March 13, 2021
Braying out yesterday’s future jazz from the heart of Los Angeles, Joy Guerrilla mingles analog production with instrumental affluence, fermenting their experiments across several multifaceted albums. Magda Daniec and Adam Grab form the brain trust of Joy Guerrilla’s compositions, collaborating with a growing rap sheet of contemporary musicians to flesh out and stake claim to their sonic territory. Their latest release, The Park Is Closed, features eight collaborating musicians across numerous disciplines, showcasing a full spectrum array of progressive jazz and tropicalia-inspired tracks that slide effortlessly into the Joy Guerrilla catalog.
Though the album finds healthy support from its inclusion of various session musicians, it is Daniec and Grab’s personal skillset that lays down the true groundwork for The Park Is Closed. With Daniec manning the melodies across ten keyboards and synthesizers, and Grab serving up pocketed grooves through string basses, lead guitars, and a variety of percussion, this dynamic duo sets the stage for an instrumental dialogue that plays like a sunset vignette over LA’s sprawling highways. Be it a slow walk through subtle bpm’s and cradled harmonies, or spurts of drum-and-bass rhythms in between tightly choreographed and syncopated notation, the compositional span of the Joy Guerrilla experience displays a fundamental control over all things in the hemisphere of groove.
The Park Is Closed spares no effort in maintaining a pure experience through rhythm, and it pays off entirely by the time the needle leaves the last track. With three albums in their pocket across the last five years, Joy Guerrilla is steadily cementing their position within the musical landscape of the United States.
https://www.therustmusic.net/rust-blog/Joy-guerrilla-the-park-is-closed
Joy Guerrilla’s “The Park Is Closed”
BY: JAKE FUNKMAYOR
ON: MARCH 21, 2021
Joy Guerrilla is the Los Angeles-based duo Magdalena Daniec and Adam Grab. The Park Is Closed is their second full length album after Skyline (2018) which followed their debut EP E.N.O. (2015). The Park is Closed is a fun, funky trip with a great warm weather West Coast vibe. For me, it hits a sweet spot of classic funk fusion brought forward to today.
This is how Joy Guerilla recounted the origin of the band, “We met in the Bay Area of California. Mags’ was actually Adam’s piano teacher for a short time. We quickly realized we shared a lot of common interests in musical tastes and passion for vintage keyboards. For a long time we would busk on the street in the Bay Area, but instead of acoustic performances we would ask nicely for local businesses to let us run an extension cord. People seemed to really like seeing a full band busking on the street (at least until the cops came and shut it down). We took that idea on the road by buying an old mini-bus, outfitting it with solar panels, batteries and an inverter, and doing a busking tour. We would set up and busk directly out of the bus, and use those street sets as promotion for the shows that same night. The hustling bus days definitely had their highs and lows, but we learned a lot from those times. ”
The group completed this album in the midst of the pandemic in their own apartment, but you’d never know it from the cohesiveness of the recordings. The duo explained it this way, “Fortunately a lot of the collaborative work on this was done right before the lockdown started. In fact, in terms of tracking and overdubbing we were essentially done by early 2020. However, we were faced with two choices; stick to the original release schedule (April/May 2020) with everyone being overwhelmed with content and flooded with online releases, or take advantage of the “pause” and really tinker with the presentation and mixing until we felt most proud of it. We decided to go with the latter, and because of this most of our pandemic time was spent making sure nothing was being overlooked. We would say that was one positive of the pandemic. ”
There’s a fine roster of complementary musicians contributing to the uniqueness of each song . Background on the songs is provided by Joy Guerrilla and included in the blue boxes accompanying my track-by-track coverage that follows.
“Skyline” came together as we were hammering out song ideas we had been working on, but it sort of fell into place as the “brighter” sounding album, compared to this one. With “The Park Is Closed” we were working with a specific tone and mood in mind, and setting our intentions did really help with shaping the final album, as opposed to just “seeing what happens.” We also invested a lot more time into making sure we were happy with the final mixes (thanks to Julian Nicholson for all of the guidance and help), and we hope that comes through.
Track-By-Track
Intro is a cool stage setter for the rest of the album featuring some tender piano + percussion, then joined by some ominous synth that alternately sounds like a truck or drone. I’m intrigued.
The last light disappears behind the canopy. An electric pastorale begins to emerge…
(Vangelis/Tomita, lush and atmospheric, 100 bpm)
Earthsuit has some space pinging tones at the beginning before hitting the main groove with drum and bass rhythm. When the main synth melody comes in, it reminds me a little of of The Blackbyrds, Rock Creek Park classic. There’s great layering effects here and midway there’s a transition to a muted trumpet solo from Snarky Puppy’s Mike ‘Maz’ Maher, that solidly hits the mark, of course. This one’s a very danceable space groove.
