if you're a keyboard it looks lame. How to ditch the mic on top of the keyboards? Well, I do sing and play at times, but mostly it's more either keyboards. Are singing, so even heavy sourus yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keyboard she came out and sang, but she didn't.

15:35 Yeah, got a key tar, like. Not for ours, you know. But one thing I'm impressed by is you didn't let your ego get in a way. You did take the tips, you made the changes, and that's why you won. Like that's the key to being a great musician is being able to listen and see the other perspective outside of you exactly. But the audience is gonna say. For sure, definitely visuals play important role in the performance. Absolutely, And so tell everybody how they can reach out to you, connect you on socials, buy your merch. They can't listen to my show unless say, buy your merch.

16:17 Now you'll have to get like you should make merch as your band name. That looks like that. There it is. We actually made new merch. Actually, that's that's cool. Yeah, that's really fucking cool. Yeah, it's our first single Origins Nice, So we made merch for that. We made merch for our second single called Creatures of the Abyss as well. Uh, we just released. Two new songs to brand new singles for our upcoming album, our second album. You can find us under Joakim Music in Instagram or any socials that you have, Facebook, everything, Bancamp. We just released our new merch. Like I just said, Uh, just type joke him and you'll find us everywhere. J O A k E M. I know it's a weird word, you know what's Yeah.

17:00 So when I was a little kid and it says you came to me, it reminds me that I never thought it. One of my good friends was named Joe A. Kim joking yeah. Like and never again have I heard that as a name or word. It's a surtain name. It's a well because I write the music and all. It's not really a solo project, but I just named it after my surname, which is Ea Kim. But I used to study in the UK for four years and literally no one could pronounce my surname correctly. It wouldn't make sense to them that you have three vowels next to each other. Io A right, So just change it to joking so it's much more easy to understand. Right right there, you go. Any final words you want to give the listeners that we haven't covered.

17:41 Alay, guys, just check us out. I promise you you're gonna love our music. If you're a bloodstock, come see us at one thirty and the New New Blood stage on Sunday tomorrow. Yeah, we're gonna have a good time. Come say hi, can't wait. Well, I'm glad you're here a bloodstock and we caught up together and you guys are bad ass. Thanks for being here on the adventure. Thank you, pleasure. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Tapemen on w for c u I Radio.