Featured Talent
The LTB Roster is full of talent from various sectors of the festival and live entertainment industries.
Each month we feature some of their extraordinary work for you to enjoy!
Sometimes the feature takes the form of an online Picture Gallery, at other times it may be access to a Free Playlist and other times it may be a Video Performance or audio podcast interview where we sit down and pick the brain of one of your favorites.
This month, we’ve chosen to feature Joe Roller aka Joe Roessler, who opens up about his background and the people and things in his life that have influenced his music creation.
Don’t feel intimidated if it is something you have always wanted to try! Are you waiting for a sign to start? Well, this is it!
Joe Roller Blog – April 2020
Meet Joe Roller, an EDM artist born and raised in Boulder, who started producing EDM music 11 years ago on a dare made by his friend. Joe was classically trained from a young age, but later fell in love with EDM and the energy it brings into the atmosphere. He related EDM movement to the jazz movement, noting how, “it’s alive, you hear it at parties, you hear it at clubs, and there are no chairs in the club…everyone’s dancing.”
Joe also enjoys producing EDM music because of the technology we have access to today, and says, “When you think about how far home computers came, from the 80’s and 90’s, and how powerful all this software is, I think it’s incredible.” The technology of today gives artists more opportunities to be different and make the sounds of the music exactly how they want them to be.
The music of Joe Roller has been inspired by things such as nature, books, and the city of Boulder. When Joe is on a hike, he listens to his surroundings. He thinks about the rhythm of the water flowing, or the sees the light passing through the shadows of the trees while in nature. He uses the scenery of the hike, and tries to translate that into a sound. This same concept applies to the inspiration he takes from literature. “A lot of times I’ll just take my favorite passage from a book, and I’ll try to imagine it as a piece of music. I think music is more of a narrative art form, and you can use it to communicate stories.” Much of Joe Roller’s music is created to paint an image in the head of audience, and that is the narrative aspect of music that he taps in to.
When I was in high school I got to benefit very directly from the fact that Boulder is a very wealthy town with a huge intellectual presence from the college…I don’t think I would be as far along as I am now, if I didn’t have that kind of opportunity.
Interview with Kyle Koontz – July 2021
The city of Boulder has also been a strong influence in the life of Joe Roller and his music. Having access to the University of Colorado, Boulder, Joe was able to take music lessons from professors and college students, giving him several mentors for his music career.
Although Joe Roller appreciates the opportunity Boulder has given him, he is also aware of the dark side of the city, which has impacted his music. Drugs moving in and out of the college town has led to many addictions or overdose cases. Joe Roller expresses his emotions from witnessing these events through his music, as he describes his music to have a darkness to it. The track “IM3,” highlights the darkness (i.e., inner emotional) of Joe Roller’s music, while also featuring his classical training by opening with a piano solo.
Moving forward, Joe Roller has aspirations to perform all over the world. One of his dreams is to perform at Acropolis of Athens. But to simplify it, Joe loves to perform wherever people are listening, as he said, “if there are people there listening, I’m going to have fun.” This is a great mindset for any musician to carry, so they can enjoy performing no matter what the circumstances are, and bring joy to the people they are performing for.
Message from the Artist:
Hey all! It’s Joe Roller.
Not much more to say but thanks for listening to my music and I hope you will become a fan of it.
I love rolling through the production of a new track on most days and I hope you will roll through what I’ve produced when you are feeling down, crazy, fun or just like hanging around the house dancing!
Well anyways, here’s the newest track I’ve produced. Just released today on the same day as this feature. It’s named Thalys after a beautiful train, a train that strikes through the tender European bosom from Amsterdam to Paris at the speed of a small jet.
Jets dance with the winds and fly higher than birds, swimming through the air as a great fish plunges in the depths of the ocean. Funny how the extremes of our environment seem evermore mysterious. The higher spacecraft fly, the less we know. We explore space, letting the hand of scientific achievement gently graze, yet never lift, the great scintillating cosmic veil that blinds us from truly knowing the celestial bodies that fondly gaze down. Hopefully with the same warm, loving gaze a mother gives her son, yet we may have some evidence to the contrary. The deeper we swim, the more alien the creatures seem; teeth gnashing the size of small boats and lightbulbs protruding from the skulls and foreheads of the rather depraved bodies we think of as fish—they greet us as we venture deep within the oceans. At what point is a fish more of a shallow label, a lame attempt at understanding what truly lies at the mysterious depths of the planet?
Our dashing Thalys does not imitate a fish, bird, or deep-water chimerae. No, Thalys herself imitates lightning. She bolts throughout the European bosom guided by the electrical current birthed through a Promethean fire in the same patterns modeled after lightning. The same pulses that power the mighty train are channeled into software and imitated through this new track.
Enjoy!
Just #RollWithTheRoller ya’ll!
Joe Roller
P.S. If you are a music producer and would like to collaborate, please reach out!
And you must like cats!
This feature was produced by Kyle Koontz.
Check out the previous feature on Visual Artist Garbajio!