For the love of dancing
When Joy Anonymous plays their set live, they always start the evening by encouraging the punters to meet someone new.
Their music has always been about creating community.
Henry and Lou had been playing in bands, producing artists and throwing raves under the music collective, From Concentrate, in London when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Lockdowns dried up the United Kingdom’s live music scene like a drought. But these boys were about to make it rain. One day, they headed to their local park, South Bank in London, with a portable speaker and battery. “We were sick of making tunes indoors and thought, ‘Let’s do them outside,’” Henry said. They just held their first ‘Joy Anonymous’ meeting.
“We had the most beautiful interactions with people,” he added. They weren’t posting the “meetings” on social media themselves; it was just word-of-mouth or playing for the people passing by on their daily walks. This ‘pop-up’ show mentality has become their brand, something the boys have stuck to, even as they’ve grown in popularity.
In 2024, they toured with Fred Again.. and have a growing fanbase of just under 1.5 million Spotify listens a month.
“The pop-up shows have a different energy, people get to be really close to you, you’re connected and can chat and look into their eyes,” said Lou. “It’s not for the money, it’s purely for the love of the game we do this, and people see that and respond to that.” Earlier in 2024, they threw a pop-up show at a Melbourne salad bar. Henry explained the ethos behind their music is “moving one person.” When they’ve done that, whether it’s physically or emotionally, they’ve done their job, he said.
He reflected on the “first DJs” on the scene, who were hidden from the punters’ view, the music just happening. They want to be different. “We want the people in the crowd to feel like they’re just as important as the people playing the instruments - because they are,” Henry said.
Since the lockdowns, their Joy Anon community has only grown - through WhatsApp groups where people join up to go to shows together, and the biggest compliment, Henry said, is when people say they feel safe to come to their shows solo. “And particularly after lockdown, that was quite scary for a lot of people, and so we take that as a huge compliment that we’ve managed to build these places that people feel like they can come to, whatever age, whatever background they’re from, there’s no barrier to entry.”
The boys want to combat “unsocial media” through their in-person communities. Even though they’ve been making music for years, their careers only started taking off in their late twenties. But Lou explained this has given them grounding; they’re more sure of who they are. “We started this because we wanted to do it for us,” he said. “I constantly remind myself of this to avoid that need for external validation.”
I chatted to the boys in the sunshine - me in my Pōneke room, them in Sweden. Lou explained he’s sometimes nervous about overworking and not enjoying the music; “falling out of love with it because it’s too much.”
“And that’s because I have nothing else. All our eggs are in one basket.” He did say running a cafe on Waikehe Island could be an appealing backup career. But the love of music never seems to fade for them.
While in Sweden, they were working on their next album, finding inspiration through listening to other musicians’ albums, particularly live sets. They like live albums as they hear the exact world the musicians performed in. “I think often when making an album it can be over a long period of time, and there’s a lot of voices that might have been in that,” Henry said. “But when it’s live, there’s no changing it. Every mistake, every imperfection makes a beautiful capsule of time.”
Their first album was inspired by this - featuring testimonies from their South Bank meetings and sounds, even songs written by some of the people in the crowd. “It’s a living record, where you can hear life in them,” Henry said.
They absolutely love songwriting. “We also love producing mad sounds, but maybe that’s something we’ve been hearing a lot for the last few years, and we just wanna hear some guitars for a bit - music in its rawest form.”
Touring is intense, they said. “But as soon as you get on the stage and press the first button, you suddenly feel fine, you don’t feel tired, or ill. It’s crazy that it just happens every single time,” Lou said. “I never feel more present than in that moment,” added Henry. In those moments, when they’re playing music, they feel an absence of anything else. Just playing music, that’s all it is, just the singular says, Lou. “It sounds like a cliche, but it’s just so true. The music is the most peaceful part.”
Joy Anon’s Favourite songs at the moment:
- Richard Hawley’s ‘For Your Lover Give Some Time’ Live At the Devils Arse 2017 - “This is acoustic, whereas his actual albums are more produced. But to hear them stripped down, I just love something about it,” said Lou.
- John Martyn’s ‘Couldn’t Love You More’ Live at Rockpalast 1978.
- ‘God Gave Me Feet for Dancing’ by Ezra Collective (they performed live with the group at All Points East in 2024).
Where they find their wonder:
“Lou and I are playing each other tunes that we’re loving at the time, and I can’t believe we still love music as much as we do. When I hear a new song, I get completely lost in it.”
“When we’re not touring, we try to visit places where you can walk and see lakes, rivers, and the ocean—to find peace in that in the downtime.”
“Sometimes just doing the normal stuff, hanging out with my girlfriend and sleeping,” said Lou.
This story featured in the first-ever print edition of Wonder Journal, now sold out. Want to read more? Buy your PDF copy here. And don’t worry, issue 3 in print is growing for this year.