The DMV artist discusses working with Brent Faiyaz, the new Soundcloud wave, indie rock, and more
Joony is a humble 20-year-old artist from Maryland who was born to make music. But unlike a lot of artists who can make that claim, Joony didn’t have some vivacious spiritual entity whisper prophetic sermons into his ear. Instead, he just thought to himself, “Damn, I think I’m tryna be a rapper”—and that was that.
Joony discovered that music was his purpose before he had sprouted a single bodily hair, yet he doesn’t exude this fact. It flows smoothly and quietly through him like a serene Ganesh wading weightlessly down a lazy river. He is his music and his music is him—the two are indistinguishable, inseparable, and codependent all at once.
Joony’s talent as a wordsmith and ability to hypnotize while on the mic is palpable from his first track on SoundCloud. On “funeral.,” a then 15-year-old Joony comfortably lays down a pair of conscious verses that showcase his lofty vocabulary and asserts his purpose: “I’m heard through these sequences / Passed on through genes I’m a genius / Know ya boy been feelin’ real lenient / Found out my own strengths were my weaknesses.” The track is nothing to gasp at, but it provides a glimpse at the indelible ability that was inside him from the start.
Fast forward five years to his 2021 project Silent Battles, and you’ll witness Joony’s lyrical maturation and the prepubescent state of a sound that is wholly his. Sonically, Joony branches out onto a more lucid soundscape, preferring swung drums with thick r&b basslines to fourth note hi-hats and generic trap synths. Lyrically, he diverts his vision from the outside and looks in. This is most obvious in the tape’s opener, “UNTOLD STORIES (SILENT BATTLES),” where he softly sings some coming-of-age reflections: “I miss my old life, had to switch my lifestyle / if I could talk to my old self, he’d be so proud.”
With 11 tracks, fit with features from fellow DMV-natives Lil Gray and Max Free, as well as Cobb County’s 10k Dunkin, Silent Battles is easily Joony’s most complete and fulfilling work to date. It’s release also gained him a significant increase in following, as he strategically dropped it a few days after Brent Faiyaz released “Paper Soldiers,” a track which featured Joony.
Regardless of this major cosign, Joony is still far from where he wants it to be. In our interview, he explains that because he has established a solid foundation as an artist, he feels like he can finally sculpt his sound from the bottom up, rather than cater to what the people want. It seems as if his music up to this point had been a training exercise—but now Joony is ready to unveil the full scope of his creative vision.
Where are you from?
I’m from Silver Spring, Maryland. Usually I tell people D.C. when they’re from out of town because a lot of people don’t know where Maryland is. They don’t know much about it. They associate it with something that doesn’t have anything to do with Maryland. A lot people be thinking that Maryland is a country or shit like that. I be telling people D.C. because I’m like five minutes from D.C.
What was it like growing up there?
So Silver Spring in particular is hella diverse. Lots of immigrants and shit. It was chill. I was an outside kid. Spent a lot of my time outside. I was skating a lot. I’d be skating, and you know, smoking real young, got into weed and shit. I was really a skater kid at first bro.
What music did you listen to back then?
At first I was into indie rock and shit. Hella indie rock. Like Arcade Fire. I got into a lot of people. Bro, I started skating when I was like 10-years-old. I was really into it, I’m still really into it, but I don’t actually skate. I’m just into watching skate shit. But 10, 12-years-old, I was really listening to Arcade Fire, MGMT, shit like that, a lot of popular bands that people know, but an 11-year-old listening to it was pretty wild.
Yeah, I worked at a restaurant in New Orleans two years ago and Arcade Fire came in like every other week.
Oh for real? That’s hard.
Yeah. The whole band. They would bring parties of like ten different people, probably different musicians, and spend like $2,000 plus everytime, then the lead singer would just hand me the card like it was nothing.
Hell yea man they got that shit. [Laughs] They got that shit fasho. But yeah bro, that’s where I get my indie influences in my music. You’ll hear some indie in my songs, not like indie rock, but just some indie melodies. Definitely came from them.
You’re not on that basic trap shit at all. You got a tweak to it, which I like a lot.
Yeah facts bro facts. Even on “Lifestyle,” someone said ‘Yeah boy, that’s some indie shit, like indie rock or whatever.’ I was like, ‘yeah yeah, bro. I get it.’
Who are you listening to now?
Over the years I’ve kinda turned into an artist who just listens to himself. When I’m in the car I listen to my unreleased and shit like that, but when I do listen to other people, I like to listen for inspiration. Like for my next album, I’m trying to bring back early 2000s-type sound. So recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Pharrell and Timbaland-produced shit, like old Kanye.
But that’s just recently though. On the regular I fuck with favorites on my Soundcloud, like 10k Dunkin, BoofPaxkMooky. Man, I fuck with some trap shit along my way. Some niggas you probably wouldn’t know. I fuck with this one nigga named Cartier. But yeah a lot of trap, a lot of street, D.C. music.
When did you start making music?
I was like 13, so like, I would say 2014.
How old are you now?
20
Do you remember the first song that you ever made?
Yeah, I do. I recorded three songs in the same session. So I really have like three “first songs” to be honest. It was in a friend of a friend’s bedroom. They’re on Audiomack. I think one was called like “Melodina,” the other one’s called “Rescendon,” cause I was big into Naruto, and the other song is “Roaring Twenties.” You could probably find it somewhere on Audiomack, or SoundCloud, maybe on SoundCloud in the trenches bro.
When did you decide to start taking it seriously?
I’d say when I made my first song. When I was around 13-years-old. Actually, before I even made my first song I was like, Damn, I think I’m tryna be a rapper.
What’s your writing process like?
