Colorjoy – Letting The Good Times Roll

When indie pop-rock band Colorjoy were performing at Arlene’s Grocery last month the vibe in the venue, from the back of the stage all the way to the entrance, could be described in two words – pure enjoyment.

The NYC-based band was having the time of their life, and that feeling radiated throughout the crowd. It was literally impossible to be in a bad mood.

This is a major aspect of what makes Colorjoy who they are.

Created by longtime friends Emily MacMahon and Sam Novotny, Colorjoy truly embodies the second half of their name.

Formed as a duo, Colorjoy’s sound quickly evolved into something much bigger than Emily and Sam could do as a two person outfit, which is how the band grew to being the seven-piece they are today.

In some venues the fit on stage can be tight, but not nearly as tight as how well the seven of them play together.

Having thoroughly enjoyed their set at Arlene’s, and having listened to their 2023 full-length debut, Golden Age, I caught up with Emily to find out more about Colorjoy, including how a couple of self-admitted introverts can be so at home on stage, and what inspires the variety of covers they enjoy adding to their set, which range from Lit, to The B-52s, to 5 Seconds of Summer.

Let’s start with a little bit of Colorjoy history. How did you and Sam first meet, and how quickly did you start playing music together? 

Sam and I met when we were in middle school, essentially. We went to a music school together, and met each other through there because we’re not from the same hometown, but we’re both from Jersey.

We started a band a lot earlier than this one. We had the same kind of passion for it where we didn’t want to just be doing music in the school, we wanted to do it outside of it, as well, and obviously also career-wise.

So we had a bunch of different bands together, and we’ve been playing together ever since. At this point it’s like almost a decade of doing that together.

When we got to college, and we started doing this on a little bit more of a serious level, we created Colorjoy as a way to ensure that the music that we were working on, and we were pouring all of our heart and soul into, was nothing that was going to feel like it was draining us. We wanted to make sure that it was a project that was still only full of joy, and fun, so that we were playing shows with our friends, and having our friends and family come out, and really just making sure that the priority was doing what we love, and making sure nothing came in the way of that.

Ever since then we’ve been playing in Colorjoy together.

When you were kids, and you were first picking up instruments, who did you want to be when you grew up? 

I think for me, I loved Disney Channel, and I loved Hannah Montana, and stuff like that. That was the stuff that I was exposed to visually, but I also really wanted to be like my grandma, because she was a musician. I know that was my main inspiration growing up, because that was my first exposure to it.

Her, and my dad were kind of just dipping my toe into music in general, so that was always what I thought I could try and aspire to be like, but seeing people on Disney Channel who were girls that were way closer to my age was definitely something that I was trying to emulate in some way. Then there’s always the greats like Stevie Nicks, and Chaka Khan, and all of these amazing artists who stand the test of time, and are legendary.

I know for Sam, he absolutely loves Rush, and Dream Theater, and every kind of complex drummer you can think of.

Your debut album, Golden Age, was released in 2023. Now that you’ve had over a year of performing those songs, and to reflect on the album, what are your thoughts on your opening salvo to listeners? 

Golden Age was something that we worked so hard on for a long time. All of it is written and recorded and mixed ourselves, and that was something that took so long, and so much work from not just us, but also the same people that played on stage with us are some of the same people who are on the record.

A lot of those songs are songs that we wrote so long ago, when we were a lot younger, and even if they have taken so long to come out, them being created when we were so much younger, there’s a lot of meaning to that.

I think, speaking for me and Sam, knowing that those songs stood the test of time, and worked with us through those years, and ended up coming out after all of that time, is definitely something that we’re really proud of.

Obviously, the songs that we are writing now don’t sound entirely like that album. There’s definitely been a little bit of an evolution to our sound, as every band does, but songs like “Golden Age,” and “Blue Eyed Addiction” are the songs that, at the end of the day, are going to be like the core of Colorjoy, because that’s where we started.

I don’t think either of us are anything but proud to be able to say that.

One song from the album that I think is probably relatable to a lot of people is “Introvert Hangover.” Would you consider yourself an introvert, and if so, how do you amp up for a show, and everything that being out at a venue, and performing entails? 

Sam and I are both super introverts, Sam even more than me, and that song was written because I was thinking about that kind of thing.

I remember we had a document in front of us of every song we’d written so far for the album, and the topics that each of them covered, and this song, we had the instrumental for it, but I hadn’t written the lyrics for it yet. I was thinking – OK, what topic should I write about for this? Something came up where we were talking about how we’re so drained from social gatherings at that moment in time, so I figured I’ll write about that feeling as an introvert, where you can go to a social gathering, and rather than feel energized by it, you feel the opposite, because it just takes energy out of you in a different way than it does for an extrovert.

