Joe Altier, Just Joe, is like a household name around here. He is a sought after musician with an endless catalog of covers. His band, Brand New Sin, is also very popular. But this new venture gives us a real glimpse into his personal experiences over the past seven years. You can pre order Breakdown here. “The album starts with a confession and ends with the hope of where I’m headed, ” Altier explained. “The artist’s mind is fragile at times and this release bares all,” he said. I can also feel all the influences of songs he covers and his gig experiences within it. It feels very genuine. Here’s a track by track conversation we had:
1.Stray –
MT: Intense. Personal. Honest. This gives good insight to the true personal depth of this album.
2. Now I Lay-
MT: Initial thought: cool vibe, kinda like if Phil Collins wrote it without any drums. I like the haunting tones. Relatable lyrics for the insomniacs and overthinkers out there.
JA: I went for a Phil Collins 80’s ballad feel.
3. Don’t Mean That I’m OK-
MT: That’s a hit. Love the six string lyrics especially but also the radio in the bar still playing the songs you hate line. I felt like I was in those scenes.
JA: The radio still plays the songs you hate. One of my favorites too! So Track 3 was a collaboration with fellow Twitch musician James Abram. He wrote the song years ago after his father passed and never had an outlet to have it released. He had me learn it and play it on stream one evening and it floored me. It fit in perfectly with the theme of my album.
4. Bring you Home-
JA: Track 4 was written by my partner on this album Tom Chick. He mixed this whole album and co produced it with me. The song spoke to me as soon as he showed it to me. We have been working together on a lot. I mastered it and recorded it myself. Tom mixed and added all the bells and whistles. I am the only one who played on it. Tom added the additional instrumentation.
MT: Impressive. It sounds like a great slow dance song.
JA: It’s my come to Jesus song, a gospel inspired song.
5. So-
MT: Your front row fans will get melty. Everyone will want to go home with you. You’ll get lots of phone numbers in the tip jar haha. Seriously, it’s a very pretty song.
6. We Belong-
JA: This is a cover song.
MT: Powerful. It really shows off your vocal strengths.
JA: Those are the original lyrics I got from the songwriter himself Dan Navarro. We became friends on Twitch. I covered We Belong after seeing a video of Dan Navarro performing at 443. He played the song and told the story of it and how it ended up with Pat Benatar. I recorded it a year ago and sat on it. Then one night a month ago Dan showed up in my Twitch chat randomly. Cosmic! I played him my cover and he was blown away, and then he sent me the original lyrics. So I went back and re cut the vocals and fit it in the flow of this album.
7. Pieces of Me –
MT: Super strong ending. That whole song is stellar. It deserves a dead quiet room totally tuned in. I feel like that song and some others give deep insight into who you (behind the showman) really are.
JA: This album is unbelievably personal for me. I’m scared to let people see inside in ways.
8. This Time Around-
JA: This is the track I released last week.
MT: Ugh those last lines are just heart wrenching. This was a good choice for your release. The composition is really beautiful.
JA: My favorite lines on the album. This last track was a songwriting session with fellow Twitch musicians Johnny & Heidi. We struck up an immediate friendship.
MT: I love how Twitch is a real community.
JA: Johnny and Heidi are legit. He’s penned two number one hits! She has a handful of hits, too. They approached me to write and I was floored. We plan on working together on more songs soon. Yes, the Twitch music community is unbelievable. They are so supportive of each other. We all want to see each other succeed. I’ve got more BIG collabs in the works too!
“I don’t know if I would have finished this album if it wasn’t for Covid. I don’t think I would’ve taken myself to the places in my head that I needed to. It allowed me to peer inside myself and to have strength to pen these songs and release them. The plan is to have a big album release on Twitch Friday, November 27th since I can’t do a real in person show. I want to do a track by track storyteller style show in Syracuse at some point though,” he told me.
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