Joey LaBeija, Enemy of Progress

After a year out in the world, he's back with the lead single "unavailable" and a UK-influenced five-track project that remains personal while leaving a lot of energy on dancefloors and in bedrooms. office phoned Joey up to learn more about the EP ahead of its release and talked about the hurdles of making an album while the world is spinning out.

It’s been a year since the release of your last project Tears In My Hennessey, which I understand was recorded during a really difficult time in your life. After getting a chance to hear the EP I would say enemies of progress has a much more optimistic tone, or at least one where you’re ready for love and affection. How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist since Tears?  

It’s funny cause I hadn't listened to the other project in awhile but I listened to it this morning and was like, “Wow, I was so scared to make music when I was making this.” I think after putting out that project, and the response went well, I gained a bit more confidence in just making music.

I also spent the summer in London, I was there for three or four months. I have a lot more music-friends there than I do in New York and so over the summer I was just hanging out with people that helped me find the courage to make music again. I wanted to keep making sad music but make it a bit less...I felt disconnected from that record because it’s fun but it’s very specific. It’s a point in time.

Tears is a somber record. It’s heavy.

Yeah, it’s a heavy record. And when playing live shows there was a disconnect because I love the project, but for me it’s just something to listen to. It felt disconnected from everything I’ve ever done as a DJ. It was already weird being in this transitional period—going from DJ to producer to like, being a full-on showgirl. So I was like, “This is good but it doesn’t feel like me.” I wanted the new project to feel like an extension of everything I've done and I feel like I did that with this—subconsciously. I realized that while I was making it, like, “Oh I could actually still DJ during my live sets and have a moment.” Cause it just all goes together.

I love that enemies of progress has a heavy London influence; I can hear that in the sound now that you mentioned it.

The EP’s name actually comes from my friend Mischa, who throws a party in London called PDA. It’s been going for maybe the last seven years.

Yes with Ms. Carrie Stacks, and Crackstevens! And Jason! We love.

Exactly! So Mischa’s like my best friend, I stay with her when I’m in London. Over the summer she threw a one-off called “enemies of progress,” and as soon as I heard that I was like, “Oh this makes so much sense.” She’s kind of the only person I ever talk to for advice, and she just gets me. She’s really insightful. So this project is kind of about all of that too. It’s about all the conversations we were having about getting in your own way and getting rid of all the things that get in your way in order to be happy.

We adore the video for "unavailable." If I’m not mistaken it’s your first visual to go along with a studio track, right?

I had a video for my first-first project Shattered Dreams but I took it down cause you know, fresh start.

Totally. 

"unavailable" is my first video where I came up with the idea, and even specific shots from what I pictured in my head while I was making the song. Seeing them come to life was really weird!

Did you enjoy the filmmaking process overall?   

You know, I have this thing where I self-sabotage when I’m really nervous. [laughs] I’ll be like “This isn’t going to work out, I want to cancel this right now, I don’t want to do this!” But it’s different when you’ve got a crew of fifteen people waiting for you to show up. I was like, “Alright, gotta put your big girl panties on.”

It was all kind of weird because I was in London the week before we filmed, and I went to LA straight from London. I came up with the idea while I was there, and we pulled it all together in a week. But the most nerve-wracking thing for me wasn’t even that I had to do all of this for the first time and perform for a camera and all of that. It was more that I had to do all of it on my own; there was not one person there that I knew or had met before. No friends, nothing. 

Total fresh crew.

It was like, “Oh shit, I’ve really got to do this on my own. Fuck...” But then everyone was super nice and it just kind of—it felt right. It was a lot of fun for me. It was a long day! But lots and lots of fun.

You have a really killer screen presence in the video and it totally compliments the track. 

I was nervous about how people would respond to seeing me on screen. I was shitting bricks the week before the video came out. I was like, “Oh my god, everyone’s gonna think I’m a joke.” But it’s been good. It’s been great.

Are you planning more visuals for anything else off the EP?

We did but then all this shit happened, so I’m gonna try to find a way to make it work at home.

True, we’re all adapting to the situation.

I think it’s about Go-Pro life right now. [laughs] 

We bumped a press copy of the album and I have to say that move on was definitely my favorite track.

That’s the first song from this project that I made. I made it in London on Mischa’s coffee table.

It’s incredible! You could dance to it on a night out or alone in your bedroom.

