Q&A: Susannah Joffe Discusses Virality’s Glamorization, Loving Popular Media & Staying Authentic Within Her Changing Sound
AUSTIN, TEXAS NATIVE AND NEW YORK–BASED — Susannah Joffe harkens a sound rooted in country blues with a twinge of indie-pop. A product of her environment, Joffe began writing songs when she was 14 years old. Her dad had introduced her to songwriting, and the two co-wrote songs for years. Her early music complements a singer-songwriter style infused with an indie-rock, hometown vibe. Joffe began gigging at 16 years old, and attributes live performances as her favorite part of making music.
The singer-songwriter hadn’t considered making music a career until 2019, right before the pandemic. When she began realizing what music meant for her, she started to release her own songs, garnering attention with singles “Backseat” and “Nobody Wants Me Tonight.”
Known for having vulnerability within her lyrics and expressive tone, Joffe gained traction on TikTok last year, as her videos went viral. She’s even garnered the attention from none other than pop icon Troye Sivan. Today, Joffe is slowly shifting her sound to a grittier one.
Luna had the pleasure of speaking with Joffe about her upcoming music, how virality is often glamorized, why it’s cool to love popular media, and how she has slowly started coming into her own sound. Read the interview below.
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LUNA: As summer begins to fade away, what has been the highlight of your summer?
JOFFE: I moved to New York a year ago and I didn’t like it for a long time. I feel like this summer I started finding out what my relationship with New York was and began learning to love it. I’ve grown to appreciate it.
Before this summer, I felt like I wasn't happy here, and now I feel attached to the city. I would say my second highlight is doing a writing session in Nashville. It was in a cabin an hour outside of the city — it was on a farm, and it was raining, and it was just so beautiful. I talk about it all the time because it was so peaceful. I loved it.
LUNA: That's so awesome. Have you always wanted to be a singer-songwriter?
JOFFE: No, I went to school for film [at] Georgia Tech, for their film production program. I wanted to do film since I was young since I was about 11 years old. I was like, “This is what I want to do. This is what my passion is.”
I don't know if it's a good idea to go to school for the art that you are passionate about because I think a lot of time it can take that out of you, you know what I mean? If you're constantly having homework and tests and projects for this type of art that you love, it takes the creativity and passion out of it.
I had never really written songs for myself. Then during COVID, I started writing a lot, and it was such a helpful tool for me. I felt such a release, and it brought me more fulfillment than the film did at the time. Since then, I've been like, “This is what I want to do with my life, and this is what I am going to do with my life.” I don't see any other option.
LUNA: I agree with what you said about getting the creativity sucked out of you when going to school for the certain art you'd want to do. Is there a favorite movie that you have?
JOFFE: I don't know. I've never been someone to have one movie that I'm a diehard fan of. There are movies that I love. I'm also not the type of person who I'm like, if someone asks this question, I'm going to name some niche Russian … silent show.
I like mainstream stuff, and the reason some things are widely popular is because they are fucking good. I think one of my favorite films is Everything Everywhere All At Once — I think it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. There’s Parasite — that movie is incredible. Black Swan is amazing. Call Me By Your Name is amazing. They're popular for a reason.
LUNA: I agree with that, too. I think people just like to be haters and they're just like, “Oh, everyone likes this.” There's a reason, and it should be celebrated. There's no problem with that.
JOFFE: I know. My biggest pet peeve is people trying to be niche for fucking attention. It's like, why are we lying and saying that these films aren't fucking good?
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LUNA: Exactly. It’s so silly, man. Pivoting the conversation back to music, I was wondering: What does being a queer artist in the music industry mean for you?
JOFFE: I think the way I viewed how my queerness surrounded my music has changed a lot in the last few years. I think when I first started making music, I was like, “This is what I want to be known for; I want to be the next King Princess,” blah blah blah. I kind of pivoted and realized I don't want my entire career, my entire identity and all of my art, to be centered [around] the fact that I'm queer.
But more so, I want that part of my identity to inform the way that I present myself and the way my music sounds and whatnot. I've started incorporating it differently. I draw a lot of inspiration from drag culture and club kid culture for how I present myself. That’s how my queerness has manifested in my art as of right now. Instead of it being like, “I'm going to sing songs about girls.”
When I first started making music, I had just come out as bi. I was also just getting broken up with the first girl I'd ever been with, so I was like, “Oh my god.” It felt like that was like my whole life or my whole world at that point. It impacts who I am and how I function as a person in the world. It impacts how I write my songs, the music that I listen to, the shows that I go to in New York, and the people I hang out with in New York that inspire me.
LUNA: Awesome, super well said. I first got introduced to your music because of TikTok, where you were promoting “My Dog Died.” I found the hook to be so insanely catchy — I couldn't get it out of my head. I wanted to ask what you thought about TikTok as a means to help artists promote their music. What do you think the pros and cons are?
JOFFE: I think it's a great way of drawing inspiration. I think it's a great way of connecting with other artists and reaching more people than I think you ever could before TikTok. I think it has so much potential for helping artists expand their audience. But I think, at the same time, from an artist's perspective, it's exhausting.
