Joe Wong is a multi-instrumentalist, podcast host, and composer.
Joe Wong is the Los Angeles-based, Milwaukee-raised multi-instrumentalist, podcast host (The Trap Set) and composer behind buzzworthy shows including Master of None, Russian Doll, Ugly Delicious, Awkwafina is Nora From Queens and more. His debut album Nite Creatures is out September 18th via Decca Records, was produced by Mary Timony (Ex Hex, Helium) and features performances from Timony, Mary Lattimore, Jon Natchez (War on Drugs), Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think), Anna Waronker (that dog.), Steven Drozd (Flaming Lips) and more.
Nite Creatures features luxurious melodies accompanying Wong's deeply personal lyrics. The album was written in the years between his father suffering a stroke in 2010 and his death in 2019. The result is an album that - in the cinematic detail of one of Wong's film scores - explores the intersection of melancholy and joyful surrender.
Most of the songs on Nite Creatures feature a core ensemble: Wong on vocals, drums, bass, guitar and keyboards; Timony on lead guitar and backing vocals; and harpist Mary Lattimore, who recently garnered an avalanche of critical acclaim for the spectral minimalism of her 2018 solo album, Hundreds of Days. The basic tracks were recorded at the secluded Gatos Trail Recording Studio in Joshua Tree, California and the album was mixed by famed, depth-scouring Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann.
The album's singles to-date include "Dreams Wash Away," which is prominently featured in the finale of the widely-praised Netflix original series from Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and comedian Duncan Trussell, The Midnight Gospel with a Titmouse-produced video featuring re-contextualized elements from the show including characters and backgrounds combined in new ways (watch HERE); double single "Minor"--a portrait of romantic claustrophobia--with "Nuclear Rainbow" which is a timely track about the type of heightened existential dread not unlike the kind running rampant at this particular moment in our history ("Nuclear rainbow throws shadows of dread over the kingdom of comfort / Billions of people who haven't died yet searching for permanent shelter"); and the Marianne Faithfull-inspired "Day After Day."
LP pre-orders of Nite Creatures can be purchased via joewong.bigcartel.com . All profits from LP sales through July 2020 were donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Videos