New band alert
Introducing: For What Joy
Hello, world!
Introducing For What Joy1.
We’re a neo-soul collective made up of friends in London. Songs are written by me,
, but we work through the ideas together in the studio.Psst - if you just wanna hear some music, scooch down to the bottom where I’ll drop a short sample from some of our studio rehearsals.
Me, me, me, me, me
I’ll intro the others shortly, but bear with me while I talk about myself for a minute (as much as it goes against my nature).
I was raised as a classical musician in a musical household (gran, dad, mum all play piano, three sisters who all play at least one instrument). I played piano for a bit, quit (a huge regret I’m only just recovering from) and played trumpet from about age 8.
At secondary school I discovered jazz music and never looked back. I chose design over music at university (hedging my bets) but ended up with a music scholarship (at Brunel, not much to rave about) and was in nine bands at one point, doing up to three rehearsals some evenings. These included a couple of big bands, a covers band (“Soul Direction”), and a hip-hop funk band, (“The Common Moral Cause”).
Ah, the glory days.
After a while I moved away from London, and lost touch with most of my music groups. Work took over, and although I carried on playing (mostly guitar and piano by this point), music took the back seat.
Until…
Last year I got laid off and turned 40, and somehow that combo—combined with the encouragement of friends—brought a bunch of songs out of me. Since uni I’ve experienced grief, cancer, miscarriage, debt… and all of this started tumbling out of me in one go.
I learned that contrary to my previous belief, I can write lyrics - I just need to hear someone else sing them to realise they sound good. So when I met Zoë (more on her in a sec) she really helped to draw the words out of me.
And so, For What Joy was born.
My friends (the band)
2025 has been a year of collaboration for me, pushing away from the always-online mentality, trying to do everything myself, and instead finding ways to hang out and make things happen in person as much as possible. It’s been a joy.
Zoë - lead vocals, chief positivity officer
Zoë Grace Wang (
) is a creative fireball of positivity. She released her debut EP, Forming Shapes, in 2024 and it’s wonderful.She’s a serious up and coming talent, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m hitching my rusty wagon to her star.
Naomi - violin, harmonies
Naomi Wang is Zoë’s sister - they are a very musical family. She’s super skilled on piano and violin, but when these sisters sing harmonies together, oh me oh my! Chef’s kiss 👌
Pete - keys
Pete is a real musician. By which I mean that he knows what the notes are doing and why they are there.
If I’m totally honest, I’m not always sure why the notes are there, I just know when I’m glad that they are.
Jono - guitar
Jono Thorne is another up and coming talent. He’s like a cross between Robert Pattinson and Tom Misch.
He’s just successfully crowdfunded his first EP, Dust, and is in the studio at the moment pulling it together. He’s the most prolific songwriter I’ve ever met, and seems to have a new song every time I see him. But I don’t hold that against him.
Tobias - drums
I only just learned that Tobias’ first instrument is keys. This was a surprise to me, because he’s so bloody good on drums that he has no right to be even better on another instrument.
Riley - drums / percussion
I actually don’t have any cool session photos2 with Riley because he’s been busy getting married instead of coming to the studio (priorities, dude) but he’s hopefully going to feature on our first release, which is a cheeky Christmas song of all things, coming in a week or two.
He’s a lovely guy, knows coffee better than most cartels, and ‘runs cold’ — meaning you’ll likely find him wearing an artic-rated puffer jacket in September in the UK.
Substack: a sustainable model for musicians?
Maybe.
I read recently that you need something like 25k streams to raise the same funds as selling a single t shirt.
Most musicians write and play music because they have can’t help themselves. It’s not the pay that attracts them, it’s that something inside is bursting to get out. Like in the film Alien.
I’ve started this Substack / newsletter because the economics of music are broken. I’m following the example of
and have joined the MAD records collective with a view to setting up a place for fans of our music to connect directly with us and the music they love.You can of course subscribe to this Substack for free, but paying fans will get a bunch of extra things, such as:
behind the scenes access
free hi quality MP3/lossless downloads of songs to keep - ahead of streaming release
special unique recordings
ask us anything
merch discounts
signed things
You’ll get stuff, and we’ll benefit by being able to commit to more studio time, produce more stuff, and maybe even eat three square meals. It’s a win win win!
We’ll be sharing our influences, new music we’re enjoying, best vinyl finds, gigs we attend, new songs, snippets, studio sessions, you name it.
Finally: Rage against the machine
A final note 🎵 but one worth making these days.
I have a complicated relationship with technology. I’ve worked in technology for decades, and have loved working with computers since breaking and fixing my dad’s 486 over and over again to make it go faster.
But as a creative, technology is heading in a direction I do not enjoy.
AI may be amazing for our future, we’ll see. But for generative/creative use, I personally feel it is a technology we don’t need.
There isn’t a problem that is being solved. Instead, this technology is actively taking something away from us: the creative act. Creating is a human endeavour that helps us to tell our story. Why do we need machines to do that for us, or to simplify the process?
So here it is: I’ll never use AI to write lyrics, chords, or to play our instruments for us.
Instead, my mantra for this group is simply this:
Real music
Real writing
Real people
Real stories
and… live music whenever possible and feasible
I think this will lead to Good Times.
I hope you’ll join us.
Graham x
🎧 A medley of our studio rehearsals
Well, you either skipped to the bottom (fair play) or you read the whole post (gold stars for you). As promised, here’s a little medley of a few rough studio rehearsals to give you a little taster of some of the tunes coming soon!
Thanks for listening!
I think the name deserves a post of it’s own, so we’ll leave you in suspense on that one.
All shot on 35mm, I’ll have you know