This post started out as a Song of the Day for the latest single from Joanna Sternberg, People Are Toys To You… it still is my Song of the Day, but there is so much more I wanted to say about Joanna, so…
I came across Joanna Sternberg‘s music while trawling through Bandcamp a while back and found their music to be quite unlike anyone else I’d heard before. That feeling was heightened after watching a short but insightful documentary that is sad, beautiful and inspiring (see below).
Joanna is an inspiring, multi-talented individual, whose humble nature and honesty make the gaping cracks in the wall of life appear more visible. At some point in our lives, many of us lose (or don’t ever find) our thirst for creativity – we may not have been given the tools to create or were not encouraged, or worse still, we were told we were not good enough – society is very good at measuring. Those fictionalised societal ‘norms’ plague people’s confidence and deter them from pursuing what they truly love.
Joanna questions what constitutes art and music, and more importantly, they believe we are all capable of creating art. I wish Joanna Sternberg had been my art teacher…
Joanna’s life has its fair share of struggles; they struggle with addiction, and they find it helps them cope with the world if they pretend it’s all a cartoon…in their world, there are no stereotypes, and we are all unique…they love cartoons, drawing, play musical instruments and make friends…with everyone.
Joanna returned to her parent’s home in Manhattan Plaza for a short stay in 2020 – but then that thing happened, and society went sideways; but there Sternberg remained, writing in the towers.
The towers of Manhattan Plaza are a middle-income artists-only residency, a massive, 46-story universe of living New York City history, where predecessors include Charles Mingus, Tennessee Williams, Alicia Keys, and more…It even has practice rooms in the basement. Luckily for us, Joanna was actively encouraged to pursue their love of art and music, something they do all day/every day. They heard Elliot Smith while in High School and realised that ‘sad music’ can also be beautiful…it was a life-changing moment, and in Joanna’s words, it saved their life. To quote from William Todd Schultz’s biography of Smith (Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith) when talking about the emotions that Smith’s music often evokes in a listener, he describes it as…
“…a strangely comforting, sensual melancholy, a gentle sadness, the kind that comes with soft rain”
They grew up copying and being inspired by their parents – “a cute couple” – Joanna was exposed to art and music from a young age, and their grandmother was also an incredible singer in Yiddish theatre. It’s here where you’d usually say, ‘it’s obviously in the blood’, but that’s not part of Joanna’s beautiful all-encompassing philosophy…we all have it in our blood, and we are all unique, and we are all vulnerable, and that’s often where we find our strength.
“People Are Toys To You” is the latest offering from Joanna’s forthcoming new album, I’ve Got Me, out June 30th 2023, on Fat Possum. It’s a rousing number steered by Sternberg’s ever-incisive lyrics – “People are toys to you // You’ll play and play with one till you’re bored and through. // You may want it back when it’s gone and flew ‘cause, // People are toys to you” – and is underscored by their steely instrumentation. In addition to illustrating each single’s accompanying video, Sternberg masterfully wrote and played every instrument heard on I’ve Got Me. The album is their recorded debut as a string arranger and drummer, and “People Are Toys To You” marks Sternberg’s first song credited as an electric guitarist.
Of “People Are Toys To You,” Sternberg adds: “I wrote this song while I was in a rush walking to the subway with my double bass. I was upset about something and the song sort of wrote itself. The funny thing is that Soundcloud Pro’s ‘who is listening’ feature told me the person I wrote this song about listened to it four times when I posted it on Facebook. Oops!”
There’s a great final line in the press for the new single, which resonates with everything I’ve said above –
Thelonious Monk said, “a genius is the one most like himself”- in 2023, we’re lucky Joanna Sternberg knows the most vulnerable parts of themself well enough to make music that shows how strong each one of us can be. Sternberg’s got all this and more.
JOANNA STERNBERG TOUR DATES (NEW DATES IN BOLD)
Fri. June 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ WXPN Free at Noon
Wed. June 14 – Seattle, WA @ Here-After
Fri. June 16 – Portland, OR @ Show Bar
Sun. June 18 – San Francisco, CA @ Make-Out Room
Wed. June 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Genghis Cohen
Fri. June 30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records [I’ve Got Me release show]
Wed. Sept. 20 – South Deerfield, MA @ Tree House Outside !
Thu. Sept. 21 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre !
Fri. Sept. 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground !
Sat. Sept. 23 – New London, CT @ Garde Arts Center !
Sat. Dec. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall ^
Tue. Dec. 5 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall ^
Wed. Dec. 6 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl ^
! supporting Kurt Vile
^ supporting Angel Olsen