Photo by Sarah Neides
Joel Ronson, a.k.a. “The Admiral,” is a 22-year-old genre-bending producer from London who now calls Brooklyn his home, and he is releasing his debut album “Vol.1” on Thursday, October 29th. The LP is a gonzo smorgasbord of topics operating within the realms of Hip Hop, EDM, and Rock. All of the tunes are filtered through a prism of irreverent humor, bedroom pop, and video game culture.
His song “Who Got Very Oily?” was recently featured on the popular sex-positive podcast “Guys We Fucked.” “Oily” is a house track about an incident where The Admiral suddenly becomes covered in olive oil. In the music video, backing vocalist Sarah Neides taunts him as the song ends with a “Game Over” title card.
The album carries on this way, with a hilarious interplay of both character and genre studies. The singles find an industrial-rock song about cake, a midi-synth ballad about frolicking in a meadow, and a trap tune about looking at lamps. Lamps kicks off with the line, “Offered me cocaine/ I said I’d taken a sample/ but throughout the evening I’d found I’d taken ample.”
Joel Ronson’s alter ego “The Admiral” obviously doesn’t take himself too seriously. That said, he pays an admirable amount of attention to the songcraft even when he’s joking around. At 22 Ronson has already worked as a producer in London, New York, and LA. He soundtracked the podcast, “The Butterfly Effect,” starring British writer-comedian Jon Ronson (his father).
After putting out records under various guises such as “Honestly Nowhere”, “DJ Consumer Culture,” and “Professor N.E. Where,” Joel Ronson decided to write as “The Admiral.” He explains:
“In finding your voice you go through all of these different phases and influences. It’s me trying to hone in on myself in itself in its truest form whether it’s lyrically or musically. I’m trying to fuse all of the influences, the phases, all of the different people that I’ve wanted to be, it’s like who am I now after all of that? Who am I at this moment?… What I did with Honestly Nowhere, [what I’m doing with] The Admiral, it’s all a side of me. I’m trying with these characters to make it truer to my intention as an artist and my own self-expression. Honestly Nowhere was miserable. I didn’t want to put out loads of miserable druggy albums for the rest of my life. I’m more than that. Why not sing the funny songs?”
Stream the rest of the funny songs when The Admiral’s album drops on Thursday, October 29th. Meanwhile, check out the Allston Pudding premiere of his latest single “Pardon Peter,” a more somber turn for The Admiral and reminiscent of Honestly Nowhere. “Peter” also features backing vocalist and videographer Sarah Neides, whose presence adds depth throughout “Vol. 1.” Watch below: