Formed in April 2020, The Joyful Sadness is a new wave/post punk/synth based project hailing from Preston, UK.

They create powerful, emotionally cathartic music in order to heal trauma from the past in order to move on to the future.  They take influences from bands such as The Cure, Killing Joke, Joy Division, New Order, Siouxie and the Banshees, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Molchat Doma, David Bowie and Bauhaus.

The Joyful Sadness was created out of a subconscious desire to deal with repressed memories. The Pen would hit the paper and without thought words would flow without the need to think. One aim for this project is to help people come to terms with their anger, sadness, depression and anxiety, whilst being able to enjoy it and dance along in the process. The project aims to bring strength in numbers, pulling together a community of likeminded individuals to help each other with their demons.

Their debut single Memories of You was released on 28 April 2020 and was inspired by a personal situation that has left lingering painful memories and caused anxiety, depression and obsessive thoughts caused by another person. The song is aimed at this other person, hoping that they feel the same pain and if it still bothers them about what they did, wishing they could see what they caused and how its affected me even after many years.

Memories of You begins with some clunky synth notes before the rest of the rhythm kicks in, it’s got a fantastic tempo, which makes you sit up and take notice of the melody of the track. There is a slowdown of the melody as the vocals explain the hurt caused before the track picks up again to a climatic finish with only the rhythm playing out in the final seconds.

Lyrically it hits the message that the song is trying to deliver straight from the opening lines “wish you could see what’s inside of my head, the things that I long for the things that I dread, and all that’s left of the boy you abused, ……. madness created by you” to the powerful “I should be over the things that were said, they’re etched on my brain until the day I am dead” clearly describing the mental health impact an abusive relationship can leave a person to deal with.

For me Memories of You delivers, it deals with a hard topic but the strength of the music allows you to feel like you can still dance even when times are desperate.

It’s a great piece of synth pop and I for one can’t wait to hear more from the project that is The Joyful Sadness.

Give Memories of You a stream now:

https://open.spotify.com/track/10zewvs5W6vTDJOFJuIRRB?si=JpInITF6RSaXk1Ga5jrctA

The Joyful Sadness can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/thejoyfulsadness/

https://instagram.com/thejoyfulsadness?igshid=cz5qkdd8tlf4

https://twitter.com/thejoyfulsad

The official video for Memories of You, shot during lockdown can be viewed below: