Joe Sefa

Massey University student Josh Blackman, known by his stage name Joe Sefa, makes his debut with Blue Arms, a ten-minute track built around intricate samples, layered ambient textures and a reflection on growing up. Drawing on influences including Animal Collective, The Avalanches and The Durutti Column, Blackman blends neo-psychedelia with sound collage to create music that feels both surreal and nostalgic.

Originally from Auckland and now in his final year studying music industry at Massey, Blackman began experimenting with lo-fi music in high school. What started as a university project has since become an opportunity to explore different sounds, develop his songwriting and find his own creative direction. With more music planned for the new year, Blue Arms is the first glimpse into a project that continues to evolve.

What first got you into music, and when did you start making your own stuff? 

My dad has always collected records, for as long as I can remember, so I was always around some form of music medium, then I started collecting records too when I was about 14. I think it was maybe a year or so before that, that I started going down YouTube rabbit holes that completely changed my taste and relationship with music. That eventually led to me picking up guitar at 15, and I began experimenting with diy recordings near the end of high school.

So how did Joe Sefa come about as a music project?

This year I had to do a major project for my music industry course, and I thought it would be a really good chance to take the time to write an album. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough time this year to really get these songs made, but I’m really happy with how it's worked out.

And the artist name for the music project, Joe Sefa, comes from my grandmother. She’s Samoan and she calls me Iosefa, which is the translation of Joseph. She refuses to call me Josh, because she doesn’t like the translation in Samoan. So I took the name Iosefa and added the J and E to it and created Joe Sefa.

What musicians or artists have influenced you the most? 

Animal Collective, they're a band from Baltimore. They're definitely the biggest music inspiration I've ever had. Their discography has been immense and it's kinda been this musical dictionary that I just keep going back to, and the emotion they are able to convey with their approach to linear songwriting and all of that stuff, it's just completely changed the whole landscape for how I listen to music.

I love The Avalanches for how they incorporate sampling and their storytelling as well. And then The Durutti Column, he’s my main inspiration on the guitar.

How would you describe the sound that you go for? What genre would you use to describe your project?

I like to say neo-psychedelia. That in itself has quite surrealist connotations and a dreamlike sound. And then I also incorporate aspects of sampledelia through the amount of background layers and textures. There’s also more ambient sound collages, but all somewhat fall under the neo-psychedelia sound overall.

What’s your songwriting process? 

So with my music there's about a 50/50 split between more ambient stuff and then more acoustically driven songs.

So if it's a song that I'm singing on, then I'll start with a melody on guitar and then try to derive lyrics from that melody, and then I eventually go into putting more layers to it with my SP-404.

For the instrumentals on the EP, I loved to go through a lot of exotica records or any obscure recordings for the bulk of samples. I find any good snippet I can and then load up heaps of banks, seeing what works and if I can hear any sort of theme in the sound or know which direction I want to take it, then I work from that. So there's two different processes for the two different types of songs that I usually tend to make.

Your song Blue Arms runs for about 10 minutes. made you go for a longer length track compared to a typical song that might be closer to three minutes long? 

I think that naturally came about. I've been sitting on the Blue Arms demo for a couple years, and it was typically around the six-minute mark, but it felt very rushed. I feel like the 10-minute mark allows it to breathe and allows a lot of the ideas to have their own time in the spotlight.

And going through the musical journey is really important to me. There's like a minute-long introduction, which for a single typically isn't the best idea, but it's more of a way to lead you into the song and show off what the whole canvas of the song is about. Creating an atmosphere that is interesting to sit in is always important, and feeling that atmosphere evolve and explore itself just so happened to have resulted in a lengthy runtime.

What can you tell me about Blue Arms? What does the song mean to you? 

The song reflects on growing up, but through the eyes of your childhood home. Your childhood home experiences you as a kid, and the innocent way you interacted with the house, to then eventually becoming an adult and sacrificing much of those playful tendencies. It tells the story of how the house grieves as well when it experiences change.

Are these themes of nostalgia gonna be present across the whole EP, or does the EP cover lots of different ideas? 

Genre-wise the EP changes from song to song. That wasn't intentional. I think it was more of a representation of me trying to find a sound and land on something that works for me. I'm really happy that I got to experiment with many different styles and genres.

But I always come back to nostalgia as a main theme, a lot of my songs I try to create an atmosphere that could emulate that feeling. So yeah, it's definitely a recurring theme.

Do you have a favourite song on the EP?

I have an attachment to Blue Arms because it's the one I always returned to for the longest, and I’m very proud of the songwriting on it. But I think generally speaking, the second song, which will be the next single, is the most accessible and the most fun. I think it could connect with a lot of people. It's called Dreaming, and it will be out next year.

It's a completely different vibe than Blue Arms, but it still has themes of childlike nostalgia in a sense, though through a more playful route.

When can we see the rest of the EP? Are you going to drip feed it slowly with some more singles, or will it all release at once? 

I think Dreaming will get released early in the new year and I might let that one sit for a bit. Though I am quite adamant on wanting to add some more songs to the EP. I’ve got a couple more months to think on that and get some more music made and then I can release it all properly. But for now I definitely want to get Dreaming out there as soon as I can.

Do you have any plans to play the EP live? 

Not at this stage. I'm more focused on creating as much as I can and getting the project out there first. But I never wanna rule it out, I think if I was to perform live, it would be more improvised sound performances rather than your standard concert sort of setup.

Also, having to complete something in such a tight timeframe with this project kind of really limits what you want to do and the fun that you have with it. So I wanna spend these next couple months just getting that love back, then eventually I can explore bringing some sound to a live environment. 

Dream collaboration that you'd love to work with? 

I did get to work with a mixer on three of my songs named Nicolas Vernhes. He has produced some of my favourite albums ever. That was a dream collab in itself, being able to mix with him. It was awesome being able to collaborate and see the mixing process alongside him. I’m extremely grateful for that. 

And I’ll also just say The Avalanches. I think I'd be able to learn a lot from their process of sampling, and all their records are extremely fun and have a huge stack of features. It's just awesome to see and it's always such a cool experience listening to their music. I think working with them would be really fun.

You can follow Joe Sefa on Instagram @joshblackman_