New York-based Indie-Pop artist Joe Geni has released new single “City of Light“, which focuses on the “power of human connection and resilience,” and reflects on “the solace found in friendship and community during recent lockdowns”.
This single previews Geni’s third album, Cities Built Upon Cities, which traces the transformation of Long Island City, the part of Queens that Geni calls home, which is situated across the East River from Manhattan. For Geni, this place is now “haunted by its industrial past and friends who have moved on,” and the songs “explore themes of change, impermanence, and feeling lost amidst the city’s constant evolution.” The album will arrive on October 4th, 2024.
This album was produced, mixed and mastered in Brooklyn by Charlie Nieland, known for his work with Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Dead Leaf Echo, Oh Halo and Scissors Sisters, in addition to scores, including the feature film The Safety of Objects starring Glenn Close.
Joe Geni shares about the new album:
My previous album ‘Doggerland’ was about climate change, but the pandemic hit mid-recording, so much of the album ended up being about that. When the album came out, I got a call from my mom. She said, “The album is wonderful but, speaking as your mother, are you OK?” So I resolved to write something more positive.
Lockdowns were still on, and the world was quite scary. But I had a friend in the neighborhood and we began taking walks and getting coffee whenever chance and schedule allowed, and watching the goings on. And there were a lot: the clanging of new construction, the mess of wires spilling off unfinished buildings, the sounds of birthdays in the park, of protests in the street. And as the pandemic abated and something vaguely resembling normal life began to re-emerge, I, like one of our tiny mammalian ancestors crawling out of its burrow after the meteor that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, felt a burst of energy, and a feeling that that really in spite of everything we will be OK. Maybe.
Originally hailing from Evanston, Illinois, Geni has lived in NYC for most of his adult life (mostly in Long Island City), working various jobs around the United Nations. He’s previously released the albums After Wandering Empire and Doggerland, also Produced by Charlie Nieland.