It’s the only one we’ve got, the exogenous defense against the elements on spaceship Earth. Gotta keep it moving. Trumpet solo from Mike “Maz” Maher of Snarky Puppy.
(old-schoolhouse, synth-boogie, 118 bpm)
Sowa features a well conceived synth groove opening and some excellent backing horns. Les Lovitt takes an early flugelhorn solo followed by a turn from Doug Webb on soprano sax. The synth that follows mimics soprano sax to some extent. Although the tone is somewhat contemplative, it feels upbeat to me on the whole.
Sowa is Polish for “owl” (pronounced “soh-vah”). A bit on the nose given the album art, but there was a huge Great Horned Owl living in the tree outside of Mags’ parent’s house for a time. It was the enforcer of the neighborhood. We named it Sowa and would go see it sleeping every morning.
The crisp night air, unobstructed by the sounds of modernity, would seemingly reveal all. Yet the silent flight is undetected as our hero descends. Soprano saxophone solo by Doug Webb.
(70’s jazz fusion, live-band feel, 120 bpm)
No Late Fees starts very funky with some excellent bass work from Adam Grab and they synths roll with some very catchy licks. There’s an excellent bluesy guitar solo midway from Elijah Zhang. It’s a nice feel with a horn refrain over the top of the multiple synths fading to a piano only closeout.
Hey, listen…it’s the absolute least we can do. Seriously, don’t worry about it. We’ll just make sure to tack it on to the next bill. Guitar solo from Elijah Zhang, modulates to groove in 5 for the outro.
(Herbie/P-Funk energy, horn section, 109 bpm)
fees.waived feels like a fade in from No Late Fees reaching a peak with some every electronic synth with multitracking and several layers. It transitions to a lower volume, more distant sound of the head.
See? Just like we said, we cut you some slack. We’ve got your back! While we’ve got your ear, here’s a one-time offer we want to lay on you. If you act now…
(West Coast beats, Wansel meets DJ Quik, 82 bpm)
The Great Stress is a great fusion tune with an opening circular guitar/base pattern before the horns + synth mash. This tune has a real Snarky Puppy feel with some Crusaders mixed in. The drum, bass, keys feels brings back memories of Stix, Wilton and Joe Sample. The final vocals are a surprise with a darker sentiment.
Apparently, chameleons will die if they experience too much stress. Perhaps it has to do with constantly trying to blend in? Remember that to settle is ultimately self-sabotage.
(controlled-chaos groove, Rhodes-laden, 94 bpm)
Million Dollar Neighborhood definitely has a West Coast acid jazz groove feel. I could see Kamaal Williams or Adrian Younge appreciating this one. Midway there’s a bright piano line, that changes to a Ronnie Laws Every Generation kind of feel. The track is quite strong which is perhaps why the multiple changes keep me guessing on the next direction.
It isn’t necessarily a place, but a frame of mind. With the right lens, you can see it any where and everywhere. Ultimately, you should feel like a million bucks. Sax solo from Doug Webb.
(down-tempo funk a la Nard, electro-beat outro,76 bpm)
The Park Is Closed starts with some crickets + E.T. tones. It is evocative of a warm sunset over some nice greenspace – time to chill and see what the evening will bring. There’s a muted fade bridge with some mind-stimulating synth before a final minute of outro fades in to bookend the album.
When you’ve finally managed to escape the monotony and can get a break from all the right angles, it eventually hits you that even the wooded expanse has a curfew.
(lo-fi, wurly and pads, dreamy incursions of frenetic drum-and-bass,71 bpm)
https://funkcity.net/2021/03/21/joy-guerrillas-the-park-is-closed/
https://www.osotao.com/blog/joy-guerrilla-the-park-is-closed/2021/3/11
The Eisenberg Review: In Conversation: Joy Guerrilla
March 12
https://www.eisenbergreview.com/blog/in-conversation-joy-guerrilla
Based out of Los Angeles, California, Magdalena Daniec and Adam Grab have been releasing music as Joy Guerrilla since 2016. Drawing on influences that range from ‘70s funk-fusion to electronica and prog, the duo sat down with The Eisenberg Review prior to the release of their latest album, The Park Is Closed, to discuss their music, creative process, influences and more.
