Songwriter Brian Ishiba and bandmates Ed Baida and Joey Grabmeier (bass and drums, respectively) initially joined forces in 2016 under the moniker Royce. After recording and playing together for a little over a year, the group was put on hold when Brian moved to Tokyo. Brian had gone to college in Japan, so with a new job on the horizon and a desire to shake the sense of stagnation he’d been feeling, he departed to revisit friendships and his life from his college days. 

During his year in Japan, Brian addressed and came to terms with the countless changes in life after college as people develop their adult lives and he was able to find a sense of closure on his time there. He started thinking about what he’d left in California and how his own preconceptions of his life there may have negatively distorted some of the things he was now reminiscing about. He wrote ‘Good To You’ and it reminded him of some Royce songs, so he sent it to Joey who recorded drum ideas on the track and sent it back to Brian, which sparked the notion that this could be a new project.

In March of 2019, Brian moved back to the United States, so after a long year, Ed and Joe no longer had to look to their pets for consolation. The boys picked Brian up from LAX, stopped for lunch at Chipotle, and got right to work, starting fresh as Joy Weather.

The guys spent the next few months rehearsing, writing parts, tracking, adjusting, recording more parts, adjusting again, deleting, and adjusting some more until their self-titled debut album was finished. All 10 songs were written by Brian and produced and recorded by the band. The album was mixed by Yianni AP, mastered by Alvaro Morello, and was independently released in January, 2020.

Since then, the Joy Boys have been cranking out songs faster than Food Network can cook up new seasons of Beat Bobby Flay. Anyway, thanks for reading this far - you must be a real fan! I guess we’ll reward you with a fun fact now. Did you know that Ed has never been (and still refuses to go) to Olive Garden?! Enjoy your stay at joyweather.com and remember: when you’re here, you’re family.

♥ JW