Introducing: JoeJas

Meet JoeJas — the genre-bending, boundary-smashing, chaos-embracing creative powerhouse you need on your radar. A rapper, producer (under the brilliantly absurd alias HairyMuffinMan), filmmaker, visual artist, and full-time visionary, JoeJas isn’t just building a discography — he’s building a world.

Since launching his DIY empire Fat Llama back in 2014, he’s been championing the weird, the wonderful, and the unapologetically different. Whether it’s his kaleidoscopic beats, off-kilter flows, or mind-bending visuals, JoeJas delivers every idea at full throttle, unfiltered and unbothered by convention.

With projects like Gappy, Four Wing Island (shouted out by none other than Anderson .Paak), and his latest mind-melter Left Handed Bandit (featuring the Needle Drop-approved “WTF”), JoeJas has cemented himself as a fearless storyteller with a singular voice — or rather, voices.

We sat down with the Fat Llama frontman to talk alter-egos, outcasts, and making music that feels like a cartoon gone rogue. Buckle up — it’s about to get weird (in the best way).

Your albums have followed the journey of Gappy, and now with Left Handed Bandit, that character evolves again — what does the Bandit represent in your personal or creative life right now?

I feel like Gappy’s journey through the albums is a mirror of what I go through in mine, but a way of me breaking it down and putting it into a world that makes sense to me. The bandit represents my frustration of feeling like I’m doing so much but nothing is really moving in the way I want it to. So me becoming the bandit is me going rouge and figuring out new ways to get where I need to with my art and not let anything block my path.

From Neptunes-style beats to jazz interludes and blazing rock riffs — how do you decide what genre you're bending in each moment, or is it more instinctual chaos?

All instinctual! We exposed to so much music it feels weird for me not to incorporate all of it in to my music. I don’t really see hard lines between genre. I like Jazz, smooth melodies, R&B singers doing stacked harmony runs and switches to beautiful bridges. I like super complex bars that take you 5 listens to get the meanings, I also like simple straight forward silly bars. At the same time I also like sludgy metal guitars, sweaty moshpits, booming 808’s and people yelling their guts out haha. We are all more than one thing and I want my music to show that. 

You've produced, mixed, directed, designed, and basically built an entire creative universe — when you're in that whirlwind, how do you know when a project is done?

It’s a feeling. I’m not really an over thinker if I have an idea I trust myself 100% so I know where the goal is. I see everything like story lines and I hate when things don’t finish like show with a million seasons.

Fat Llama has become a platform for the weird and outcasted — how important is community to your work, and how do you keep the spirit of that alive as you grow?

Super important! I love when I see people who met at anything I do come together! Recently on the tour I’m on for the left handed bandit album. We were in Manchester and two people were exchanging information trying to go to more alternative type gigs and just hang out. I thought that moment was amazing, creating a space where that can happen. Or when people message me that yo what ever silly idea I had inspired them to go and do their thing. Another one is people who I gave there first show just flourishing on their own! Things like that keep me going I really just want people to enjoy themselves have fun and create cool stuff. I could be a 100000000000 years old and I’ll still stand by that.

WTF.’ got props from The Needle Drop and Anderson .Paak bigged you up for Four Wing Island — do those moments shift how you approach your next move, or is the Bandit on his own path regardless?

Bandit is on his on path no matter what! It’s super dope getting recognition from people you respect. At the same time I can’t let other people’s opinions dictate who I am and where I go. I think it’s super good to take on board what people say and try see if there’s things you can improve on. The way I see it is, the same brain that made all the stuff that they rocked with. Is the same brain I have now so I know it’s a good brain lol.