Your new album, The Park Is Closed, looks to be a companion piece of sorts to your last effort, Skyline. The sounds of that album are very bright, idyllic and warm, conjuring the West Coast atmosphere where you reside. This record seems to take on a more of a plaintive and almost pensive sound to the instrumentation. Walk me through the creative process for the record.
Adam: I’d say some of the songs we probably came up with the bare bones ideas for around the same time as we were working on Skyline, but, something about it, I don’t know if it was intentionally or more of a subconscious thing, we just didn’t gravitate towards developing them into full-fleshed songs. It kind of happened when listening back to Skyline that, as you said, it had a brighter, kind of daytime feel, so to speak…. I feel like Skyline kind of evolved on its own into a very bright kind of piece, whereas this we went in more with the intention of really bringing up the darker elements and the night time, lower frequency energy.
Maggie: I feel like it shows not just from a songwriting perspective, but the production and recording as well. I think we already knew that it was going to be more dark and so, from the beginning, from how we kind of recorded, wrote and overdubbed all of the songs, that was the idea, to kind of contrast both records.
Is that how the creative process, Maggie, typically unfolds for Joy Guerrilla? What does the workflow look like between you, Adam and the other band members that you bring in? What motivates you? It is driven by immediate inspiration or do songs typically get shaped over a longer period of time?
Maggie: You know, it’s usually kind of a spark that happens in the moment and it happens really quick, so then we try to record it as soon as possible, like a voice memo, and then we’ll come back to it later and try to develop it and then we’ll get some musicians in. Usually we play with the same drummer and guitar player, or at least have for the past few years, so we usually bring them in and we kind of hash them out. Then we record the bass and the drums to tape and from there we take a few months to do overdubs. That kind of how the process has been working, wouldn’t you agree?
Adam: Definitely. We lay the foundation really tight with drums and bass on tape so they really gel nicely. We have the sequencing in our heads at that point, but we’re not 100% sure with atmospheric noises and the flourishes and the spatial arrangement of the overdubs, so yeah, as she said, that usually comes later and that’s a lot more tinkering and fine tuning and being really brutally harsh on our own takes. If we hate it, we cut it and we do the whole thing all over again.
Maggie: Right, deleting all of these keyboard parts and spending an hour finding the right synth part.
Adam: When you’re working with analog synths, you don’t have preset patches, so it can be hours of tweaking the cutoff and the resonance until you have the exact synth lead that you think fits the song.
Absolutely, which begs the even deeper question: why do both of you make music? What draws you to the artform?
Maggie: I have to think about this for a little while… I feel like that is such a difficult question to ask because I can’t imagine not making it.
Adam: I feel like you should tell the decisions you made to continue doing music. I think that’s very important.
Maggie: I actually didn’t grow up in the United States. I grew up in Poland and prior to coming here, I was studying piano, classical piano, unlike the music we make now, and I had plans to be a physicist when we moved to the United States when I was 15. I didn’t speak any English and I just got thrown into high school in Orange County where I was just so extremely lost. Coming from a small mountain town in Poland to California, I felt music was the only thing that… remained the same. I was always really, really into music, but more on the listening part. I was really into prog rock and all different types of music, but then I got really into jazz and dove deep. That stayed with me for years to come, and I can’t imagine not making it now.
Which is as much an answer to the question as one could hope for. I think a lot of us are drawn to music because it speaks to something innate in us. Music is something that allows us to find our place in the world in a totally unique way. Adam, how about you, why do you make music?
Adam: I was very fortunate to grow up with a dad and stepmother who were both professional musicians of the working class, gigging variety. They played a lot of corporate events and a lot of wealthy LA weddings. They managed to raise me and my siblings on that income and it definitely helped to have people who were constantly practicing and listening to music in the household with a very discerning ear. I definitely was super fortunate to have that in my childhood environment. As I got older, I found in the garage a cheap Yamaha bass guitar that my dad had. I didn’t even know the difference between a bass and a guitar, I just thought “Oh, a guitar with kind of fat strings!” I just kept plucking away at it and sounding out songs that I liked. It helped that I can have kind of an obsessive personality as well, doing it for hours and hours and hours. It became kind of an innate thing, like you mentioned, but also kind of an escape when times were bad and nebulous. It was good to have it to always fall back on and mark my own progress. There are a lot of things we do where we don’t even see the progress and it was cool to be doing something where you can actually not just measure and mark your own progress, but be rewarded by being able to engage with other people.
