
Today, UK-based songwriter, Joyeria, announces his brand new EP, Graceful Degradation, out October 31 via Speedy Wunderground / [PIAS].
“The Swimmer”, the latest single to be taken from the EP, is also out today – this follows the release of “I Don’t Know, Who Cares”, the first track to be lifted from the EP.
Inspired by John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer” expands on Joyeria’s signature existential indie-rock sound – sharp, satirical, and laced with experimental edge.
Talking about “The Swimmer” Joyeria said:
John Cheever wrote The Swimmer for a thin paper called The New Yorker in 1964. He swims pool to pool like stepping stones down the block. He even christened the lane of swimming pools after his wife, a private river in the affluent suburbs. Over fences, across asphalt, each neighbor a shore. But the water changes, something feels off, a bent note… just so.
So many Neds emerge from the edge of the pool shimmering in the chlorine, but the reflections don’t quite match. He swims further from himself with every stroke, time getting a little drunk, warped. I know this feeling… the way others hold pieces of you you can’t quite grasp. I am Ned, and my river is strung with the low lights of a thousand bars.
Reflecting on Graceful Degradation, Joyeria describes the EP as a collection of songs that don’t fit neatly into boxes: “little boxes of shadows and unexpected laughter… raw, like a skinned knee. Honest, in the way a chipped teacup holds the stain of too much tea.” Drawing on experiences from Poland, Canada, and now London — “the city that swallows the unwanted, makes them its own peculiar ghost” — the EP embraces imperfection, searching for meaning in the strange angles and fractured edges of modern existence.
In addition to the new music, Joyeria will also release Graceful Degradation as a limited-edition hardback book of poetry and prose, available alongside the EP on October 31.
