JOSÉE

Myspace Contact TablesJosée was born in Den Haag, Holland, her mother German and her father born in Curacao, an island in the Dutch East Indies. After living in Germany until the age of 7, Josée and her family moved to England. She initially wanted to be an artist like her father. However, while attending art college, she realised that in composing songs she could express herself more easily than through visual means. Leaving home aged 18 she was soon singing in bands, and writing and recording. During this time she did a Music Technology course and learned how to create songs using a computer, keyboard, sound module and a little imagination! In 1996 she relocated to Bristol and was singer in groups like CCQ, Statik Sound System and The Eff word.Due to bands like Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Smith and Mighty, Alpha and Goldfrapp,a lot of acts (including those Josée was involved in) were to a greater or lesser part influenced by the ‘Bristol Sound’ or as it was better known ‘Trip Hop’.It was also at this time that she started taking an interest in Jazz.The catalyst being her singing teacher at the time,a Jazz singer. When Hefner a.k.a producer Lee Jones needed a singer for his first album, Josée knew this was something for her. Lee’s unique feel for a groove and the ability to create mood fitted perfectly with Josées voice, as heard on the album Residue (Inertia 2000). After getting together with Chris Johnson on drums and Seth Benet on bass, Hefner played live across the U.K and mainland Europe. Highlights being a live performance on DJ Giles Petersons’ BBC Radio 1 show ‘Worldwide’ and the North Sea Jazz Festival in her birthtown Den Haag. After moving to Stuttgart, Germany in 2002, Josée once again concentrated on writing solo material and worked with various artists and acts including Dub in a Nutshell,Good Men Gone Bad,Jeff Cascaro,Orbit Experience and Funkbrüder.In 2004 the second collaboration between Jones and Hurlock was released, this time under Josées name- Lost Souls Dancing (Inertia). Since living in the city, she’s become involved in the regions Jazz scene and in a short space of time played with a varied spectrum of musicians all around Germany. Together with pianist Gee Hye Lee she formed the aptly named Jazz project ‘Gee & Josée’. As duo and often with rhythm section backup, the two have being playing together succesfully ever since meeting winter in 2004. On the rockier side of things, Nexworld formed in 2006 after Knut Knutson,Flo Dauner,Josée Hurlock and Uwe Metzler decided that the time was right for something refreshing in a scene full of male-fronted guitar bands.In the tradition of Britains and Americas finest guitar bands:it’s all about energy and emotional authenticity.Check them out in the 'link' photo below. Last but not least is Josée's solo project Meisterbest.You can check out a few demo tracks here. On her favourite pastime,programming and laying down some vocals: ‘‘I've just got to write songs but I'm rubbish at guitar... put me in front of a computer however and i'll still be there 6 hours later obsessing about the outro and loving it!'' Earlier this year also saw the release of album ‘All these Things’ by Kuniyuki Takahashi.Josée features on tracks ‘You Get me’ and ‘All these things’.Check it out -it’s available now on Mule Musiq! (www.mulemusiq.com)