Building a Creative Partnership (and Friendship) That Survives 14 Time Zones w/ Josaleigh Pollett | The J-Card Podcast

At its core, Josaleigh Pollett’s upcoming album If I Let It Quiet is all about distance.A process that largely revolved around immediacy and spending hours together ruminating over tunes was flipped on its head when Josaleigh’s producer, co-writer, and best friend Jordan Watko moved to Japan. They had to figure out what their creative partnership looked like with 8,000 miles and 14 time zones between them. The answer became a whole album, vast but intimate, built inside a DIY PVC-and-moving-blanket vocal booth, across late-night Ableton sessions, with Paul Simon on repeat at 2am.In our convo, Joseleigh and I went deep on the making of If I Let It Quiet (out July 24th on Audio Antihero), the thriving Salt Lake City DIY scene, the tangled feelings around social media and self-promotion as an indie artist, and Josaleigh’s mixtape — songs by Sparklehorse, Laura Stevenson, Flock of Dimes, Half Waif, and Paul Simon that shaped the record. Enjoy!More on IG:@brosaleigh https://www.instagram.com/brosaleighThe J-Card is presented by Rue Defense Tape Club, a quarterly, mail-order cassette compilation and DIY audio project. Each episode is part music discovery, part oral history, part hangout show. We ask artists, musicians, filmmakers, and other music-minded folks to build us their own personal mixtape and talk about the moments and memories that inspired it.New episodes drop here and wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for watching, and if you liked this one, share it with a friend who also might.Created by Alexei ShishkinAssociate Producer: Alivia StonierBooking: Jamie Halliday📬 Subscribe:Subscribe now📲 Follow us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/ruedefense TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@tapeclub Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tapeclub.substack.com X: https://x.com/ruedefense🤝 Support / Sponsorship: https://forms.gle/8L4o4yLvX5fQnpAXA 🎶 Submit Music: https://forms.gle/Mc7En6K8Tb2BbgxJA 📩 Contact: [email protected]⏱️ Chapters:00:00 - Intro to Josaleigh Pollett00:55 - If I Let It Quiet06:42 - Making Music at a Distance12:55 - Bringing in Andrew Goldring19:00 - The Salt Lake City Scene28:27 - Social Media & The Witness32:57 - The Blade Runner Question35:35 - The Mixtape36:24 - “Piano Fire” by Sparklehorse40:05 - “Lay Back Arms Out” by Laura Stevenson43:14 - “Pure Love” by Flock of Dimes47:36 - “Warm Dark” by lollzing52:01 - “Figurine” by Half Waif54:28 - “Peace Like a River” by Paul Simon1:00:48 - Honorable Mentions1:02:31 - Game: Play, Pause, Stop1:10:00 - Plugs & Outro This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tapeclub.substack.com/subscribe