JOYWAVE'S QUEST FOR POSSESSION

On March 13, 2020, Daniel Armbruster, Paul Brenner, Joseph Morinelli, and Benjamin Bailey—collectively known as Joywave—embarked on a rocket ship that launched from the United States with a destination in the unknowable expanse of space. They were releasing their third studio album, Possession, unaware that their plans for a tour would soon feel alien to all inhabitants of planet Earth.

Just over a week before the release of Possession, Joywave completed their final date of a European tour supporting PVRIS. After returning home to New York the next day, they faced a single question from Border Protection: had they been to Wuhan? At that moment, Armbruster grasped the bleak reality that lay ahead. When his girlfriend picked him up at the airport to return to their hometown of Rochester, he directed her to Wegmans, a US supermarket, and a pet store to buy cat food. It would be a year and a half before the band would play another show.

The Possession Tour never materialized, despite Armbruster’s plans, contributing to the lead singer’s struggle for control over his own life—something he addresses in this very album. The theme that Armbruster weaves throughout the album is the importance of zooming out, saving one's sanity, and avoiding burnout by seeing the bigger picture of what’s happening around you. Unfortunately, I will disregard this advice as I take you on a deep dive into this often-overlooked album, focusing on the album cycle that was cut short.

“It’s Possession, not possessions, that will finally set me free.”

Our journey toward achieving total possession over our lives begins back in Texas, 1963, with the first track, “Like a Kennedy.” The band created a YouTube series titled Tales of Possession, detailing the specific meanings behind each song, which I highly recommend. However, I will be exploring the world of Possession and the steps we take on our journey through each song. This track is set in the midst of the Cold War and the Space Race, where JFK is assassinated. Daniel sings about the omnipresent and threatening news cycles as he dreams of finding happiness in old age, perhaps in a stage of life where many of us might feel less threatened by these doomsday narratives and more content with the lives we’ve lived. Still in his 30s while recording, Armbruster offers an alternative path for us to follow in our quest for possession over our lives, taking us aboard the spaceship with the band as we embark on a journey to a place far away from the relentless news cycles and among the first brave travelers during the Space Race.

In “Coming Apart,” Armbruster reflects on the grip that news cycles had in 2020, akin to the experience of the 1960s when people first began to see news on their television screens. By zooming out and escaping the grasp of the media, we start to reclaim control over our lives.

In a Reddit Q&A shortly after the release of Possession, Daniel acknowledged that every song on the album was among his most personal works. This connection is evident in “Half Your Age,” where he liberates himself from constantly wondering when it would be “his time” and expresses his concerns about not achieving his childhood dreams, while simultaneously recognizing that he has a rather fulfilling career as a musician.

“Obsession” delves into art as a means of shielding oneself from the anxieties that haunt us. However, it isn’t until “F.E.A.R. (Fear Everything And Run)” that we perform an exorcism of our fears. The ways we surrender control of our lives to our fears are expressed over the first instrumental piece on this album which I would describe as spooky—not entirely haunting, but reminiscent of a campy Halloween flick. This song arguably marks the last instance of themes tied directly to the media and the fearmongering they exploit. Suddenly, our crew gazes out the window of their ship for the first time, and upon seeing how far removed they are from their micro-level anxieties, Armbruster begins to look inward as he journeys further into the realms of space.

The next exorcism occurs in “Blank Slate.” In which Daniel sings in a hauntingly intimate manor of how banishing rigidity allows him to gain control over his love life. In this song, he references the final track from their previous album, “Let’s Talk About Feelings.” Back then, Armbruster sang from a restaurant table on a date about his fear of being changed by his lover, but now he is surrendering himself to be reshaped by somebody new. Despite this, it is not Armbruster’s significant other whose hands are reshaping him. As we leave Earth behind, we find ourselves face-up in the empty sea of nothingness.

“It is one of the only true love songs in the Joywave catalog.”

The title track, “Possession,” sets an unalterable course of affection toward Armbruster’s love. The noise of planet Earth has been replaced by silence, and Armbruster is committing to one person, leaving everything he once knew behind and trading it all for love. As he loses consciousness while falling in love, he puts his full trust in his partner. As we zoom out, it becomes clearer that the hands reshaping Daniel are those of Possession.

In “Blastoffff,” now well-seasoned in space travel, Armbruster begins to reflect on the loved ones he has long since seen in his ‘alien’ lifestyle of touring and album cycles, coming back to town for brief intervals to discover how much has changed while he’s been away. In pursuing Possession in his career as an artist, he finds that much of his life is beginning to be shaped by fans or other engagements arising from being a musician, as he muses on “Who Owns Who.” Further consumed by the insatiable opinions filling the internet in “Funny Thing About Opinions,” our frontman shrugs off these concerns as he nears his destination.

Possession is nearly upon us, and there is no turning back. In “No Shoulder,” Armbruster reveals that it is Possession—not possessions—that will free him from the control of the greatest forces of the universe. He attempts to make sense of the world around him and why these forces have held him back from having what he desires: “I want close relationships with people, I want to create the art that I want to make, I want control over my life; everything else doesn’t matter.” Clearly, Armbruster has gained clarity regarding what he wants from this journey since the 2017 single “It’s A Trip!”, where he debated starting over his career as he no longer understood what his desires were. Despite this epiphany, Armbruster is drawn into a black hole of existentialism. And when he finally emerges on the other side, he is not the same person he was before; he is reshaped.

In “Mr. Eastman,” Daniel arrives home from his mission in his hometown, reminiscent of when Joywave touched down in New York after touring on March 2nd. Suddenly, the elevated persona he has developed for his fans brings back the anxieties from “Blastoffff.” Armbruster struggles to readjust to the humble climate of his hometown, as pursuing artistry and Possession has led to him being reshaped by his fans. People he has never met now have a stake in how he spends his life. The golden record he pursued feels hollow. Possession is fleeting, and much like the Voyager golden record sampled throughout this album, the world around us is constantly being reshaped just as we are.

“I can take my nine-tenths but they’d still have it all.” Daniel concludes.