You know what’s crazy? Those are demo vocals that I just made while I worked on the song in the background but [Mad Decent] fought me to put that song on the record. I didn’t want to put it on this project at all but they were like “Please Joey, please, please, please can you just put this song on?” and I was like, “Oh fine, fuck it let’s just do it.” And everyone who I’ve shown the record to, that seems to be their favorite song. I love the song now, but I didn’t think I wanted it on this project because it felt too close almost to what my last project was. It’s different now though—now that I’ve listened to it a lot it’s so different.

What’s the story behind the album cover?

Well, before the album art came, when I was making the demos, the cover image was that meme of Kylie Jenner putting on clown makeup. I was like, “Me when I say I’m never talking to him again.” [laughs]. That’s what I thought of when I think ‘enemy of progress’—that was in my head. Just getting ready to go do some dumb bitch shit.

Who shot the cover?

His name is Jason Al-Taan—that shoot was fun! The crazy shit is, the day we shot the album cover and my press photos, the studio we were using had a bomb threat so we had to do a whole last minute switch-up. It was in LA the day after we shot the "unavailable" video and we actually shot the cover in the Mad Decent office.

Wow, you really pulled this project off amidst a lot of the chaos we’re all dealing with. As a fan of the EP I gotta express gratitude for the new music, we could all use it right now.

I actually just remembered yesterday that when I came back from London, it was October, I had started working on the EP and also went to help my girl work at her hair salon cause she had just opened her own shop and was super busy. I was walking home through SoHo, going to the train, listening to the demo over and over, and I get fucking jumped by these two guys that almost hit me with their car.

Joey!! 

The music was playing in my ears while it was happening and I was like, “Wow this song better do some shit when it comes out after this.” There are no cars on Lafayette at night time, and as I was walking I heard a car zooming past me really fast but by the time I crossed the street and turned to look at it they were right in front of me. It was a red Mercedes with blacked-out tints, of course. And I slammed on the car cause, obviously that’s what I’d do. 

I mean this is New York. Don’t drive into me. 

Right! So they like got out and fought me. And I was just like...it was really hot. [laughs] Like I turned around I said to myself, “Oh you’re about to get your ass kicked by these two hot guys.” They were so hot with their Adidas tracksuits. Oh my god.

Girl I can’t. 

I stood my ground though, that’s for sure. They weren’t expecting that but I was like, “Damn this is so hot, I can’t wait to tell my friends about this tomorrow.”

I’m really glad you got away from that situation and honestly I’m glad that it was sexy too. But like yo, back off! We need our musicians.

I was like, “Well this song will have a way more special meaning now. I’m clearly doing something great and need to keep going with it.”

That’s a very New York experience. You talk about another very New York experience on cuffin season. We all want to be with someone when we’re stuck in the house. Did you write that song about a specific relationship or just the vibe in general?

cuffin season is a little bit more general but it was written during a time where I was talking to this boy and he was just like, so hot and cold. He would wanna chill, then he would just like ghost me for a few weeks, then he would wanna chill and I would fucking go hang out with him when he hit me up. Then we’d hang out for like two days and I wouldn’t hear from him again. The song is honestly about—guys always think that because I make music and DJ that I wanna like, go out and rage on the weekend and do the most drugs but I actually wanna go to sleep at 10 and smoke weed. And watch like, Law & Order.

And eat some Haribo. 

Like actually. It’s really just about all the things that I want in that way. I didn’t want that guy to be my boyfriend, he’s not boyfriend material. I’m just like, “It’s cold, it’s snowy. I wanna hook up!”

I also love the last part of the song where you’re like “This is just for the season babe.” We’re going back to wild for the summer.

Yeah summertime, forget about it. We’re going out. I actually don’t talk to boys in New York. I only talk to boys when I'm traveling. I have little boyfriends everywhere. So like, yeah I actually do wanna go kiss boys all around the world just not here. It’s all about the different country codes.

I can relate. WhatsApp, let’s get it. 

The WhatsApp camera is way better! 

It is! I also wanted to talk about the track onethatiwant because I miss the dancefloor terribly. It’s such a pure and seductive track. Did you find inspiration for that just from your life as a DJ or was that literally about someone that you’ve met? 

That song is about that one specific boy and it’s about one specific night. I DJ'd Frank Ocean’s party on Halloween and he was my date. Like before it was platonic and I didn’t know if he liked me or not and then that night he totally made out with me and afterwards we were dancing it was so cute. And then after that night it was hot and cold so yeah—it’s about that night. 

