10 Questions with Eden Joel

Eden Joel: I’m good. I’ve had kind of an action packed week with just fun stuff.

EJ: Yes, I’m excited!

EJ: Honestly, I think it’s kind of inescapable when you’re in Nashville. You kind of have no choice but to participate in music on some level. So definitely in terms of total immersion into it, I think that has really affected me. I did grow up around a lot of amazing, world class musicians. When I was in middle school, one of my friends had a parent who was in Union Station, which is Alison Krauss’ band. One of the best banjo players ever! I would go to her house, and her dad would just be shredding. He’d be practicing five hours a day in his 50’s. Pretty crazy.

EJ: My favorite band of all time is a band called The Hives. They’re a Swedish punk band. For whatever reason, it just super connected with my 11 year old brain and still does. Whenever I found it, it was like, this is it for me. This is matching my energy right now. Most of my friends and older siblings were in bands too, so that was always inspiring to see.

EJ: For sure. I’ve toured with Annie the most, and me and Briston are homies. I really like his music; I actually played Paradise Festival [which he founded] this past week in Nashville. Both of them are really powerful performers. I have gotten to learn a lot from Annie as well. They both just get on stage and give 110%, and even though they’re both like siblings to me, when you’re standing next to them and they’re doing their thing, it’s pretty cool to watch. So when I started playing my own shows, not just as a side person, I was hoping that some of those skills would transfer. But honestly, it’s so different to be playing guitar for somebody versus being the person on the mic and having to speak in between songs.

EJ: Literally the most fun thing ever. I had so much fun. We watched Meet Me in the Bathroom, a documentary about the early 2000’s New York music scene with The Strokes, The Moldy Peaches and LCD Soundsystem. We watched that before, so we were ready to rock. We were just goofing around the whole time.

EJ: It was really sweet. Maybe next year.

EJ: When I started really working on Dogpile, I was also working on Annie’s album [Super Pedestrian]. I had never done anything like that before, so I was learning a lot working with Annie, watching her write songs and then going away and trying it out for myself. A lot of the songs you’ll hear on Dogpile are really just me figuring out how to write songs, which is kind of fun. Again, with touring and working with other people, the coolest thing is just being able to watch, because everybody goes about everything so differently. So it’s cool to just be able to borrow different tricks from people. Annie is all about just saying how she feels, and that was really inspiring to me at the time.

EJ: It was super cool. I started posting songs online because I really wanted to do it, even though I was kind of scared. So I just pushed myself to rip off the band-aid and put something out there. That was one of the first things I posted, and it ended up being really cool. It honestly changed my life in terms of how I thought about myself. I realized this was something I genuinely wanted to pursue, even though I didn’t think anyone would care at all. So it was a big deal for me personally and really set me on a different path, which was exciting.

At the same time, though, I hadn’t actually finished the song. I was freaking out because I didn’t know how to finish it, and I didn’t want to mess it up. It was definitely a mix of emotions, really exciting but also kind of scary. Overall, though, it felt encouraging more than anything. It didn’t feel like this huge, serious thing. It was more like a little thumbs up from the universe.

EJ: I feel really stoked. I’ve been sitting with these songs for a minute, so I’m excited to end the chapter and start anew. It’s been a huge new experience and I’ve learned a lot, so I’m glad it’s finally happening. It’s a little crazy because it’s been in the back of my mind for so long. I’m trying not to be too overwhelmed and stay present.

EJ: These songs feel like a project because I wrote them all during a really specific period of my life. Dogpile felt like the right name because so much of what I was writing about had to do with feeling overwhelmed by change. I graduated early during Covid and moved out pretty soon after I turned 17. I was really eager to start touring and doing everything I’d dreamed about. Then everything hit me. It slowly sank in that things like paying rent and being away are actually really hard. I love it, but there are definitely parts that are more intense than I expected when I was still living at my parents’ house. So Dogpile just felt fitting because it captured that sense of everything piling up at once.

EJ: My friend Devin has a project called Henry J. Star. He just put out a really awesome album that’s so good, and he’s been working on it for a really long time. Emma Ogier is awesome, and Casper Sage is amazing too. I’m definitely missing some, but I also love book NOT brooke and Grumpy.

EJ: There’s a music video coming out today, I think, or maybe it already came out. I’m one of three tall skinny lads in green morph suits.

EJ: I feel like literally everyone I know in Nashville makes awesome music. So I’m probably leaving out so many people.

EJ: I’m probably going to drop some singles. I’m really excited to work with other people and collaborate a bit more, too. I made the majority of this project alone in my room and then had my friend Anson, who also has an awesome project called Spuddy, help me tie everything together. I want to get out of my room a little bit and try to have more fun, be less in the weeds I guess.

EJ: I hope they’re excited to hear more! I think the biggest thing for me with these songs was trying to create something that wasn’t influenced by what I thought was cool or how I assumed other people would perceive it. I just wanted to be myself and not overthink how it might come across.

EJ: Thank you! This was so fun.