It’s a crazy dichotomy, the natural feeling of being an introvert, and then also playing on stage in front of people in New York City. I think it kind of makes it fun sometimes, because depending on when people meet you, or how they meet you – if they meet you as the introvert, and then they go to a show and they see what you do there, it’s pretty funny because they don’t really know what to do. They respond to you afterwards in a different way. They say like, “Why didn’t you tell us about this kind of stuff?” and that’s always a fun reaction.

It’s also just cool to be able to exert that much energy, and have that big of a personality on stage, and then come off and be able to be way different, and to exist in a way that’s, not easy going, but a lot more mellow, and allows you to just exist as a person rather than a performer all the time.

I think whether you’re a musician playing on stage, or (someone) working a nine to five, everyone can relate to the fact that at some point in your day you do have to perform, and be someone else, and then when you go home, you can let it all go.

I think it was good that we were able to find a way to write about that in a song that made it a lot more relatable than just our experience as musicians.

Earlier you mentioned your sound has evolved. With that in mind, how will your next project sound, and how much will the subject matter differ from the first? 

The sound is … sometimes we throw the word mature around a lot when it comes to talking about bands changing their sound over the years, and I don’t necessarily know if that’s the best word to describe it, but obviously we have aged.

The instrumentation is a little bit different. The way that we’re writing is a little bit different. There’s definitely more of a rock tone to the whole thing.

At this point we have, I think, six or seven songs written, which is a decent amount. When writing an album we either shoot for 12 or 13 songs, or to when we feel like the narrative is told, whichever comes first.

It definitely doesn’t sound entirely like Golden Age.

I think it’s always good to change with the times, and to see where your inspiration lies as you grow. I mean, the artists that we’re listening to now are not the same as the artists that we were listening to when we wrote Golden Age, so it’s only inevitable that kind of change would happen.

As far as similarities go, I think maybe “Cigarettes and Vanilla” on Golden Age is the closest through line to what the second album is sounding like so far, just in the sense that rock is more at the forefront than pop, or indie was before.

We’re pretty excited about it with all the shows we’ve been playing lately. Essentially, all we’ve been playing are the new originals rather than anything from Golden Age, partly because, like you said, it’s been a full year of us with these songs, so we definitely want to switch it up now.

At your recent show at Arlene’s your set included covers of songs by Lit, The B-52s, and 5 Seconds of Summer, which are three bands most people don’t normally associate with each other. Based on that, I feel like you have a lot of musical inspirations. What sparked your desire to dig into so many genres, and so many generations of music? 

A lot of it is because Sam and I went to a music school where we were playing music from every decade possible. That being what we learned so early on really influenced us to keep those inspirations going forward.

“Love Shack” itself is a song that we played when we were in that music school, so we’ve kept things that we’ve learned from when we were kids, partly probably because of associating really good memories with them, and knowing how much fun it was when we originally played them, and wanting to also have that feeling again now. But also part of it is like, these are timeless artists, and these are timeless songs, and songs like “Love Shack” or (Lit’s) “My Own Worst Enemy,” those are the kinds of songs that you’ll always remember, and so will the rest of society because they’re so good and they’re so popular.

A lot of the reasons why we pick certain covers are because we want to think about the way that they would make us feel when we play them live, and playing, “My Own Worst Enemy” will make us feel different than playing “Love Shack,” but either way they make us feel really cool, and really fun, and it lets you interact with the crowd in a different way than if you were just playing originals, just because of the way that it goes as an indie band.

Picking those specific ones was more about thinking of crowd interaction, and how fun would it be to play this on stage, and what were the ways that we can incorporate our own style, and our own taste into these songs, and try and morph them into something that’s more Colorjoy than just a cover.

I need to know what school is teaching kids “Love Shack,” because that’s pretty awesome. 

It’s actually the School of Rock. Sam and I went to one when we were kids, and thanks to them we were exposed to a ton of music really early on, and then got to learn them, as well.

Finally, when it comes to Colorjoy, how would you define success? 

I think at this point the safest, and most self-satisfying way of defining success is just if you’re enjoying yourself.

In every facet of the world there’s some crazy stuff going on, and if you think about specifically the niche world of trying to make it as a musician in New York City as a full-time job, I think it’s way more dangerous to try and find a definition of success in that sense. So the thing that we’ve found to keep us sane is to not think about it at all, and to just make sure that when we play a show we are having fun, and that the people that we bring also have fun, and that the music we write is stuff that we would listen to on our own, and that the people around us are proud of us, and that we’re proud of the music ourselves.

After working at this kind of indie level for so long, I think the thing that we’ve learned after everything is just that as long as you’re enjoying yourself, you shouldn’t really think about anything else. 

 

For more Colorjoy, check out colorjoyofficial.com.