Biography

Introduction

White Williams is the music project of Cleveland-based musician Joe Williams.

Background

Williams was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Williams's music career began in 1999 as a fifteen-year-old drummer for Ohio area bands Oblongata (Cleveland), Machete (Cincinnati), Mr Mad Man (Cincinnati) and USA Crypt (Cincinnati). During this time in Cleveland, his band opened for the likes of Melt-Banana, Sightings, Pink and Brown, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice and The Rapture. William's later gravitated towards an electronic and pop sound after touring in 2002 and 2003 under the name So Red with Greg Gillis's Mashup project Girl Talk.

Williams spent the next two years recording Smoke while traveling between Cincinnati, New York, Cleveland, and San Francisco. During this time he also earned a Bachelor's of Science degree in Digital Design from the prestigious University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Utilizing guitars and synthesizers, Smoke was primarily recorded on William's laptop in various sublet apartments. Williams's record label describes the album's sound as "unapologetic pop that flirts with the vacuous nostalgia of the American dream; engaging ambiguous and schizophrenic instruments with impressionistic lyrics, driven by a casually heterosexual backbeat."

Smoke's cover art, featuring transsexual night life celebrity Sophia Lamar, was inspired by a story Williams heard about a girl from Cincinnati. The girl was upset and bawling over her relationship with her boyfriend. As she described in agonizing detail her predicament, she smoked a marijuana water pipe.