{"id":29869,"date":"2014-05-19T10:33:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T10:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=29869"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:27:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:27:29","slug":"profile-joseph-coward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile:  Joseph Coward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With lyrics about cults, torture and dark overloads to his name, songwriter and label-owner Joseph Coward is out to puzzle<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-29871\" alt=\"Joseph Coward 2\" src=\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p ><em>Blue and grey shirt by Umit Benan<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With lyrics about strange men in his bedroom, allusions to getting head off a fella and a song called <i>Rentboy<\/i>, it\u2019s safe to say singer-songwriter Joseph Coward\u2019s sexuality is up for grabs. The 22-year-old Brentwood boy is working through his issues on debut album <i>The World Famous Joseph Coward<\/i>, a title which is an clear-cut joke that certain people didn\u2019t get (\u201csome people think I\u2019m taking myself too seriously. I also thought, \u2018What\u2019s the most ridiculous thing I can call it to stop people calling their albums <i>Echoes<\/i> and <i>Tremors<\/i> and <i>Visions<\/i> and all that fucking bullshit?\u2019\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>When he sings \u201cI can hear him breathing, he\u2019s on top of me. My God, my Saviour, has abandoned me\u201d on new single <i>Idle Boy<\/i>, it\u2019s not a glib religious reference. Coward was brought up in \u201can Evangelical cult called New Frontiers International\u201d and only formally stopped calling himself Christian when he was 18 or 19. Still now, his upbringing has a grip on him. \u201cYou know footage of American footage of super churches with people speaking in tongues and shouting and jumping up and down?\u201d he asks. \u201cWell it\u2019s basically that. I used to get sent to Jesus camps and go to seminars on the evils of masturbation. So yeah, it was pretty intense. It took me a long time to get out of it. It was tough and it\u2019s still something that I live with today, but I\u2019m stronger for having lived it and I\u2019m more informed and hugely interested in religion as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see the Morrissey influence on this young Essex boy, but he\u2019s also cited Elton John, The Smashing Pumpkins and Jesus &amp; The Mary Chain as favourites. What strikes you about Coward\u2019s own music is the startling honesty of the lyrics and the clear way they are spoken\/sung. Live too, he\u2019s determined not to become a performer &#8211; something he clearly sees as fake and insincere \u2013 and wants each of his shows to be raw, real\u2026confessional: \u201cI just come on stage and play the songs honestly. I want to write in such a way that whenever I go up on stage, the songs retain their original feeling for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Which is the reason why Coward has set up his own label, Stiffy Byng: to make sure he can keep his music and lyrical content as true to himself as possible. \u201cLabels will try and push and pull you in directions they want, so it\u2019s best to represent yourself. It\u2019s a shame when you see artists being manipulated by big companies for their own ends. Lots of young artists are left by the wayside after they\u2019ve been used up.\u201d Through the independence that comes with his own label, Coward was able to make the record that he wanted. \u201cIt\u2019s about me communicating the ideas that I have through stories from my life. I think there\u2019s a kinship in finding out that people feel the same things as you. It\u2019s about feeling strange and being sad, but overcoming that and accepting yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p ><a href=\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-29870\" alt=\"Joseph Coward 1\" src=\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-1.jpg\" \/><\/a>\u00a0<em>Black mohair jumper and black denim jeans both by Kenzo<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Words: Stuart Brumfit<\/p>\n<p>Photographer: Liam Warwick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With lyrics about cults, torture and dark overloads to his name, songwriter and label-owner Joseph Coward is out to puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9419,9409],"tags":[50,5517,5518],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Profile: Joseph Coward.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Profile: Joseph Coward.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wonderland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WonderlandMagazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"661\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"866\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wonderland Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wonderlandmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wonderlandmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wonderland Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Wonderland Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6dc3b150149b9a6c43bd0d6277c3c000\"},\"headline\":\"Profile: Joseph Coward\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Interviews\",\"Joseph Coward\",\"Stiffy Byng Label\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Music\",\"Profiles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\",\"name\":\"Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Profile: Joseph Coward.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg\",\"width\":661,\"height\":866},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Profile: Joseph Coward\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/\",\"name\":\"Wonderland Magazine\",\"description\":\"Wonderland is an international, independently published magazine offering a unique perspective on the best new and established talent across all popular culture: fashion, film, music and art.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Wonderland Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-01-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-01-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":455,\"caption\":\"Wonderland Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WonderlandMagazine\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wonderlandmag\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wonderland\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6dc3b150149b9a6c43bd0d6277c3c000\",\"name\":\"Wonderland Staff\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/author\/wonderland\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland","description":"Profile: Joseph Coward.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland","og_description":"Profile: Joseph Coward.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/","og_site_name":"Wonderland","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WonderlandMagazine\/","article_published_time":"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":661,"height":866,"url":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Wonderland Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@wonderlandmag","twitter_site":"@wonderlandmag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wonderland Staff","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/"},"author":{"name":"Wonderland Staff","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6dc3b150149b9a6c43bd0d6277c3c000"},"headline":"Profile: Joseph Coward","datePublished":"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/"},"wordCount":573,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg","keywords":["Interviews","Joseph Coward","Stiffy Byng Label"],"articleSection":["Music","Profiles"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/","name":"Profile: Joseph Coward | Wonderland","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-19T10:33:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-22T14:27:29+00:00","description":"Profile: Joseph Coward.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Joseph-Coward-2.jpg","width":661,"height":866},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/05\/19\/profile-joseph-coward\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Profile: Joseph Coward"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/","name":"Wonderland Magazine","description":"Wonderland is an international, independently published magazine offering a unique perspective on the best new and established talent across all popular culture: fashion, film, music and art.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#organization","name":"Wonderland Magazine","url":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-01-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-01-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":455,"caption":"Wonderland Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WonderlandMagazine\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/wonderlandmag","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wonderland\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6dc3b150149b9a6c43bd0d6277c3c000","name":"Wonderland Staff","url":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/author\/wonderland\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}