I felt my tears fall with the rising sun, I let them touch the ocean and I bid the waters carry them to the worlds edge… VIA Spotify
R&B/ Soul artist with lush vocals and beautiful production
Jozem is an R&B/Soul Artist based out of Toronto, Canada. We first heard his sounds through "it came to me in a dream" (EP). The track "Dreams" full of a tribal like chant vocal samples sets the mood for the full duration of the project. We were lucky enough to dig his brain and learn more about his inspirations and early beginnings of creating music.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
"I am also a practicing physician, so that occupies a lot of my time haha. Outside of that, I enjoy consuming art in all forms, visual, sonic and otherwise; anything that tells of one’s story creatively sparks my interest. Travel is a big one for me as well. I think I have a bit of a nomadic spirit because of the circumstances in which I grew up and I think that’s why I get quite restless if I‘m standing too still. Plus there's so much to see in this world and I’m trying to see and experience as much of it as I possibly can!"
What made you want to become a musician?
"As long as I can remember, the music has been in me, I don’t really know a time without music. Everyone who knew me as a child often embarrassingly reminds me that I was always in a corner somewhere, singing. Transitioning from loving music to creating my own music was inspired by like-minded musical individuals who I’ve met along the way, especially in university, who were making music of their own and who helped me realize that I too had a voice and a story to tell…"
What inspired ‘Foreign’ ? Explain the process of the music video?
"I wrote Foreign at a time where I just felt lost and couldn't recognize the person I was/was becoming. It just didn’t sit right with me and I couldn't hide from it any longer. Foreign is about being brave enough to face yourself. It is about being introspective and (constructively) critical of where you are in life and how you may have veered from what you had envisioned for yourself, the ultimate goal being to start fully living in your truth and being authentically yourself. I sent the track to the Director Yú and she pitched the brilliant concept for the video, which we fine tuned to be what it came to be. It plays on the idea of one’s ‘shadow self’ as a metaphor for the part of yourself that you hide from the world, but that still haunts you at night. It presents and plays on an ambiguity of what we are taught is good and evil, the idea of sanitizing oneself to a form that is acceptable and presentable to the world but that ultimately takes its toll on you and seeks to drown you completely..."
What goals do you have set for yourself musically?
"I just want to continue making music and telling my story as much as I can. I’ve been sitting on so much music that I want to put out over the next few years! Getting back into performing was such a welcome part of this year, I hope to do a lot more of this and continue sharing my music in a live setting, hopefully with a tour of sorts."
Who are some of your favorite artist? Artist that inspire you?
"I listen to lots of different music, and it changes ever so often depending on my mood and where I am at in life. I love music that just has a story to tell sonically or lyrically and that is full of soul. Some of my long-time staples include James Blake and Little Dragon. I’ve been listening to a lot of Benjamin Clementine and Nick Hakim lately. Rachel Chinouriri as well (her voice is honey). Sun el musician is a fave especially In those moments where I desperately need a serotonin boost!"
"It came to me in a dream" has very beautiful lush production can you describe the process of creating the album and crafting that sound?
"The title of the album is a reflection of my creative process, a lot of the writing and production often comes to me sporadically, at times literally in my dreams. ‘It came to me in a dream’ is a record of all the things that I had been going through and processing over the past decade of my life; I wanted to create a unique soundscape that sonically represented the emotions that I was feeling and working through in this time period. I call it my dreamscape. Our core memories are rooted in emotions and experiences in which our five senses are stimulated deeply. Some of the pivotal moments that inspired this album are anchored in specific geography, and in moments in which I can vividly recall certain sounds, smells, tastes, and sights. It was important for me to immortalize these pivotal memories through personal field recordings taken on my phone that are scattered throughout the album; the crashing waves on the shores of the atlantic on a solo road trip to Arcachon, France, the sounds of the lush jungle close to where my parents were born in Rwanda, the sounds of children singing in my primary elementary school that I spent my formative years in Kenya; these are all core sounds that recall special moments and give further depth to this project for me. When I am old and senile and my memory starts to betray me, I hope that listening to the sounds of this album will bring me back, even if fleetingly... "
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