Formed only in mid-2019, trio Nathan, James and Rick make up Joy Club, creating what they call “anthemic, classy, catchy” electronic music. With a Grammy nominated writer in the collective (Nathan co-wrote Meduza’s massive, Grammy nominated track ‘Piece Of Your Heart’), they are in great stead for making incredible dance anthems.

Their inspirations include dance giants such as Calvin Harris, Daft Punk and Eric Prydz which clearly comes through in their first single ‘In The Night’. The message they want to convey through their releases is one of inclusivity and positivity, and they want their live shows to be “musically inspiring but also visually encompassing”.

With The Chemical Brothers playing a huge inspiration to the visual elements of their live show, we’re sure they are going to be unforgettable. Joy Club are the positivity we need right now, and are perfectly getting us ready for a summer – lockdown style!

1) For those who don’t know about you and your music, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from…

We are Nathan and James, two music producers obsessed with making tunes basically! Nathan is from Jersey and James is from Wales. We’ve been music makers for years and now both live in London. We also have a third member of Joy Club (a guy called Rick) who’s an amazing songwriter and we collaborated with him and his writing team to create this Joy Club project last year. It’s been a really fun and creative process so far, there’s an amazing vibe between us all.

2) Describe your sound in three words…

Anthemic, classy and catchy (hopefully!).

3) Who inspired you to start a career in music?

Nathan: I remember watching a program called 'Faking It 'on Channel 4 which followed a girl who was taught (over the course of a month) how to DJ by Lottie. She managed to convince a panel of experts that she’d been doing it for years and I remember thinking “wow, I wanna do that”. I was 15 at the time, managed to get a work experience job at a local recording studio (run by a producer called Marc Mitchell) and they taught me how to produce music and how to DJ. I knew from that point on this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I started sending out CDs of my music to anyone and everyone I could find. My music got some coverage on Radio 1 and record labels started calling up my parents house asking for me. My mum found this rather surprising but also hilarious: “errr no sorry Nathan’s not here at the moment, he’s at school!”

James: Probably a lot of the rap producers I grew up listening to like Jermaine Dupri and Puff Daddy. They weren't necessarily the most technical in the studio or the ones twiddling the knobs, but they were ideas and concept guys and I always found that mega inspiring.

4) Who are your biggest musical influences?

James: Calvin Harris for his ability to reinvent himself and write, produce and engineer forward thinking music… and write hits that make the world go around!

Nathan: Yeah I love everything Calvin does too. Also people like The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Eric Prydz are all massive influences for me.

5) Tell us about the writing and recording process for your new single/album…

We spent a few days at Rick's studio in Stockport earlier this year, it's a really open process with us all literally bouncing musical and topline ideas around and then making the backing track in realtime around it. The writers from The Six are all super talented but make us feel really included - plus they put us on to a local Northern chippy which is always important.

6) What can we expect from your live shows?

Just a fine selection of amazing music that you get lost in! We love such a mixture of House music from the piano-led moments right through to the deeper more progressive side. Energy is really important in a set and creating those ‘moments’. We’re hugely inspired by the visual elements in shows from people like The Chemical Brothers and Eric Prydz and so that’s our ultimate goal to put on huge shows that are musically inspiring but also visually encompassing. We just want people to come to our shows and have an insane time!

7) What has been your biggest career highlight so far?

Nathan: Getting nominated for a Grammy award for Meduza - ‘Piece of Your Heart’ which I co-wrote.

James: Probably the whole process of making 'In The Night' and eventually signing it to such a seminal label! We all grew up buying, listening and DJ-ing Positiva tunes and to be part of that legacy is a real thrill.

8) Have you met anyone and been totally starstruck?

Nathan: I was in a conversation with Katy Perry once but I didn’t realise it was her at first. Then about five minutes in, the penny suddenly dropped and I freaked out haha. Managed to keep my cool though and we got a picture together.

James: I worked in radio previously so was lucky enough to meet a lot of my idols like Jay-Z, but I get quite starstruck when I used to meet the old skool rave producers like Slipmatt though, as those guys were literally god-like icons when I was in my teens!

9) What’s on your playlists that people wouldn’t expect?

Nathan: Simply Red.

James: Simply Red.

10) When can we see you live?

Once lockdown ends! But in the meantime we’re gonna do a livestream at some point. Follow us on Instagram and comment a 😃🏠 emoji on our latest post if you’ve read this far: @joyclub.music