BWQ is, roughly put, the spirit of building bridges and genuine connections. Always in search of something special, singer songwriter Darryl Joo works to craft distinctive and honest songs to bring together friends and collaborators.
The songs are written with the intent of blending genres in an authentic and refreshing way. Darryl looks to employ both modern and traditional structures and harmonies to create new yet familiar sounds.
“American Ghost” is the debut album from Project BWQ, singer-songwriter Darryl Joo’s debut project. In 2015, Darryl quit his teaching job to pursue a lifelong dream of creating music to share with the world. From there, he would stumble into the budding music scene in Hoboken/Jersey City, where he met a group of artists whose central ethos revolved around honest support, selflessness, mutual inspiration, and an inextinguishable love for music. “American Ghost” explores identity and the nature of relationships, the pain of being invisible, vulnerability and paranoia, and the healing that takes place throughout the course of life.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with members of Project BWQ about their latest release, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We’re based out of Hoboken/Jersey City, NJ. My friend and bandmate Max Feinstein (guitar, vocals) describes me as a “progressive singer-songwriter.” I think that’s pretty accurate. I consider myself a craftsman more than anything else – I try to write prolifically, and try to do something different each time. It’s led me to some interesting places, musically speaking.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
There’s this great essay called “Living Like Weasels” by author Annie Dillard. In it, she tells the story of a hunter who shoots down an eagle and finds the skeleton of a weasel attached at the neck. She talks about finding your “necessity,” plugging into it, surrendering yourself to it, and never letting go… about letting it carry you and scatter you wherever it might.
After a long time side-stepping the issue and pursuing different areas of study and work, I guess the best way to put it is that I’ve surrendered. This is my necessity, and I feel that I’ve finally found the thing that I’ve been designed to do. I’ve only started playing my music out in front of people in the last year-and-a-half or two, but I don’t really find the need to search for motivation. I think it’s more accurate to say that motivation isn’t really a factor… I don’t really feel a desire to do the things I do or have reasons for doing them. I’m just doing what needs to be done. This is my necessity.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
For one, this is my first release as a musician, period. I guess it’s somewhat unusual to have your debut album at 28, and it’s a little old to be “just starting out.” It is an anachronistic release, though, especially in the age of Spotify. It’s a 67 minute-long, 14 song LP, and while I hate to use the term, Max and Johnny (engineering, drums, vocals) have forced me to accept that it’s a concept album. It’s really just a collection of songs with common threads and motifs running through them.
What I really wanted to do was to show that we have something special going on in our musical community. All the musicians on the album are “locally sourced” and have their own projects going on. I started putting together the album, looked around at the unbelievable wealth of talent around me, and decided to reach out (in the spirit of building bridges) and ask people to lend their voices to the album. I picked out different songs that I thought would work well for different musicians, or, sometimes, musicians would request to be on a particular song. Despite the number of people who came into the studio to work on this album, I think we’ve managed to create something cohesive yet unique.
Do you face challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? How has technology helped you (assuming it helps)?
It’s the same benefits and challenges as other musicians, probably. The benefit is that it’s easier than ever to get your music out there. The challenge is that it’s easier than ever to get your music out there.
There’s more music coming out now than probably ever before, and a great deal of it is of a very high quality. I guess “getting noticed” is a challenge, but I feel like if I’m writing music to “get noticed,” I’m doing something wrong. The technology is just the landscape we’re working in, and the idea should always be to put one foot in front of the other and not be afraid to change, adapt, and try new paths. Once you start making the right moves in the right direction, I think people will respond. I have no idea if that’s what I’m doing, though, so I guess that’s another challenge.
Where can we connect with you online and discover more music?
You can check out our website (www.projectbwq.com) where you can sign up for a mailing list for any big announcements (special shows, big releases).
Otherwise, we’ll make smaller announcements typically on our Facebook page. Instagram for little snippets and photos. As of now, I just can’t seem to get on board the Twitter train…
Anything else before we sign off?
A big thanks to MTM and the team over at EIPR for setting this up. And a shoutout to the Hoboken/Jersey City family!
