THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In early 2022 Jake Borgemenke and Joey Joesph had long been admirers of the other’s music, but had never met. That February they started talking for the first time over Instagram DMs, and eventually text, where they decided to collaborate on a song via email. Fast-forward through dozens of swapped mp3s and texted voice memos, and one song has become a full LP clocking in at just under 45 minutes.
“It was cool,” says Joesph. “The whole process was like, Jake would text me a voice memo of him playing a simple chord progression on acoustic guitar, and I’d be like, ‘What if that was the verse, and then it went into this for the chorus.’ And we just wrote songs that way. We’d get the arrangement down by swapping voice memos, and then we’d decide who was gonna play what for basic tracking, since we both kinda play everything, and then we’d start recording for real.”
The Cincinnati duo went back and forth that way for a few months, still having never met in person until July 27, when they finally got together to shoot photos for the cover. By that time the album was finished, except for some candid audio recordings of the dudes’ first meeting, which are heard opening the record, and then sprinkled in between songs throughout.
“Subliminal Clave is my first proper collaboration ever,” says Jake, “so it was a learning experience for sure. I think Joey and I were finishing each other’s musical sentences as soon as we started working together. Sometimes we’d write and finish recording a song within a few days. Overall I think the record has a spontaneous, carefree vibe that is easy to get lost in.”
With Jake and Joey as our guides, we’ll happily get lost with them.”
