Like many others, I have been following indie rock artist Joe P’s music career ever since his release of “Off My Mind” in 2021. While some artists are one-hit-wonders where that song on the very top of their Spotify profile is all anyone streams, Joe Parella is different: every song he makes is unique yet all attaining the perfect combination of catchy guitar riffs and cathartic lyrics. While I came for “Off My Mind,” I stayed for the collection of masterpieces Parella has created alone in his basement. He has cultivated a low-key persona, where instead of constantly posting himself lipsyncing the same song over and over again, Parella occasionally drops a clip of himself playing one of his songs in his basement or kitchen, with warm lighting and no extravagant production. His eccentric personality meshed with masterful lyricism tie together to make an artist that should be #1 on your list to keep a lookout for in 2026. 

I made it to the venue about half an hour before doors, with a line wrapping around Rochester’s Anthology. Joe P was opening for Joywave’s annual “JOY2THEWORLD” holiday show. Fans were abuzz, eager to see their beloved Rochester-native band, Joywave, along with this mysterious opening act… “who is Joe P?” Well, it did not take long for Parella to make a name for himself that night. 

Watching Joe onstage, playing hits like “Fighting in the Car” and “Off My Mind” as well as more experimental songs such as “French Blonde,” was mesmerizing. At first, the band was fairly quiet, sticking solely to performing the setlist with little commentary. Then all of a sudden, about halfway through the set, he introduced the band. But this was not your typical brief introduction where each member quickly waves to the crowd; everyone on stage said hello to the crowd and talked about how excited they were to be in Rochester. Joe got everyone in the crowd to chant each member’s name: bassist Tony, guitarist James, drummer Santo, and even John who helps with everything from set up to selling merchandise on tour. It was clear to everyone watching that the whole Joe P team is a special community.

After the show, I had the opportunity to go backstage to meet with Joe. Joywave was just about to go on when I entered the chaos of backstage: fog lingering, people racing around trying to get everything set up just right, Joywave lined up waiting to walk out as everyone backstage wished them “good luck.” In the dressing room, I found Joe sitting on a stool eating dinner – I have always found it fascinating how musicians go from having over a thousand people cheering them on as they play their hit songs with millions of streams to going back to their “normal person” lives. Joe, Pergo (Joe’s manager), and I all sat and discussed Joe P’s music journey so far, which you can read below.

The Song Scoop (TSS): Thank you so much for chatting with me, I really appreciate it! When did you begin writing songs and what made you realise you wanted to do music as a career?

Joe P: I guess you start and you’re obsessed with music from the 60s and 70s. So I feel like I got into that first where I was like, “I just want to play guitar.” I didn’t think about writing songs; I just wanted to learn the famous songs. And then, I think you just start writing songs when you’re a kid in a way that feels so free and it’s just your imagination; you’re just using songwriting like it’s a toy and think, “Oh, this is fun!” I was just singing about my dog and stupid stuff. And then when I was 12 or 13, I started using it as a way to be like, “I’m sad about this girl” and all the other cliche things. Then, rather than trying to play a million notes and be some great guitar player, I realized that I just want to play four chords and say something cool. When you’re a little kid and you get into music it just seems like too weird and impossible to actually make up a song, but by about freshman year of high school I started a band with the three other kids in my town [Sussex County] that played music. We began by learning covers, then started trying originals, then playing the talent show, and it just kept going.

TSS: Since you self produce and write everything in your basement, who do you go to when you need a second opinion while making music?

Joe P: I’ve gotten better at knowing how to do it myself in the sense of knowing when to stop working on one song and go work on another one, so that in a week, I come back with a new set of ears. I have also found a circle of people I can trust and send music to; I can tell by their reactions whether they like a song or if it’s not so great which can be really helpful. I’m really into the idea of betting on yourself and losing your mind in the music though. Maybe you’re wrong, but I think that’s how really good stuff can happen. It’s a double edged sword, where working independently could be a really good thing, but it’s also sometimes nice when someone tells you when one part should be a little faster or another should be in a different key. But there’s enough people that I know by now, that by the time the song gets out, it goes through enough people’s ears that I get the feedback I need one way or another.

TSS: Can you explain who Emily is and how she impacts your music? I love her little features on the EPs.

Joe P: Emily is my wife who I have known since I was 13. She does nothing in the arts but it’s great because she’ll sometimes come down into the basement and listen and say something like “Hey, you’re too whiney on this,” and I think, “You don’t even know what you’re talking about, you’re crazy,” and I turn around and I realise she’s right. When she comes down and starts dancing, I know it must be good. When it’s another musician that likes what I am making it’s cool, but they also might just like the sound of the drums or something in particular, whereas she just hears a song. So honestly, my biggest producer is her.

TSS: What is your favorite lyric you have ever written?