That makes total sense and speaks to an undercurrent that I hear in Joy Guerrilla’s music. I hear almost a searching in the music that the two of you make that seeks to break free of the overstimulation that we all experience based on the way we consume art and media. You astutely admit to not being immune to that, so, I’m curious, if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about how music is consumed today, what would it be and why?
Maggie: Something that we talk about a lot is that nowadays so few people are encouraged to develop their own taste. They’re just being told what to like.
Adam: Not to come across as high and mighty, because we literally are all subjected to this and it's impossible to avoid. That’s the power of marketing that speaks to the human caveman brain.
Maggie: Right, but it doesn’t even have to do with one specific genre. I feel that even being around jazz musicians in school, people will look up to people who they don’t even fully understand, they’re just being told they’re great. Obviously it comes from people we look up to, but I just wish there was more encouragement for people of all ages as they develop to really figure out what you really like and delve deep. I feel like that is missing from a lot of people’s lives, not just in music, but in designing their own lifestyle.
Adam: To piggyback on what Maggie is saying, I think a big part of being honest with what your tastes are is that you have to be okay with being solitary. You have to be okay with introspection, whether you don’t like what you find or do… With the overstimulation in particular from social media, but even before that with technicolor advertising that blares in your face and the kind of constant media bombardment that our generation as middle-Millennial going back to Gen Xers and even Boomers experienced, it’s tough to even find a place where you can be alone and actually think about what you actually like. Oftentimes what you actually like is a reflection of being able to assess your own strengths and weaknesses. I do think people aren’t even given that space and it’s not any fault of their own… It could very well be the bombardment of marketing, media and all these things that just hammer down on them what you need to like in order to, I don’t know, have access to whatever the in group feel like is the preferential mode of appreciation. When people don’t actually have time to introspect on what they truly like or dislike, then of course, you’re going to fall prey to whatever is promoted as the thing to like and dislike... I know it’s a bit of pontificating. We don’t believe we’re better than it at all, but it’s something that we have to consciously tell ourselves… Have a little bit of skepticism when something is pushed on you. Am I reacting to the thing, or an image of the thing itself.
Pontification is good. It’s how we develop these aspects of self awareness in our own musical taste. In listening to The Park Is Closed, it seems as if part of your answer to this overstimulation is in nature. Is getting out into nature and removing yourself from that stimulus part of the message here?
Maggie: That’s definitely a part of it. We have a little school bus that’s our band bus with solar panels on it, and getting out into nature is one of our favorite things to do. It fits a bed and is a self-sustaining kind of thing. It’s how we like to reset our minds and spirits.
I think the world needs more of that, certainly. Are there any artists who come to mind that really inspire you?
Maggie: I would have to say George Duke and Herbie Hancock, as far as players, especially the ‘70s-era Herbie. All of the stuff he did on Headhunters. Those are the two biggest that come to mind, but obviously there are so many more.
What about you Adam?
Adam: I think I’m probably in the same camp as Mags. Because we do the primary writing and production, I probably admire people who are producers and songwriters more than specific bass players, so I probably would also say George Duke and Herbie, to be honest. Even as a bass player too, George Duke’s Moog bass is some of the coolest most tasteful bass phrasing even when compared to other bass players. So, on two levels, George Duke would probably be up there… Growing up in Los Angeles, when I was fresh out of high school was when a lot of the LA electro-beat scene was getting big, like the Brainfeeder crew and Flying Lotus. I do think their sonic sensibility did have a huge impact on the way I like things to sound.
I hear a lot of that as I think about the sound of The Park Is Closed and I think listeners definitely will too. I want to close, Adam and Maggie, by asking the question I always ask artists when I first meet them: what are three records that you’d recommend to the audience and why?
Adam: Definitely Don Blackman’s self-titled album from 1982. You take the elements together - the time period and the styles of music that he was fluent in and coming from - and you would think, “Oh, it’s a smooth jazz album,” but it really marries funk and jazz and really solid groove in the most unique way… Dennis Chambers on drums, the rest of the band was from Jamaica, Queens. Amazing album.
This will be so cliche, but it’s got to be Aja for sure. Steely Dan’s Aja. It’s a very Boomer answer, but production-wise, songwriting-wise, and also in terms of us connecting on music, it was one of those bands and albums that we both had from our childhood from a recording and songwriting sensibility.
Third one, what do you think Mags?
Maggie: Let’s do Arthur Verocai… There’s just something in that record that is so haunting and so magical.
Adam: It’s one of those records where you listen to it, and even without any of the backstory, it really hits you. The fact that some of the singing and some of the instruments aren’t perfectly in tune, but as a cohesive picture it works so well.
