- This band is our baby and we just both put our hearts and soul into it and it's everything to us.

Alex and I kinda already knew like from the get-go we wanted to be in a band since we met probably.

- Yeah, and I think it all kind of stemmed from just like having similar tastes in music.

As Joyce From the Future, I feel like we share a vision for how we want our music to sound.

- We balance each other out in the sense that Alex had a lot of background with guitar and bass and I had already been doing like singer/songwriter stuff so we sort of like brought those two elements together.

- We met in high school and the first like actual show that we played together was a choir pops concert at Senior High.

- Yeah, that's the first thing we did.

- Yeah, that was like the first, very, very first thing that we did together.

- There's the band, but it feels more like a family of creatives.

Their electronic sound is different from anything that's come out of Billings.

- The process has been really chaotic honestly.

It's unfolded in a really unexpected way.

We started by just setting up all of our equipment in a practice room at University of Montana and hoping that no one else would ruin a take by like playing their tuba super loud or something in the room down the hall.

- Walking in.

- Yeah, or walking into the room and ruining a take that way.

When we started the project, we didn't have any speakers at all, we were just using headphones to record everything and track everything.

That was like a huge hindrance to our creative process.

All of the stuff that's on the album was recorded with completely different equipment pretty much.

It was a slow process but, in the same way, I think we were kind of figuring out like what influences we wanted to draw from.

So the album, if we weren't moving three times throughout the creation of it, it probably would've gotten done a lot quicker but it wouldn't have turned out the same way.

- I guess when we were just making those songs and like rehearsing it and everything, there wasn't as much like talking and like figuring out things as you would expect, maybe.

It was more like we were like telepathically just saying, "Okay, let's go," and then play the song and somehow we figured out what we were doing.

- When we wrote "The Sound of Being Alive", for me, that period of time was a lot of just like healing and like starting a new chapter in my life, and so the content of the song kind of resembles that a little bit, it's talking about just like allowing yourself to have a good time and like do things you like to do, like regardless of your situation and that's also why we like put it as the first song on the EP 'cause it's almost like the beginning of our band.

- For me, it perfectly encapsulates kind of the direction that we wanted to take our project because it was kind of poppy and it had synth elements to it but it also had like funk and other influences that I kind of like brought from my background.

Konnor became part of the band before he even knew it and before I even knew it.

When we recorded "The Sound of Being Alive", one of us came up with the idea of adding a sax solo.

He recorded the solo in our home studio on the same day that we met him.

It wasn't until like a few months later, maybe even a year later, that we asked Konnor to do saxophone and keys in the band and Josh was in that same conversation.

- Josh, he's got the uplifting mood that kind of keeps everyone stable if we're all kind of tense.

And Alex is very level headed as far as like handling pressure and keeping everyone on task and lining things together, and Lyric is very honest about what she envisions for the band and what we could do to help progress that further.

And all of those components together were very critical for how we all kind of form together into the sound of Joyce From The Future.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Black cloud has grown heavier once again ♪ ♪ I found myself tiptoeing in my own head ♪ ♪ Celebrate the days that I can wake up without hesitation ♪ ♪ Of getting out of bed ♪ ♪ But today I'm smiling without even feeling ♪ ♪ Like I have to pretend ♪ ♪ Tonight, I'm dancing til I feel all right ♪ ♪ Let the rhythm take me to a place ♪ ♪ I haven't been in a while ♪ ♪ Tonight, everything is leaving my mind ♪ ♪ Let it permeate in the air ♪ ♪ The sound of being alive ♪ ♪ Been daydreaming to pass the time ♪ ♪ Driving late at night wondering why you ain't mine ♪ ♪ Picking pebbles, chasing medals ♪ ♪ Loneliness ain't easing my mind ♪ ♪ But today I feel content ♪ ♪ With only needing me, myself and I ♪ ♪ Tonight, I'm dancing til I feel all right ♪ ♪ Let the rhythm take me to a place ♪ ♪ I haven't been in a while ♪ ♪ Tonight, everything is leaving my mind ♪ ♪ Let it permeate in the air ♪ ♪ The sound of being alive ♪ (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - My mom likes to say she always knew I was gonna be a musician.

My grandpa was in a band for a long time and he kind of had this deal with me where at a lot of his shows, I would just go in there with my little guitar, like in middle school and stuff and like play during his sets and seeing my family play live was really inspiring.

It almost kind of felt like they were rock stars a little bit, just like being immersed in that culture and like seeing my grandparents do it for themselves and like make the choice to do it regardless of how like financially set off they are.

It like wasn't even really a choice for me and I think if I didn't have the experience that I did, I probably wouldn't have came to that conclusion.

- I started taking guitar lessons in like fourth grade, and I actually started taking them with my mom.