It’s different every time. It depends. Recently I’ve been making beats from scratch with my man Baba. He plays guitar, bass, and keys too, so I’ll just sing something, tell him to play it. Then say “Yeah yeah, that’s it,” then we’ll track it out together. I kinda just sing what I want him to play. That’s what I’ve been doing recently; I didn’t do that for Silent Battles at all. That tape was all just beats from my email. But for my next album I’m gonna make the beats from scratch and write along with it, then take it to the studio. But earlier I would just look through my email for beats, head to the studio, write a couple lines down, really get the vibe of it, then keep writing as I go.
Do you think making the beats from scratch ties back into your indie mentality?
Not necessarily my indie mentality because my biggest inspiration is Kanye when it comes to creating music. That indie phase of my life was really just 3 years, then I got into rap right after that and it was over from there. I still love indie music though, but me making music like this isn’t from me liking indie music. It’s more from me having a good ear, and to be honest I always wanted to make my own beats from scratch and rap on them like fuckin’ Kanye. But I never did it because I never had the resources like that, and I felt like it would take a lot of work that wouldn’t be worth the payoff because I didn’t have that many fans. I was still lowkey as fuck.
My thinking was, What’s the point of putting all this work in when people aren’t even gonna listen to it. It’s better if I just pump out good quality music and gain a fanbase. Then my thinking was, Ok, once I gain a fanbase and I’m at a certain point, then I’m really bouta take it to the next level. Imma work on that shit from scratch and take months to work on an album.
I finally feel like I’m at that point now. I feel like I have enough fans who trust my ear and my creative ability to know that whatever I drop is gonna be fire. They’re gonna come into my new music with a good mindset. I don’t really have to prove myself to my fans anymore. So now is the perfect moment to really buckle down and get creative. They’re ready to hear it. Their palettes are ready.
You can branch out with your sound and they’ll still accept it.
Yeah, exactly. Before I was like Damn this isn’t worth it, I’m not even that famous yet. And I’m still not famous, but before if I did some shit like that I thought they’d say “Yo what the fuck is this? This nigga think he different or somethin.” But now it’s like, “Yoooo this that nigga Joony. This nigga Brent fuck wit Joony.” You know what I’m sayin? I got the co-sign now. People fuckin’ wit me. I can do my own shit now.
How’d you link with Brent Faiyaz?
His photographer, the homie Zoo, started playing my music around Brent. Brent just took a liking to my music, so he and his homies, the Lost Kids crew, was crankin’ my music. And one day I was in L.A. and his mans Trey was like, “Yo, Brent’s havin’ a kickback blah blah blah, you wanna slide? Here’s the addy.” So I slid, I chopped it up with Brent when I was over there, I got his number, we texted a little bit. A couple months later he hit me up. He was talkin’ about my music and shit with me. He was like, “Yo, your music hard, blah blah blah.” Then he started quoting my shit to me and sendin’ me screenshots of my songs when he was listenin’ to them. Then he told me I gotta come to L.A. to make some shit with him. So I went to LA pretty soon after that and we made two songs. And yeah, that’s how it happened.
It was real organic bro, and we both from Maryland too. So we not too different. Plus we had some mutual friends, and we’re both genuine fans of each other’s music, and that’s my favorite part about it. He really just fucks with my music as hard as I fuck with his.
Your track with 10k Dunkin, “BETWEEN US,” was probably my favorite off your tape. I actually got hip to you because he reposted your project.
Oh really? Yeah man, 10k is definitely an underground legend. He been puttin’ in work on SoundCloud bro. He’s a part of the new generation of SoundCloud. I always think of like Carti, Smokepurpp, all them niggas from like 2015 and 2016, even X, made up the original “SoundCloud SoundCloud” era that I was listening to when I was back in high school and shit. I feel like niggas like 10k and Tony Shhnow and Flee are kinda like the second coming of Uno, Thousanbanfani, Lucki, muhfuckin’ Smokepurpp, and Warhol. They have the same fans. The same fans that listened to Uno and all them listen to 10k and Tony and BoofPaxkMooky and XanMan$hawty and Zellocho and Summrs even. It’s really the second generation. I really fuck with seein’ shit like that and I’m blessed to be a part of it.
You got any other songs with 10k?
Yeah, me and 10k got a whole EP in the cut. We got like four or five more songs. I’m tryna drop somethin’ soon. I’m just holding off on that EP right now because I wanna focus on my deluxe [for Silent Battles] then I wanna focus on my next album. But I’m definitely gonna drop singles in between with 10k and some of the other homies. Probably on SoundCloud and different DJ pages.
If everything goes according to plan, where do you wanna be this time next year?
Shit, a lot can change in a year bro. But this time next year I wanna have substantially more of a following, more plays, stats gotta go up for sure. Just need my numbers to go up. A year from now my next album should be out, and I’ll probably be receiving all my flowers for that. My merch should definitely be pumpin’ out by then. I’m makin’ my merch a clothing brand. “Silent Battles,” the clothing brand. I’m not calling it “Silent Battles the clothing brand,” just “Silent Battles.” I been puttin’ in hella work in on it. I got a manufacturer overseas, somebody to design it. It’s hard. It’s a really hard design bro. It’s always been a lil dream to make my own clothes, and now I can do that shit for real, plus I have a following to sell it to. Gotta do it. No kizzy, no kizzy! But shit, yeah a year from now bruh I want new fans and more room to grow and expand my career so I can really unload my ideas. I’m tryna blow up in a year from now. I’m tryna get better at managing money too. Cause I know the more money that comes in, the better I gotta get at managing it. I wanna build credit, I wanna build some fucking credit. But that’s like life shit, not really music shit.
I feel like they go hand in hand for you though.
It really does. This music shit is my life.