Check Out Joey Krieger’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Krieger.

Hi Joey, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up taking music lessons and playing in school bands, church bands, and garage bands, and I have always loved playing music. I first started writing with my older brother and some friends while playing drums in a post-hardcore band in high school. Later, I joined a jazz band and loved the feeling of being unshackled. By the end of high school, I was in a folk band with some friends, writing silly songs and slowly getting better at harmonizing. In college, I studied mechanical engineering at USC with the vague goal of doing something music-related, and this is where I started to play guitar a lot more (since having drums in college is nearly impossible if you aren’t a music student). Four years after graduating, I’m the head of R&D engineering at a microphone and preamplifier company, and I use almost exclusively the gear we make to record my songs. I release music under the name Joey Forever and earlier this month I released a music video. This track is on the most recent project I released in the last days of 2023 entitled Fan the Flame.”

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Fortunately for me, it has been relatively smooth. I am so overwhelmingly thankful that my parents had a policy at home where my brothers and I could learn any instrument we wanted, but we had to be in music lessons. We also went to a high school that had a fantastic band program with amazing teachers. Then I went to a great college and took a bunch of classes related to audio and songwriting (while limping through an engineering degree), and now I write songs and record songs because I love to do it. That’s a pretty lucky origin story for a music lover.

I joke to my friends that there have only been a few bad things to happen to me. Anyone who has listened to a handful of my songs will quickly become aware of my absolute obsession with death and what that means for people like me (secular humanists; people who don’t believe in an afterlife or anything supernatural). The death of someone close to you, specifically gone too young, has often been described as a turning point in life, where everything in life is measured as time before or time since the event. So the major struggle in my life is — and probably will always be — death anxiety; trying to live life in a way where I spend time with the people I love before they or I eventually but inevitably die.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I write jokingly serious songs about life, death, politics, relationships, and the grueling exercise of self-improvement. I specialize in attempting to be a jack of all trades, where I write everything, perform every instrument and vocal take, and record everything myself. I often find myself dissatisfied with what I’m able to do just by myself, so I buy instruments whose sounds I like and try to learn them. On my newest project, I debut the banjo and the squareneck resonator (AKA dobro), along with playing guitar, drums, bass, and singing. There’s something incredibly satisfying to me about having full control of the project. So, I would say I’m proud of naively pushing forward through mediocrity, trying to be the best that I can be.

More recently, I’m proud of the music video we’re about to release. I got to work with an amazing director, Seth Woodhouse, who I met at USC. We’re very excited to release this wild music video we made for my song “Dreamland”

What may set my music apart from others is my desire to write exactly what I want to write since I unfortunately have a steady day job, which means I’m not relying on a lot of people liking my music. I’m just hoping to reach some fans who like lyric-focused existential folk.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
With playing music, being an R&D engineer, and learning to record, I think the most important lesson is that you will figure things out if you do things one step at a time. It’s so easy to beat yourself up and say, “I suck, this is too hard, I’m too stupid,” etc. But the more I quiet that voice and try to learn a little bit every day, the more I find myself loving playing banjo or fixing electronics or EQing vocals. I think a mildly shameless approach to getting better at the things you want to get better at is crucial to self-improvement. This means shamelessly asking friends or mentors what you might think is a dumb question. Shamelessly releasing art into the world even though you could imagine people not liking it or disagreeing with your positions. And with self-confidence, the fact is that the rich get richer; it’s a positive feedback loop.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://joeyforever.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kreegrrr/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-krieger-b17bb3239/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/06xR5PQV39SSlixoosmc42?si=i52-WTIzQaqpCk8zorkvTQ

Image Credits
For the picture with fans and the album cover, credits to Booker Johnson. For the screenshots from the music video, credit to Seth Woodhouse.