She was interested in learning classical guitar and she found a guitar teacher that was versed in classical and like jazz and blues.

In high school, I was in like jazz band, orchestra, almost every genre of music that I was involved in kind of just like sparked a new interest in music and I kind of realized how infinite the knowledge is when you go into music, there's an endless amount of stuff to learn, an endless amount of stuff to try.

My guitar teacher got me into Garage Band, so I just kind of messed around and was recording loops and stuff and it was just kind of like the precursor, I think, to jumping in into full on production like this.

Every time I go into the studio, I learn something new or try something out that I haven't done before.

Because we work mostly inside of Ableton or the software that we use, the ideas come from a different place I feel like and they often manifest in a different way.

It's usually the production that kind of comes first and inspires the rest of the song, and it usually will start in a certain place and then entirely change throughout the recording and writing process of the song.

One of my goals as a musician in general is being able to use the computer as almost like an instrument of its own, because in a lot of ways, it is, and it is, out of all the instruments that it's the one that I'm least familiar with.

I tried to write a few songs by myself, I just don't have like the poetic and, yeah, lyrical knowledge that like Lyric does.

- I don't know about knowledge (laughs) but I'm doing my best.

The feeling of the instrumentation, can sort of dictate like what I'm going to write about and like what kind of melody it's going to be.

A lot of times, I try to come up with like the melody and the rhythm before I come up with the lyrics so I can sort of like flesh out what it will sound like.

If I know like exactly what the rhythm is supposed to be, I know how many syllables I have to work with and I know like what the words have to sound like.

Because we're drawing inspiration from pop as a genre, I really liked the idea of taking elements that you would normally hear in pop music but also add this layer of like darkness and complexity.

Alex is really supportive of like everything I come up with and it definitely helps me like feel confident in what I'm writing because I think, before this project, I had like written songs but I had never really like finished a song.

And because of this band and because of the support and like the friendship that I have with Alex and his, you know, his encouraging words when I'm writing things, it has helped me like realize my love for songwriting and now I know I'm never gonna go back.

It's just really nice like having a second person to sort of like be there to help you.

I feel like that's another way that Alex and I sort of balance each other out.

Alex has a very like almost emotional process when he's fleshing out like the instrumentation and stuff, and I'm very objective, I kind of just like pace back and forth and I'm like, "Let's do this, let's do this."

- It's been really refreshing to like have a perspective just like telling me to be like, "Hey, let's just take a step back and like think about what the song actually needs, instead of trying to make this one thing work, maybe we just need to try something else."

- I think it would make it really difficult if we weren't best friends 'cause we sort of have that foundation of trust and we can just talk about anything.

And also, during like hard spots, you know like when we're really stressful about shows and things like that, we always can like bring it back and it's nice having that like foundation of support and trust.

- Our workflow has kind of reached a place to where we can kind of pick up any instrument in the studio and plug it in and record it within like five minutes versus an hour.

- Yeah, you can come up with ideas a lot faster when it's streamlined a little bit.

- Yeah.

- It was a just a very arduous and grueling process before, you know?

- Yeah.

- But now I feel like we've reached a point where we can come down here and it's fun and it's more of like a creative space and that's really helpful in like getting past writer's block and things like that.

My favorite aspect of "Everything Changed" is the fact that it's so different from all of our other stuff, and I feel like it's also the first song that, at least for me, I feel like is like really going into the direction as far as like what my vision was.

It's definitely inspiring, like, for the future.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) ♪ I stand alone in a crowded room ♪ ♪ Nothing to gain, nothing to lose ♪ ♪ With my back to the wall ♪ ♪ No one to call ♪ ♪ Don't know why I'm even here at all ♪ ♪ And I know love is certain ♪ ♪ I saw you standing there ♪ ♪ Couldn't believe my eyes ♪ ♪ And just like that there was nothing else ♪ ♪ Nothing else ♪ ♪ Everything changed when I met you ♪ ♪ Time stopped when you walked in the room ♪ ♪ Didn't know I could feel this way ♪ ♪ Nothing can take this away ♪ ♪ Everything changed when I met you ♪ ♪ Now here I am, daydreaming once again ♪ ♪ A distant future, a happy end ♪ ♪ Something about this time that sticks in my mind ♪ ♪ Can't seem to find the words to put it right ♪ ♪ I'm feeling over the moon ♪ ♪ I just wanna see you soon ♪ ♪ Nothing that I'd rather do ♪ ♪ Than be with you ♪ ♪ Everything changed when I met you ♪ ♪ Time stopped when you walked in the room ♪ ♪ Didn't know I could feel this way ♪ ♪ Nothing can take this away ♪ ♪ Everything changed when I met you ♪ (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) One of the only ways that small artists can get exposure is through playing live, and because we were writing this album during the pandemic, we kind of had to like rest with the fact that there's a possibility we weren't ever gonna play live again on this music that we were writing.

