Austin based multi-instrumentalist Josh Stirm is the architect of The Juniper Berries and has formed the tracks for his upcoming album, Death and Taxes, by distilling grief and dissonance into melancholic yet cathartic tunes that simultaneously breaks your heart and mends you with each note. Stirm had his Grandfather and brother pass away in 2020 and that experience has defined this stage in his life and his music, filling it with harrowing pain and world tilting revelations.
The poignant and masterfully-paced new single “Online” is a thrilling taste of his upcoming album that is due out this April. Stirm weaves textures and tones with his delicately harmonized vocals with an ingenious skill. He places tantalizing spaces between words and notes that creates a irresistible pacing that will enrapture you. Stirm has the capacity to illuminate dark venerable corners of human experience, as he sings “I found my baby online, next to the checkout sign/she was living in the margin, between porn sites/there was no one around, so I clicked the banner ad/what she did to my head, oh what she did to my head;” he has his narrator admit to turning to online porn when unable to be present to connect with his partner. The song is a gorgeous melodic melancholic catharsis that brings wry joy through resonant lyrics. “Online” has song craft that deserves repeat listens, loop it and let is pour into you. Fans of The Antlers, Daniel Johnston and Andy Shauf will finds lots to love in The Juniper Berries.
Listen to the new single “Online” from The Juniper Berries on Spotify, Youtube, and Apple Music. Find more from The Juniper Berries on their Linktree.