Philadelphia five-piece Joy Again formed in 2015 on Facebook, but that’s not important. They spent their formative years thrashing through basement shows with sticky floors and shitty sound, and somehow landed themselves in the arms of Never Grow Up Records, which seems pretty appropriate. They released their first effort EP earlier this year, and today, they’re unleashing a singles package with “Kim,” an upbeat poppy garage twirl, and it’s opposite “On A Farm,” a mellow introspection of sound. So press play, and read our interview with the band below. These dudes insist they’re not a garage band, but a “collection of genius hip hop producers disguised under the guise of an extremely contrived genre.” Listen for yourself and decide. –Maya Eslami

Catch Joy Again live at the Mercury Lounge on Monday October 2nd – buy tickets here

WHAT YOUTH: How did Joy Again come about? 

JOY AGAIN: Joy again came about through the mutual love of rock (geology,) specifically metamorphic and/or shiny

Any backstory on the name? 

Before switching our name multiple times, the original name involved the word “joy.” after many changes we finally settled on joy, again.

You guys have been called a staple of the Philly basement scene. What’s that scene look like through your eyes?

We’re certainly not a staple but we have much love for our elders in that scene especially bands like blue smiley, krispy kareem, pet, (sandy) alex g etc.

What’s it like working with producer Caleb Laven (who worked with Frank Ocean)?

We’ve been working with Caleb since joy again came to be. we were introduced to Caleb after his chance meeting with our good friend and amazing collaborator AXIÖM. Caleb liked what we were doing by ourselves and has continually been one of the largest factors in what makes joy again what it is. it was great to be where we were, but moving forward its an amazing experience to work with brilliant minds like Caleb, and we will love him till Arthur’s last breath.

Tell me about the new singles coming out? 

It’s about fucking time.

Who are your influences? Where do you guys pull inspiration from?

Young Thug, Gram Parsons, early Flaming Lips, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, cinnamon Life cereal, the dude who bought “untitled” by Basquiat for like way too much money, Ringle Starr’s Allstar Band, and that video of Brian Wilson playing surf’s up by himself.

And how would you describe your sound? 

We are not a garage band we are a collection of genius hip hop producers disguised under the guise of an extremely contrived genre we much rather not talk about, we smell like mold.

What’s next for the band?

Starting a clothing band, visit Bermuda, get sachi home, buy a dog, build a treehouse, write songs for the people. there’s always going to be bad people who hear your music, we just hope that the good people are the ones who are moved by it.