I love that these are love songs about boys that I can also dance to. You’re breaking into new territory there because there still aren't a lot of artists making music like that. 

The impetus to make the music like that came from my Kelela remix. 

You mean the Better remix that I listen to like every day? Is that the song you’re referring to? 

Yes. [laughs] I made that song in London too. It’s just one of my favorite things that I’ve ever made to date. Obviously I’d be completely lying if I said I wasn’t inspired by Kelela and really any female vocalist. That’s what I always listened to growing up, there were no gay men singing about that shit. I never really wanted to be that, I feel like the fact that I like boys is arbitrary but it’s like okay, well, nobody else is doing it.

We need this music right now. Whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 60s, or on up. I’ll sing with the girls all day but it’s always great to hear it from a male vocalist.

It’s fun. It’s been really fun. I can at least make honest music. Because honesty is something that goes further than just hype. It doesn’t have to be too produced and perfect. It’s been nice to feel that people are kind of catching that vibe; it’s relatable. I’m really excited for people to hear it and I’m really proud of it.

I just started listening to it again recently because I’ve been working on new music ever since I got back from LA. I’ve kind of been locked down since February cause I got back from filming everything and was super inspired by the trip so I locked myself down to make music. And so, to be working on new shit that’s almost even better than this, and then to listen to it, it’s like, “Oh my god, so weird.” I still love it just as much.

For now we’re all just doing what we can to keep moving through the day and enemies of progress definitely made me better.

I’m ready for it to come out! I’m about to pull an Ariana and release two projects in one weekend. There are like twenty new songs that I’m sitting on and getting antsy. It’s like when you get money in the bank and gotta spend it. So good.

What have you been doing to keep yourself balanced besides making music? 

I honestly haven't worked on music in like two weeks. For the last year I’ve been taking music really seriously and been trying to make music like almost every day or do something that involved making music, whether it was watching stuff or learning stuff. And so I never really hang out, I leave the house like once a week generally, like outside of a quarantine world. So I’m kind of enjoying doing nothing for once.

It’s like a weird pressure to be like, “Oh I’m locked up, I’ve got to get my shit together so that when we’re out everything is good to go,” but I’m actually not somebody who knows how to chill and relax, I’m always like “I gotta work." So I’ve just been enjoying it. I’ve been blowing through seasons of shows like it’s my job. I’ve watched Hustlers at least three times. I watched it on a plane but they blocked out everybody’s titties and I felt like I wasn’t actually watching it the right way.

How do you think the city and nightlife will evolve once we’re past this phase? 

You know, blind optimism isn’t going to get anybody anywhere these days. That’s kind of been the weird thing about putting this project out, usually what comes with that is like shows. Obviously everyone's had to cancel their stuff. We don’t know when we’ll be able to link up again, cause it doesn’t look like this summer. It’s not looking like we’ll be able to do this any time soon. I’m not sure how I feel about all the internet clubbing. I find it very strange.

It’s something but nothing truly compares. 

I’ve said no to everyone. I’m glad it’s there cause some people need it, it’s great. But like yeah, no. I need a really sweaty, smoky room that smells like that weird mop smell you know? I miss that.

I feel like whenever nightlife starts back up again it will go back to that like—you know, people used to move to New York because of the nightlife. I feel like maybe this might be that moment again. People need this again finally. It kind of got so static-y here for a while, where people were just throwing parties for the sake of parties. I feel like the effort might come back like it was in the early 2000s when I was partying. 

I feel that way too. Everyone can take a step back and get excited about things again. 

Bring back The Tunnel! 

That’s what I’m saying. A little Palladium, some Limelight. The Mineshaft! 

That’s what I’m saying. 

Where’s the first place you’d want to perform enemies of progress once we’re all back outside again? 

London first and then New York. Playing here is always weird. It’s like playing in your own city for everyone is always strange. People are tough in New York! I’ve never really felt the love until recently. 

I agree that it’s definitely tough. You are beloved here!  

We’re all just prisoners of our own thoughts at the end of the day. [Laughs]

Very true. We’ll meet you in London for the release party then catch up again for the New York shows.

I had such a vision for a release party. I really wanted to do it at a strip club but that’s not gonna happen. We’ll find other ways. It’ll be right.

Listen to Enemies of Progress below.