Joe P: My favorite lyrics are always the ones that are pretty subtle and clever while the ones that resonate with people are the ones that I didn’t really think about, like “Now you’re off my mind.” My favorite is probably the bridge off of “Birthday Baby” where it says “I don’t want to know what it feels like to be the rain in Seattle // I don’t wanna know what it feels like to be the wind in Chicago // And I don’t want to know what it feels like to be the sunshine in LA // Someday, when this life’s done, I’ll come back as something you can love.” I like to name places in my lyrics and I also didn’t totally know what it meant, which I liked. My favorite lines are always the ones where I’m not sure where they came from.

TSS: Do you have an artist you enjoy listening to that would surprise your fans?

Joe P: I really like Bjork as she doesn’t really fit into any genre and is just kind of in her own world. I also think Aretha Franklin is amazing.

TSS: What is it like opening for other bands?

Joe P: Opening for Flipturn was awesome: their fans are great, the band is great. Touring with Matt Maeson was also great since I have known him for a bit; when you don’t know the band already it can feel a little awkward like you are getting dropped off for a playdate. It’s fun playing for people that have no clue who you are every night. It’s such a different thing versus the headline shows where people paid just to see you so there’s a feeling like you have to live up to their expectations. When you’re opening, you can just go out and lose your mind and try to win everyone over. It feels more like a competition with yourself, like you’re trying to gain the audience’s attention. We have it down at this point because we usually have 45 minutes to play which is great, because it’s not enough time for people to get sick of you and you can just jam pack your set with energy and do the best you can, trying to get everyone on your side. Meeting people after at the merch stand is the best because it’s really nice meeting everyone, and then when we come back for a headline show, they’re there again, which is super exciting. 

TSS: Speaking of concerts, what are your favorite songs to play live?

Joe P: I like playing “French Blonde” because it feels like people are gonna be a little freaked out. We watch the crowd kind of split into two sides, half thinking “What is this?” and the other “Oh I love this,” and I love that moment. Also, as many times as I have played it, I love playing “Off My Mind” because it feels different every time. We always play it last and the song has such a life to it that it feels good walking off stage ending on that note.

TSS: What made you start to play a cover of “You Are My Sunshine” as a transition into “Off My Mind?”

Joe P: It was just a random thing I did one night. I realized “Off My Mind” was in a good key to sing that song with it, and I just decided to go for it. For my opening sets, I wanted a cover that would be memorable for the crowd but I also didn’t want to do a full cover, so I thought that doing a snippet of the song would be a cool way to get people’s ears perked up. It’s really funny when I’m playing it as an opener as I announce it’s the last song and just start playing “You Are My Sunshine” and people look all confused and start clapping at the end, not realizing I’m going to play “Off My Mind.” 

TSS: Outside of music, how do you like to spend your time?

Joe P: There’s so many aspects to music that aren’t music at all, like working on music videos and figuring out merch that I kind of just do that. Pergo, what do I do, do I do anything fun?

Pergo: No, you do music.

Joe P: I just play music. Emily is really good at getting me out of the house. She always tells me “We’re going on a hike; we are doing normal people stuff.” So I guess I’m really good at being dragged to things. I also enjoy recording other people for their own projects. It gets me excited to go back and work on my own music because I record them in my basement and everyone that comes in talks about what a cool space it is, but to me it’s just a basement where I don’t see the sun. It really makes me appreciate it and I always gain a new perspective working with others.

TSS: If someone is a new listener, what is the first song that you would want them to hear and why?

Joe P: Honestly, I would listen to the stripped stuff- “Glass House (Stripped)” is a good one to listen to. I think that’s the best version of who I am: my voice is on display but there is still more production sprinkled in compared to what you would hear of me on TikTok. I wouldn’t recommend listening to “Off My Mind” first. The song is cool but I wouldn’t produce it the way I did then the same way now. That version of the song is frozen in time though, which is part of the growing pains, knowing it’s on Spotify forever and you can’t just delete and replace songs when you get tired of them.

TSS: What spurred you to make the If We Run film for the release of the French Blond EP and why did you decide to make it a horror film?

Joe P: It was an “anti music video” in the sense that I didn’t want to just make a bunch of music videos again like usual. I wanted to get out of the repetition of having to make a new music video for every song and instead go for one big idea. I decided to make it a horror film because it’s a genre that you don’t have to take too seriously and I thought that it fit with the rock music well.

TSS: What made you decide to make a stripped version of Garden State Vampire? When recording, did the meanings of any songs change for you since originally writing?

Joe P: I always joke that there’s a “TikTok” version of me, where it’s all acoustic, there’s a production side of me, and then there’s the live side of me, with guitar solos and just going crazy. So I thought it would be cool to tackle that “TikTok” side, where everyone first discovers my music. While I was working on the stripped album, I wished I recorded most of the songs this way initially. With the pressure being gone of needing to produce a song after recording, the songs all took their most natural version. I would play around and add drums or bass sometimes, which is why some songs are titled “stripped-ish.” So while the meanings of the songs did not change, the character, or which side of me on Spotify, changed.

Be sure to presave Garden State Vampire – Stripped on your favorite streaming platform and follow Joe P on social media to stay in the loop about all of his exciting plans for 2026!