A North Jersey native who took up guitar in kindergarten and started writing songs after discovering artists like Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, Parella played in bands for most of his life but began working on his own material when the pandemic led to the demise of his longtime band.
After an early version of “Off My Mind” went viral, he landed a deal with Neon Gold/Atlantic Records and soon set to work on Garden State Vampire. Not only a nod to the nocturnal tendencies that fueled the album’s creation (and an allusion to Bruce Springsteen’s debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.), the album’s title echoes Joe P’s deep affection for both the beautiful and ugly facets of his beloved homeland—an element that extends to the album’s cover art (shot in one of the most sordid areas of the Garden State Parkway), as well as his decision to film all his music videos in New Jersey.
“One of the reasons I named the album Garden State Vampire is that I really thrive in being in a place that no one pays much attention to, instead of living in Nashville or L.A. or New York like a lot of people in the music business,” he says. “It’s kind of nice to feel like I’m alone on a different planet, where the only thing that matters is staying true to whatever these songs want to be.”
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