Running Young
Growing up travelling the Australian countryside with his family in a bus spoiled Joel for the ordinary life that awaited him when the family band finally hung up their instruments due to exhaustion and financial constraints.
“I was about 14 and had to return to school after having the most amazing adventures with my family – but music was in my blood by that stage, having played hundreds of live gigs to thousands of people while growing up.”
To cope with the mundane, Joel started experimenting with home recording software and began writing his own songs. By 19 years old Joel was producing entire tracks by himself complete with a full five piece band accompaniment and multi layered vocals.
“I always loved the music from the 60s and 70s – particularly groups like the Beach Boys and ELO with their layered harmonies. But I also fell in love with anthemic music from bands like U2 and Coldplay and The Temper Trap, so I thought, ‘What would happen if I mixed those two key influences together?’ I’d never heard that done before…”
As much as this idea to make something new and familiar at the same time beckoned, Joel was unable to find the time or commitment needed to bring it to life. That was until in 2011 Joel had a close brush with death. His aorta ruptured, and he escaped with his life in what his doctors called a ‘flat our miracle’. “I stood like a 3-5% chance of surviving as usually you drop dead within 1-2 minutes of a ruptured aorta but I survived 2 days before they finally detected the issue and operated.” After three weeks in hospital fighting for his life, Joel emerged with a new perspective and a desire to pursue what he clearly now saw as his calling; the life of an Artist, focused on capturing and expressing beauty, authenticity and courage.
Thus Running Young was born – Joel’s project designed to mix all of his favourite and disparate influences whilst aiming to have the music itself be unable to be fit into any particular time frame. Timelessness was the goal – with a natural skepticism for passing trends which immediately date the art, Joel began constructing his very own sound.
Joel writes, produces and performs all of the instruments on his tracks from his home studio in Melbourne and aims for authenticity and beauty above all else in his endless pursuit of the perfect song.