The Riverside Press-Enterprise
This composer can’t stop rocking
TV and film fixture Joe Wong has a new album and a lavishly accompanied gig coming up in Hollywood
Despite the title of his new album, “Mere Survival,” when it comes to his music career, Los Angeles resident Joe Wong isn’t merely surviving, he’s thriving.
He’s a successful film and TV composer, podcaster, multi-instrumentalist and singer who is releasing his sophomore album, a 10-song mix of synthesizers, electric guitars and psychedelia, on Feb, 2.
But before that, he’s playing a show with his all-star band, the Nite Creatures, and a full orchestra on Thursday at Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles.
“It’s going to be probably the most people ever fit on the stage at Hollywood Forever,” Wong said during a recent phone interview. “Maybe that’s emblematic of some larger part of my psyche where I try to fit as much as I can into one place.”
And he has fit a lot into his career so far.
Born in Wisconsin, Wong began playing drums in 1991 at age 11, just as grunge was dominating the musical landscape. So with rock as his first love, Wong quickly got into several bands and even toured nationally at age 17.
“We booked our own shows ourselves as teenagers, playing basements, halls, whatever we could find, and living off Taco Bell burritos,” Wong recalled.
He eventually earned a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz performance and music production. He later performed with other bands and artists, most notably as the drummer for respected rockers Parts & Labor. He’s also worked with singersongwriter Marnie Stern, as well as the New York-based collective Wordless Music. He got into his daytime gig as a TV and film composer at age 23 when filmmaker friends asked him to write some music for an independent movie titled “Yes Men.”
“We had no idea what we were doing, really. We didn’t know any of the conventions of film composing; we just kind of figured it out as we went along,” he said.
Wong went on to write music for shows like “Russian Doll” and “Master of None” and the animated series “The Midnight Gospel.” He just scored the Netflix animated show “Carol and the End of the World” and has a few other TV series in the works. He also hosts a podcast titled “The Trap Set,” which has produced nearly 300 episodes and is about the lives of musicians. Guest have included punk legend Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi, as
well as pop stars like Sheila E. and Phil Collins.
But being onstage and creating his own music feeds his personal artistic needs.
“What I figured out is that I wanted to have something where I was the songwriter and I was singing and rather than telling other people’s stories, I wanted to tell my own story,” he said. “So that’s what the first album was, and the second album is an extension of that.”
Wong plays guitar, bass, piano and drums and sings on the new album, which he describes as psychedelic orchestral music.
“I feel like I’ve started combining more influences that I’ve metabolized over the years. It’s a little weirder, a little bit spacier, but there’s still that foundation of psychedelic rock,” he said.
He’ll also have a good foundation when he performs this month with Nite Creatures, since the group includes players like former Soundgarden and current Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron.