Stefanie Joyce is a genre-defying artist whose music lives at the intersection of country, indie rock, and western noir—think Patsy Cline meets David Lynch. She was born in Chicago and raised in Vancouver, Canada. But she now lives in Nashville permanently. However, how she got here is as unique as any artist I’ve featured.
Joyce started out aspiring to be a professional ballerina. She was bullied terribly in Middle School, and ballet was an escape from it. She stated, “Dance is similar to singing. It’s just doing something with your body to music instead of your mouth. And it’s funny because even in ballet, like I was drawn to the stories of the old ballets like Swan Lake and Giselle for all these ghost stories of these haunted women. I’ve always been really drawn to that archetype of female pain, which has transmuted into something beautiful through art.”
While she was studying ballet, she also began modeling, but Joyce developed an eating disorder. But when she started dancing at a more professional level, thankfully, her peers were very conscious of health and nutrition. Unfortunately, she got injured and realized she would have to find a different vehicle beside her body to tell her stories.
That’s when she enrolled at the University of British Columbia, where she studied screenwriting and got a degree in film. A dual citizen, Joyce states she is close to her parents but was sick of her hometown and wanted to move to America to pursue “art in some capacity.”
She recalled, “I literally packed two suitcases, booked a one-way ticket, and decided to figure it out when I got there. I didn’t know anyone in Nashville.”
Still, Joyce was struggling with substance abuse, and being in Nashville wasn’t helping matters. But she found out quickly that Middle Tennessee also has a strong recovery system, and she got sober, got married, got a publishing deal, and stayed sober for about five years.
The whole reason she came to Nashville was to become a songwriter. At the time, her music had generated more than 20 million streams, but she only earned about $ 2,000. That’s when she decided to pursue a full-time career as an artist.
However, three years ago, right after her highly acclaimed 2022 EP, Marlboro Reds and Hotel Rooms, came out, Joyce started slipping. She confessed, “I started to just go on benders and have some crazy nights. And that’s when a dear friend pulled me aside, and she was like, ‘Hey, I’m kind of worried.’”
It was her friend Zandi Holup who introduced her to the Steeldrivers’ Gary Nichols, who agreed to produce her debut record.
A week before she was to go to Muscle Shoals and record her album, she had a terrible accident because of her substance abuse and went stone cold sober. She knew she was going to die if she didn’t sort out the mess she had created.
She credits her friend and her husband for helping her get through those first few days.
“I knew if I continued the substance abuse, I would lose my career, my husband, and most importantly, my faith. My relationship with God and my husband matter more than anything else. I just wanted to stop being an asshole,” she shared.
When they got to Muscle Shoals, they wrote half the record there as she overshared her life in the control room. “I was never happier,” she exclaimed.
Her backstory is so important because it provides context for the songs on her debut album.
Her latest album, Violent Delights, explores many of Joyce’s past vices, all of which have led her to the place where she is now. The music is beautiful and haunting and was created for a particular audience. It’s meant for grown-ups. It gives people who have been hurt a place to feel seen and heard.
She stated, “The point of art (and this album) is to give people a safe place to talk about the hard and painful things.”
The title track, “Violent Delights,” is a metaphor about drinking. She explained, “I’m using a romantic entanglement for what in my personal life was a love affair with alcohol. But if someone wants to interpret it like a love affair with a toxic relationship, that’s their prerogative.” Either way, the folk learning, pop song is going to resonate with others.
Written alongside her producer, Gary Nichols, “Steeple” is an upbeat rootsy number that calls out fake religious people. “We’re all looking for transcendence. If you don’t find it in faith, it’s freakin’ easy to find it in the wrong places. This song is a call for churches and faith communities to do a better job of keeping people engaged, feeling welcome, and healthy. If they don’t find it there, they have to go somewhere else.”
“Cheap Cocaine” is a tongue-in-cheek song about using someone like you would use cheap cocaine. The song asked, “Did I bring you down with me or did you get there first?”
Joyce gets more serious with the song “Blindfold,” which states, “If you could really see me, would you love me as I am?” It’s a universal theme that so many people feel.
“Hunger Pains” is a truthful tale about the eating disorders that so many teenage girls have. Joyce stated, “It was hard (to be a teenage girl) 10 years ago, and it’s even harder now. It’s that pressure to be everything all at once, to be cool, but not too cool, to be edgy, but not too edgy, to be perfect, but not too perfect.” The song “Dyin’ To Fit In” also addresses eating disorders.
Joyce confronts the demons of her past through the song “Pink Anymore.” She recalls the bullying she experienced in school, which caused her not to wear pink anymore.
One thing teenagers often don’t realize is that their own pain also breaks the hearts of those who love them. Joyce wrote “Mother” as an apology to her mother.
She confessed, “Yeah, I thought that was hard on me, but it also must have been really hard on her, especially when she’s doing everything right.”
One thing that often happens to those who are depressed and/or are trying to stay sober is that they are often prescribed SSRIs. Although it is a serious condition, Joyce pokes fun at the fact that she needs them. It’s a fun, sassy song with a country lean.
The album concludes with “Friend in the Dark.” Joyce said of the song, “I knew there needed to be one moment of light on the record. For me, that’s the closest thing I have to a gospel song. When someone is going through something, you don’t try to fix it, you stand with them.”
The thing about Joyce’s Violent Delights record is that it makes you think. It challenges you to see the world differently and to be kinder to those who are different.
“I made this record to say the things I needed to say. I sing about things nice girls aren’t supposed to sing about. But I know I’m not the only woman who’s been through what I’m singing about,” she shared.
A lot of pain and judgment could be avoided if people didn’t feel so alone in their suffering. That’s the whole point of the record.
You can follow Stefanie Joyce on her website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and TikTok.
Violent Delight Track List
- Violent Delights
- Steeple
- Cheap Cocaine
- Blindfold
- Hunger Pains
- Pink Anymore
- Dyin’ to Fit In
- Mother
- SSRIs
- Friend in the Dark
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