The Skinny On... Joesef

What’s your favourite place to visit? 

I love the Spar at my maw's bit on a Friday night, the atmosphere is electric and everyone's buzzing buying their cans and fags.

What’s your favourite food?

Is it basic to say bolognese? Only when I make it though; I really will die on the hill of no one's bolognese being as good as mine.

What’s your favourite colour?

I like the colour the sky goes when it's really cold and it’s about 4.30pm during winter in Scotland on a clear day. It feels like a heavy blue settling into a burnt orange kinda colour – so beautiful.

Who was your hero growing up?

I didn’t really have many heroes but I was kinda obsessed with the Spice Girls. Even as a wee guy I could feel their power, and as I get older the command they had of the music industry at that time has even more weight to it.

Whose work inspires you now?

I’m really inspired by Douglas Stuart, his novels Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo really resonated with me. I think every queer working class Glaswegian should know his work, it’s such a specific experience that he captures in a really nuanced way.

What three people would you invite to your dinner party and what are you cooking?

George Michael, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Michaela Coel; probably bolognese tbh.

What’s your all time favourite album?

That's a bit of an impossible question, but right now, since it’s cold and dark, Carole King's Tapestry. I feel like this album is the definition of a classic. It’s an album I’ve lived with since I was a wee guy and it continues to mean different things to me as I get older. The writing and Carole's voice just moves me in a way I think is quite rare. I’ll love it forever.

What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen?

Probably House of Wax, it's a horror and Paris Hilton's in it, it's terrible but I feel like it's high camp – it's so bad it's fucking class.

What book would you take to a desert island?

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I read it last year and I still think about it a lot.

Who’s the worst?

I’ve never really liked E.T., feel like he caused a lot of trouble then fucked off back to space pretty quickly.

When did you last cry?

I cried reading a book called The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit. She talks a lot about mortality and her relationship with her mother before and after she started to succumb to Alzheimer's, among other things. Just got me thinking about the inevitability of life, and my own family and stuff.

What are you most scared of?

Dying suddenly and not getting to say goodbye to anyone.

When did you last vomit?

I was off my face and went a bit too ham hock on the cocktails and I was being sick the day after.

Tell us a secret?

No.

Which celebrity could you take in a fight?

I feel like I could probably take somebody like Eddie Redmayne? He's so nice and gentlemanly, I could probs deck him. But I’m defo a lover not a fighter.

If you could be reincarnated as an animal, which animal would it be?

Probably a blue whale, I feel like they have such a complex existence I’d like to know what they are thinking about. I like the idea of being so big that no one really bothers you.

Beyond your debut album coming out in January, what else are you most looking forward to in 2023?

Travelling loads and being happy, hopefully. I’d love to see Japan before the year's out, play a gig there, and go back to America.

Which other Scottish musicians do you think should be on everyone’s radar in 2023?

Theo Bleak, she's an amazing artist from Dundee, such an amazing writer and she's such a lovely person too; her new EP’s just out, it’s gorgeous.