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Word To The Mother EP

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Cool Customer - Word To The Mother

Joshua grew up in a small New England town during the 1980s, heavily influenced by the vibrant jam band scene that swept across the region, as well as the raw intensity of the hardcore metal club circuit of the early ’90s. This unique blend of musical subcultures inspired him to craft an audio-visual aesthetic of his own by the mid-’90s, collaborating with a tight-knit group of artists and DJs.

In 1998, Joshua moved to Chicago, and by 2004, he had relocated to Los Angeles, where he continues to produce, edit, engineer, and design across multiple media disciplines including audio, video, gameplay, and graphic design. His love for music runs deep—dating back to 1979 when he acquired his first vinyl record: the infamous KISS Dynasty, a pivotal influence that helped define his identity as both an artist and a human being.

In the wake of Warholian excess, amid the sampling and reshaping of pop culture through immersive soundscapes and technotopian visions, Joshua—under the name SOTRAB—emerged as an image-sound manipulator. Working with film, digital video, turntables, samplers, and live media, his creations blur boundaries. His films, live audio-visual performances, and installations have been featured in underground venues, galleries, and living rooms around the world. He regularly performs across the U.S. and internationally. Though originally from Massachusetts, he now lives and works in Los Angeles.

The origins of visual music can be traced to the 1890s, when George Thomas projected photographic slides alongside the song The Little Lost Child. While crude, this marked the birth of visual music. Over time, however, the medium became co-opted by commercial forces, evolving into the modern music video—ultimately synonymous with MTV and mass-market commodification.

My work seeks the lost chapters and forgotten epilogue of visual music. I reject the notion that music's visual counterpart must serve industry metrics. Instead, I pursue a form that exists independently—a visceral, intuitive embodiment of sound through image. Drawing on the legacy of Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Nauman, and Vito Acconci, I explore their creeds within a video techno-wonderland.

Each of my films, performances, and online transmissions probes the assumptions that reduce visual music to mere commercial artifact. By manipulating pop iconography and repurposing tools of the music video industry, I confront the viewer's biases—forcing a reconsideration of what visual music can be. In a gallery or performance space, can an audience sever the neural tether to television? Can they resist reducing my work to just another music video?

I recreate what could be sold as a slick music video, yet demand it be experienced as personal expression and experimental art. The blurred lines between context and interpretation rise to the surface: can visual music be separated from its commercial shell? Or will every video artist forever inherit MTV’s shadow?

Each of my works is a self-contained experiment—part homage, part rebellion—advancing the legacy and evolution of visual music.

the local chloe here: I love music. peruse my likes and playlists for some of the best tunes I've found 😊🔥💃

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https://linktr.ee/coolcustomer