Track By Track: Joesef Breaks Down Debut Album 'Permanent Damage'

Glaswegian pop and soul singer Joesef has released his debut album, Permanent Damage. The album draws on Joesef’s formative experiences living in Glasgow’s east end and incorporates elements of indie pop and alt-R&B. Permanent Damage includes the singles ‘Joe’, ‘Just Come Home With Me Tonight’ and the pervasive lead single, ‘It’s Been a Little Heavy Lately’.

The London-based Joesef shares production credits on Permanent Damage with Barney Lister, who’s produced and co-written for Giggs, Obongjayar, Celeste, Joy Crookes and various other contemporary British musicians. Lyrically, Joesef reflects on missed opportunities, a “mad, tempestuous” relationship, and grieves for a version of himself that he’ll never be again.

Joesef: Permanent Damage

1. Permanent Damage

Joesef: I wanted the album to feel like it was picking you up, pulling you close and then letting you go at the end. ‘Permanent Damage’ is the sort of overture of the story. The song is quite sparse, with only a couple of tracks within the song itself.

2. It’s Been A Little Heavy Lately

Joesef: ‘It’s Been A Little Heavy Lately’ is probably one of the most fun tracks me and Barney wrote together. It was the first time I’d let myself go creatively and just went with what felt good. The song is a specific story, but it’s basically a cautionary tale of letting your morals slip when you’re depressed, allowing bullshit when your defences are down.

3. East End Coast

Joesef: ‘East End Coast’ is a bit of an ode to my hometown. When I moved to London from Glasgow, I didn’t expect to feel as isolated or lonely as I did. This song was my way of pining for a time and place gone by that I had taken for granted. Even though it centred around this mad, tempestuous relationship, it felt like the world was collapsing in on itself around us, but at least we had each other.

4. Just Come Home With Me Tonight

Joesef: This was inadvertently the first song I wrote for the album. I’d written it by myself in Glasgow and kept it because it felt special to me. The demo vocal I recorded in my room is the version you hear on the record. It’s nice to have that version of myself on this album, especially as a central theme of the record is about grieving for that part of myself, the version I’ll never be able to be again.

5. Borderline

Joesef: The last song I wrote for the album. I’d met someone new and they were so unconditionally loving, everything felt very calm. I wasn’t used to this kind of love and I found it quite difficult to accept, so I ended it. It’s definitely a right person, wrong time kind of song. I still find it completely devastating.

6. Didn’t Know How (to Love You)

Joesef: Barney and I has such a laugh making this tune. It’s definitely the fuck you song of the record. It sort of reminds me of Kendrick Lamar, ‘King Kunta’ or something. I think we managed to make it sound like a band in a room jamming together. One of my favourite songs I’ve ever made.

7. Apt 22

Joesef: This song is about feeling someone’s absence so much that it feels like a presence in itself. It felt very easy production-wise; everything fell into place like it was meant to be. We were just letting the story inform the orchestration.

It features Guy Garvey from Elbow on backing vocals in the chorus too. We spent a lot of time together over the course of making the album ’cause we all worked in the same studio. I’ve been such a fan forever, so this song is so special to me.

8. Shower

Joesef: I think I spent a lot of time after the relationship ended wondering if they were feeling the same way as me, hoping the misery was mutual. This song, much like ‘Apt 22’, is about seeing someone in everything you do. I think the really devastating aspects of heartbreak lie in the quiet, mundane everyday things, like sitting on the edge of your bed in silence or taking a shower alone.

9. Joe

Joesef: Much of the album is about my relationship with someone else, but this one is about the relationship I have with myself. I’ve always struggled with a bit of a stormy inner landscape. I’ve always been a bit of a deep thinker and it takes me places I don’t really want to be sometimes. ‘Joe’ is a bit of a conversation with myself.

10. Blue Car

Joesef: A lot of my relationship with this person revolved around partying and alcohol. ‘Blue Car’ is about love in the context of co-dependency, and how addictive the bad times became in the end. The whole idea of dying being better than ever meeting each other is a bit morbid, but at the time I honestly believed it to be true.

11. Moment

Joesef: I think we’d been listening to a lot of indie bands making this tune, like The Radio Dept. and Beach Fossils. I wanted to tell the story of a desire for a fleeting moment of how it used to be together, before it got bad. This song lived a few lives before it became what you hear on the album. Definitely something I can’t wait to do live.

12. Last Orders

Joesef: This song is my way of emotionally checking out of a relationship in the context of leaving them waiting for me at a bar. There’s all this bravado when a relationship ends of who doesn’t care the most, and for me this song is when the scale tipped in my favour and I just wasn’t arsed anymore.

Production-wise, it’s a song I’ve always wanted to make, like those boom clap Motown records. We put the sounds through a lot of vintage equipment and set it to tape, so it has a lot of old-school textures.

13. All Good

Joesef: This is sort of like the musical epilogue to the whole record. I think I needed it for myself. It’s the idea that nothing’s ever easy, but it’s always going to be okay in the end. No matter how devastating something may seem, it’s always possible to make it through, and be better for it.