Né à Baltimore, Josiah Wise aka serpentwithfeet faisait partie du label Tri-Angle Records avec (Rabit, Katie Gately ou encore Lotic). Il est l’auteur d’un premier EP remarqué Blisters sorti en 2016 et produit par The Haxan Cloak. Son premier Premier Soil, puis le suivant Deacon sortent sur le label Secretly Canadian.
Collaboration avec Björk
- Björk l’a conseillé lors de la journée d’enregistrement du titre Penance en studio.
- Duo sur une version alternative de Blissing me interprétée aussi sur scène pour le spectacle Cornucopia
- Lors des dj set, Björk joue souvent le titre four ethers, notamment dans son mix pour Mix Mag.
- Présent en duo sur Fossora
Björk à propos de serpentwithfeet
“I was introduced to him by Leila Arab, my oldest friend and collaborator in England. We hung out a lot in Brooklyn and he took me to a gospel church, and stood in the audience with me. I was gonna be really cool and standoffish, being the agnostic person I am when it comes to religion, but in three minutes I was singing along with him to songs I’d never heard before at the top of my lungs. He’s so talented and so warm and flowing, there’s no stifled or stagnant energy in him. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do in the future.”
The Guardian Guide
i am soooo thrilled that serpentwithfeet was up for making a new version of blissing me ! he is so incredibly generous on it , his voice and words overflowingly beautiful ! absolutely humbly honoured !!!
björk - facebook
“He is, vocally, one of the most emotionally generous singers,” Björk says over email. She says she admires the “balanced idiosyncratic pagan spiritual angle” to his work — an aesthetic she describes as “optimistic goth.” The two first met through Carolan, and Wise had the chance to sing in front of her, one on one, before the EP’s official release. “His lyrics are incredibly personal,” Björk adds. “I just find [his music] so moist and vibrant to listen to.”
the fader
serpentwithfeet à propos de Björk
« Your work has been a relentless compass for me through the years. Your words have given so many of us the real estate to be piercingly honest. ‘Unravel’, ‘Hyperballad’ and ‘Lionsong‘ are just a few Bjork monuments in my life. »
Dazed & confused
“I literally fell off my bed when she asked”
the fader
i’ve loved Björk since i was a taciturn
11-yr old in Baltimore. i remember making tacky denim costumes with hot glue & dancing to “Hidden Place”.
20 years later Björk has asked me to join her for her month-long residency at The Shed & im more than thrilled !
How did you get started working with Björk ?
"She released the album Utopia, which had “Blissing Me” on it, and asked me to do a remix. Obviously, I was honoured. It’s my favourite song from the album. I wanted this song to feel like our conversations. So often we’ve talked together about boys, and we drink coffee, or go out for lunch together. I wanted the remix to feel as easy as our friendship has been.”
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How did Björk approach you for Cornucopia ?
“She told me she was going to be doing that show at The Shed a year before it happened. She asked me if I’d be open to it, and I’m like, ‘Whatever it is, just count me in, I will not be busy’. It came around, and she suggested doing “Blissing Me”. I was honoured, flattered, and terrified, because it’s someone I’ve been such an admirer of since I was a child. To not only be able to perform it at this new venue for nine nights, I couldn’t really wrap my mind around.”
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Do you have any funny anecdotes ?
“We just had a lot of fun. We both laughed and giggled doing these songs. That to me, was the funny thing. It wasn’t a fake performance, but an extension of our friendship. It was a lot of fun to speak about boys to a room of 1,200 people every night.”
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Can you describe your experience on Cornucopia ?
“serpentwithfeet : It was electric. Being backstage, and doing my shimmy-shake before I go on to get ready was always electric ; seeing her start the show and listening to people scream when she does their favourite songs. I particularly love “Hidden Place”, that was a song that really struck me as a kid, so to hear this new arrangement for choir at the show, I was just floored”
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What’s Björk like to work with ?
“She’s really great at giving space for people to be the best version of themselves. I think an artist of her size, an artist who has done such legendary work as she has, could flex a certain way, and could ask their collaborators to be less dynamic, or to follow this specific rubric. She never made me feel that way, there was no prescribed path for me, she gave me lots of room to do what I wanted to do. It’s really humbling, and terrifying.Again, this is somebody who I’ve admired, giving me space. It really set a mark for me that at that level, you don’t have to be rude and you don’t have to be territorial, or paranoid. She could’ve been like, ‘Who’s this new guy performing at my event ? I need to know exactly what he’s doing.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m sticking by your side while I’m doing this song’. But she gave me room and options. It was so generous of her. This experience is embossed in my memory forever.”
Dazed - Novembre 2019
