Hailing from the town of Newbury in Berkshire, the British musician Joe Hicks first found a love for the guitar when he attended an assembly in his primary school, where a classical guitarist was showcasing his talents. From there, he learnt the instrument and played in various school bands. In his adult life, he worked as a session musician for acts like Adam Barnes and Breymer.

Then, one day, Joe found himself wondering why he wasn’t attempting to establish his own career. “I had that gap in the middle, where I wasn’t making anything myself, but I was desperate to, and 2017 was the culmination of two years of me buckling down and saying, ‘This is insane. I keep wanting to make music, and I’m not finishing anything,’” Joe tells Post-Burnout of how his solo project came about.

“So, I booked an Airbnb for a week, in Cornwall, in 2016, then I booked studio time for the week after that, and I had to finish something. So, I kind of forced it all out, that way.” For Joe, imposed deadlines are conducive to output. If he has all the time to sit indefinitely, he envisions that not much work with get done.

The result of these initial efforts was his debut EP, Best Clothes, which was released in March 2017; only a little over a month after releasing his first two singles, “Best Clothes” and “Something in the Water.”

Through soft acoustic pop-rock, Joe’s lyrics serve as musings on time, life, past reflections, and future ambitions; a result, perhaps, of his subconscious revealing itself to him. “The way I get lyrics is through singing…‘gibberish’ is the wrong word, because it’s still English words, but I just use stopgap lyrics until I can work out what the song’s about,” Joe says of penning his ideas.

“Quite often, something that I’ve been singing will subconsciously be telling me what the song’s about, and I’ll keep that one line and then expand on that topic. Something tells me what it’s about, rather than me deciding, I think.”

This method often allows Joe to discover how he has been feeling before he fully understands for himself. “That’s the only way I can write lyrics, really,” he says. “There’s been a few occasions where I’ve looked outwards, but writing about how I’m feeling seems to be the way forward.

“Yesterday, my radio plugger, […] we were talking about the song and the timing of the song, and it made me think about the lyrics a bit deeper, and I realised that I can know what I think I’m singing at the time, and, sometimes, six months or a year can pass by, and I’ll listen back and go, ‘Oh, wow! I was feeling that, as well?’ or ‘It was actually about that?’”

Since 2017, Joe has released many singles and five EPs. In 2020, he released his self-titled debut album, and, three years later, its follow-up, The Best I Could Do At the Time. For nearly two years, this was the last release from Joe until his latest single, “Time is a Thief,” was dropped at the end of last month.

“I got a bit lost, I suppose, mentally for a while,” Joe says, explaining the gap. “I lost my dad, and that kind of…It had been a little while since I had released music, anyway, and I was probably getting to the point where I was thinking about writing again, and then that happened, and it jarred me for another six months or so, but also spurred me on to write again.

“I moved to a new city… – I moved to Bristol at the start of ’23 – …and kind of just wanted to live a bit of life. I had spent so much time, intensely focused on The Best I Could Do at the Time, and came out of it maybe a little bit disillusioned or just drained from the whole process, and needed to enjoy not thinking about making stuff and releasing it and everything, and that was really helpful.

“Then, when my dad passed away, the boys that I work with, Sam [Winfield] and Tom [Millar], who are amazing – they’re my two best friends – they pulled me aside at the start of ’24, and said, ‘Look, I know you’re grieving, but this is the perfect time for you to just create something, whether there ends up being any music or not.’

“So, we spent, basically, the whole of last year, writing songs and recording, and seeing what would come out, really, and that led me to move back to my hometown, where the studio is.”

The first work of their efforts was the aforementioned “Time is a Thief,” which was released last month and was written after Joe’s father’s passing. “It was probably a response to…not necessarily to my dad’s death, but more the response to how I was looking at myself and how I was feeling,” he explains.

“I started to feel that everything felt a bit pointless. I don’t know if that’s nihilistic, where I felt like everything had no meaning for a little while, when I was at the start of that year. So, that song is me looking at that, and trying to pull myself out of that, which is why the ending of the song is a bit more euphoric and had all the voices happening, because it was the different voices going on within me, really, pulling this way and that.”

 Now Joe is working on more material, which is expected to be announced soon. For now, he leaves us by telling how glad he is that he decided to return. “I love it, and I think I’m just grateful for the opportunity to do more,” he confesses. “I think that’s my overriding emotion, because I had thoughts of giving up and thoughts that it was all pointless, so coming back and being able to make more music […]  I’m really grateful to be able to do it, and really notice how much I love working with great people.

“That’s been the shift. Before my dad died, I was definitely collaborative, but I was very much in my own head, and I felt like it needed to stem from me all the time, and this time around, the boys and I have co-written a lot of the songs that we’ve made, and that feels like the most rewarding thing ever.”

Joe Hicks’ latest single, “Time is a Thief,” is out now. You can keep up with Joe through his website.

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Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.