There was a lot of really hard, you know, thoughts we had to have.

We were like facing losing our jobs and it was almost like, is this project like even a necessity right now?

Like, we have to worry about like being okay right now.

And it was finishing the album that sort of like got us through that too.

Like, you know, there's really hard days and the only thing that could get our mind off of everything going on in the world was writing this album.

I know a friend of mine helped me realize that like the only way you can even be of use to anybody is if you're filling your own bucket.

Like, you can't help anybody if you're not helping yourself.

And to me, like writing music and doing this project is what makes me happy and I can't help anybody if I'm not happy.

For us, like investing in this project is also investing in like local art and like the local community.

- The Billings community is a really tight-knit music scene.

It was a really good experience for me getting into that scene, and as time has kind of gone on, it's just gotten better and better.

I feel like there's kind of like a music scene revival or resurgence in Billings.

It's large enough to where there's always like bands playing, every weekend, there's always at least one show that you can go to, but it's also small enough to where everyone kind of knows each other in this scene and that's a really cool sense of community that I think makes a lot of young musicians wanna continue doing music.

- One of our like larger visions we have for this band is to use our platform to help other people and bringing in local artists on our projects.

Like, we used a local artist for our album art, Chamber of Goo is his artist name.

Something we've realized throughout this project is that starting something like this takes a lot of time and energy and money and a lot of upfront investment that I think, even for me, like I was very discouraged by that and I probably would've never even ventured into writing and recording if it wasn't for meeting Alex and like having the opportunities that we did.

For that reason, we really liked the idea of like bringing other local artists in here and like helping them record their stuff and helping people mix and produce their stuff to sort of like take away that like initial stress of that upfront investment of like starting your own project.

- Yeah.

- We've started to bring in a couple people, and to bring people in here and allow them the opportunity to record and actually like hear their music come to fruition and like hear that vision that they wanted to have, I think is so inspiring and, in a lot of ways, can like help you realize your passion, you know.

That's what happened to us, like we didn't know that this was our passion until we did it.

- To me, I feel like that's what Joyce From the Future represents is using music as a tool to better ourselves.

- I'm very thankful that I've gotten the chance to play with Alex and Lyric and kind of transform along with this band.

- The idea for "Stranger" kind of like has this empowering just like vibe about it, and we really wanted to capture that.

And especially once Lyric started writing the song, it became really clear to me that the song needed to be just like really almost triumphant and powerful and almost like liberating.

- Like, I feel like there's sort of like a process that has to take place when you like leave a relationship and it's like the point in that process of which where it's like finally set in and you're like, "I'm a completely different person now and I'm totally cool with that."

And I thought it'd be kind of a cool way to end the EP on that note 'cause it sort of like starts like almost from like a naive perspective.

It was like the point in time where we had like first started this band and so I thought it'd be cool to sort of like end it on a note that's like almost like a nice conclusion.

Eventually, it'd be nice if we could make our band like sustainable and full-time.

So that's, you know, of course, the the big vision, the big ideal vision we have for this band.

- Yeah, we're taking it one step at a time, but, yeah.

- I've talked more about this band than I ever have.

(both laughing) (cool music) (cool music continues) (cool music continues) (cool music continues) ♪ Something tells me you've gone away ♪ ♪ By the vacancy in your gaze ♪ ♪ I reach my arms out into space ♪ ♪ Longing for the return of your embrace ♪ ♪ All of my hopes and then my howl ♪ ♪ I present to you on ball and chains ♪ ♪ I hear a ghost wandering the house ♪ ♪ Of recollections etched in my brain ♪ ♪ Now you're a stranger in the night ♪ ♪ And I feel fine ♪ ♪ You once were here and now you're gone ♪ ♪ And I, I know it's real this time ♪ ♪ Something tells me you've gone away ♪ ♪ By the way your silence echoes a room ♪ ♪ I let my mind start to float away ♪ ♪ Though my eyes seemed to be fixed on my shoes ♪ ♪ I start to see the end of the road ♪ ♪ And the thought as it feels so cold ♪ ♪ I grip the wheel into the unknown ♪ ♪ Foot to the floor, I've never felt this before ♪ ♪ Now you're a stranger in the night ♪ ♪ And I feel fine ♪ ♪ You once were here and now you're gone ♪ ♪ And I, I know it's real this time ♪ ♪ Now you're a stranger in the night ♪ ♪ And I feel fine ♪ ♪ You once were here and now you're gone ♪ ♪ And I, I know it's real this time ♪ (cool music continues) (cool music continues) (cool music continues) (cool music continues) ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ We wouldn't be here today ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