Nowadays, Sternberg is feeling a lot more motivated as they prepare for their first-ever West Coast tour. In addition to the “five to six” albums they have already written, they list an ambitious itinerary of potential projects, which range from writing songs for pop artists, penning a rock opera, and pitching a reality show: The Real Jazz Musicians of New York. “Everybody wants jazz at their party but nobody really wants to listen to it,” they say, laughing. “I think it would make people respect jazz musicians more, but there’s also a lot of characters and diva drama.”
Like a lot of Sternberg’s jokes, this one slowly unravels into more existential concerns. “Musicians get a weird reputation in the world,” they continue. “It’s ‘cool’ to be a musician, but then they aren’t treated well financially and they’re not humanized. Everyone’s like, Oh, you’re just having fun. But it’s their job—and music can save lives.”
When I ask how Sternberg’s own life has changed as they’ve carved out a little financial stability, the answer is complex but ultimately hopeful. “I got harder on myself and scared that I would ruin it—which did make me ruin it, for a period. Now I’m trying to find a way to be scared and still do my work.”
Pitchfork: One quality I associate with your music is its timelessness. They almost feel like standards, songs that anyone could sing at any point in time.
Joanna Sternberg: That is what I want to do. I want anyone to be able to connect with the songs, regardless of age or anything. That’s something I love about Elliott Smith’s music. It’s so easy to connect to just the feeling of it. Even the songs with specific references from his life or people he knew, it’s easy to be in his shoes and feel like it happened to you. That’s the main thing that I got from him: the feeling that I have to write songs right now. Growing up, I was too scared to do it, and couldn’t come up with anything to write about. But when I heard him, I was just like, Oh wow, I can do it like this. I was too inspired to be scared.
What inspires you to write songs now? Is it always an emotional impulse or does it ever come from a more abstract place?
I’m always trying to convey a feeling. I love abstract music, too, and maybe my songs could be abstract if someone can’t relate to what it’s about. But all my songs do start with me saying, I wanna write about this right now. I can’t do it unless I have that thing.
As you navigate the music industry, are there aspects you have struggled with?
I firmly believe that everyone is equal. Everyone’s the same. There’s not this hierarchy of how I treat people. And that’s not me saying I’m a great person—I just can’t not do that. But I noticed this weird thing happened once I got good at music: suddenly people started being nice to me who used to not notice I exist. Now that I’m getting stuff in my career, I’m seeing that happen again. And it’s upsetting because it will be someone who never would’ve cared about me, suddenly they’re being nice. The problem with that is I get so excited someone’s being nice to me that I forget why they’re being nice to me. I’ve been taken advantage of a lot. But I guess I’m learning. Once I got diagnosed with autism, it explained a lot. I have effective empathy but I don’t have cognitive empathy, which is what you need to manipulate people—the ability to tell how someone will feel if you do something.