Everyone I've spoken to has echoed this, but …TikTok will keep you in good graces for a while then be done with you for a while, and then bring you back. You’re dealing with those waves, and it’s hard. When I was teasing “Your Mother's Name” and “My Dog Died,” I was getting way more views and engagement than I ever had.
Since then, that's come back down. It mentally affects me because I'm like, “Oh, well, I still have so much more music I want to promote that I want people to hear.” I feel very self-reliant on TikTok for that. I think once you've been using it long enough, you know that engagement happens in ebbs and flows and you just have to wait it out.
[It’s a] double-edged sword. I think all social media is a double-edged sword. I wish the industry wasn't so reliant on TikTok for artist discovery. I think virality is glamorized more than it should be, because at the end of the day, it's not building a long-term fanbase, and people just forget about shit so quickly. But obviously, it's very shiny and nice-looking. It’s hard to not be chasing after that all the time.
LUNA: Yeah. That was very well said. Touching upon the topic of feeling exhausted from TikTok, with the rise in social media, it seems upcoming artists have to do everything to solidify themselves in the industry. Whether it's creating social media, content promotion, photoshoots, producing, or mixing — the list can go on forever. Do you have any thoughts about those kinds of expectations put on upcoming artists?
JOFFE: Yeah, I think it's tough. I'm someone who likes to have control over every part of the process, and I enjoy the grind. So it is exhausting, it is frustrating, but I think it makes it more fulfilling when good things happen because it's coming from your work.
It can also be unfair. If you don't know how to use social media well… It's cutting, so many people out of the game just for that. If you're not well-versed with production and whatnot… So many people are self-producing, and if you're not self-producing, production costs so much money.
It's becoming harder and harder for artists to make a living — especially with all of these kinds of new roles that they have to take on. It's tough to try and do all of that while having a second job or life. When you're doing all of those things at once, it puts all the pressure on you. As I said earlier, it can be nice when you’re in control of everything, but it also leaves a lot of room for blame if things aren't going how you want them to. I think, as an artist, you have to make peace with it because it doesn't seem like it's changing anytime soon.
LUNA: Yeah, agreed. I've read that Immunity by Clairo was a formative album for you. Do you have a favorite song on the album?
JOFFE: I think “Alewife” was the first song I heard. “Alewife” was the song that inspired me to try to write a song for the first time. [It’s] about suicide and mental health, and I had a friend who had been struggling with depression and suicide and had not been well for years. It felt like no one else was revolved or trying to help. I was young, and that was an extremely painful experience — one that I was in therapy for and had a hard time coping with. When I heard that song, I was so moved by it and decided to write a song about my own experience.
It was so helpful yet emotional for me … and intense. It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for “Alewife.”
LUNA: Who is your favorite artist of all time? If you can't pinpoint someone, who are you listening to a lot right now?
JOFFE: I don't have a singular favorite artist of all time, but I would say there have been artists who have been formative in shaping who I am and the kind of music I make. Growing up, it was Adele and 19. I was nine or 10 when it came out … I don't know. But 19 was massively important to me as a kid. It inspired me so much. I wasn't making music as a 10-year-old, but I just loved that album. I loved Adele so much and I feel like it started to shift my taste in a different direction. I will always love her so much, and I respect her so much.
I love Holly Humberstone. I started listening to “Deep End” when it came out during COVID, and I adore the way she approaches pop. I think her production is cool. Clairo, of course — favorite music ever.
I’m a really big fan of Jay Som — I think she’s amazing. I went through an intense Momma phase, and I'm really into Charli XCX right now.
LUNA: Good choices! Going back to “My Dog Died,” I think my favorite lyric you’ve written is “Jesus Christ, someone holds me / is it a burden to know me?” It holds so much emotion. I think it’s a huge testament to the human condition of always feeling like a burden to other people. It just hit me hard. I was wondering if you had any lyrics you've written that are your favorite.
JOFFE: I like that a lot. This is a bit of a sidebar, but I think it’s so interesting. I haven't thought about the part you said where it's part of the human condition — feeling like you're a burden to other people. I wonder if that sentiment exists outside of the US and in countries and communities that are more focused on the community. Unlike the US, where it's focused on [the] individual and less emphasis on community.
That was the sidebar, but favorite lyrics I've ever written… I have a song that's coming up later on the EP. One of my favorites, I think, is, “I was a coward, but first I was a kid / lost you like a sore loser with my tail between my legs.” Yeah, I like that lyric a lot. That’s from “Deer in Headlights.” I wrote it from the perspective of roadkill, and [about] how women are treated alongside the hypocrisy of American nationalism. The intersection of that with Christianity and how it's so fucking hypocritical. I like the lyrics for that one a lot.
LUNA: That’s incredible, and that makes me so excited for your upcoming EP — congrats! What kind of sound can your audience expect?
JOFFE: I think it's a lot less pop-y than the stuff I put out in the past. I'm still figuring out what I want my sound to be and what kind of comes most naturally to me.
I'm leaning into a more indie sound and slower-paced stuff, which is scary because there's always this fear that people are going to get bored. But I'm proud of the music I have coming up, so I hope people like it.
