Meet Manuel Joseph Walker of Foliage in San Bernardino

Today we’d like to introduce you to Manuel Joseph Walker.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am 21-years-old and the one man band behind the California Indie-Rock act, Foliage. All Foliage music has been made from scratch by me: writing all of the music, playing all of the instruments, singing all of the lyrics, and producing it all by myself in my bedroom. I currently have Four records under my belt, with a Fifth to come in 2020.

I started in 2015 at the age of 16 with my debut record, “Truths”. This was my first attempt at music and it met with great praise from the fanatic circles of Bandcamp and YouTube taste-makers. It is still surprisingly hailed as an underrated gem among the early foundations of what we now know as “Bedroom Pop”. The tag was originally used to define artists (typically folk/acoustic) who created and recorded lo-fi arrangements in their bedroom. Now, it has evolved into a more commercial, R&B tinged flavor that, in my opinion, doesn’t represent the DIY ethos and effort it takes to do all of this. In fact, most of the music in the genre now was made outside of a bedroom, in a studio with an engineer, purposely made to sound lo-fi. Lackluster melodies and progressions paint the skyline of this genre, showcasing the fact that “simple is just as effective”, although that might just be a cop-out for it’s easily heard “low effort” sensibilities. Foliage, although not a Folk or Acoustic project, falls into the former definition providing unique melodies and arrangements that are still praised and for more years to come amongst the Indie Rock genre and its many sub-genres.

The debut, after a much requested tape re-release following the sold-out pressing by Human Sounds Records in 2015, was reissued in 2017 by Slovakian label, Z Tapes. Z Tapes became the new home for my music, shortly after releasing my second record “Silence” on NYC label, Spirit Goth. “Silence”, the follow-up to my debut, was met with little to no commercial acclaim, despite the effort and subject matter that went into it. The discouragement only grew for me, and my OCD was getting worse (the battle with my illness during the recording sessions only elongated my process). I stepped away from music for a little to reflect and self-improve. I returned in 2018 with the mindset to “take it easy”, but not sacrifice the music or the effort. The result, my third album (and most critically acclaimed) appropriately entitled “III”. “III” saw the first major success for Foliage, formerly sitting at less than 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, to surpassing 10,000 and peaking as high as 60,000 monthly listeners (now averaging 30,000 every month). The record saw much praise from American, European, Japanese, and Chinese publications such as Remezcla (MX/US), Live Nation’s One’s To Watch (US), Spincoaster (JP), and Honeycombers (CH) to name a few, even catching the eyes (and ears) of the editorial team at Spotify as well as many, many YouTube tastemakers. Spotify has featured Foliage a numerous amount of times on a numerous amount of playlists such as New Indie Mix, Dream Pop, Indie, Alternative, Everything, Latinx Indie, and more. “III” also saw the first vinyl pressing for Foliage, crowdfunding over $2300 via Kickstarter.

Now in 2019, I’ve toured in the US twice this year and I’ve just put out my latest record “Take”, an album made to provide self-help for those battling everyday with themselves and their own mind. It was released on September 20th on vinyl and cassette with Z Tapes and is my favorite and best record yet. It’s already been met with some acclaim from Spotify’s editorial team yet again on a handful of tracks like “Pattern”, “In Reference To”, and “Song to Myself Pt. I” and has garnered over 200,000 streams already. I am currently in the writing process of LP5 and plan on making the jump to a major label for its release. Needless to say, I’m much happier and confident than I was in the past and I’m so grateful for all of the support and proud of myself for not giving up my passion and dreams.

Great, 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?
The music world itself is tons of ups and downs, anyone in this industry knows that. There’s always gonna be those people who put in the smallest effort and receive the biggest reward. There’s always gonna be that act you don’t necessarily like and are trying to understand the appeal (considering the songwriting and sonics aren’t typically up to par). There’s always gonna be losses really, but if you really love this shit, you stick around for the wins.

I think being an artist, a true one, is to deal with failure and know how to persevere when discouragement stares you in the face. Everyone “loves” music, sure, but those that really LOVE music will triumph.

Regardless of the struggles, I never expected this project to go anywhere, but I’m so glad it did. I’ve always been a genuine music lover, and it feels so great to make songs that not only I myself love and enjoy listening to, but many others do too. I feel so blessed and thankful.

Please tell us about Foliage.
Foliage is the musical project of Manuel Joseph Walker (myself), and what sets Foliage apart is that I do this all by myself by hand, including the production aspect and the album artwork and merch designs.

I’m most proud of my authenticity and genuine passion for music and art.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite childhood memory would honestly be growing up skateboarding and playing video games with my younger brother Nikko, who plays bass in my live band. We would wake up early and skate with our friends literally all day. Once the sun was setting, we knew we had to get home before our parents got pissed and worried, of course we were younger and didn’t understand our parent’s worries haha. Ultimately, we were always skating on the block so we weren’t ever too far. After a long day of skateboarding, sweating, and falling on our asses, we’d come in and play games like Rockband or Guitar Hero all night (till like 3AM).

Still sounds fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://foliagemusic.bandcamp.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foliage_man/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/M.JosephWalkerisFoliage/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/foliage_man

Image Credit:
Photos by: Dario Tejada

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