Two worlds, one signal

Joseph didn't arrive at dark electronic music by abandoning metal, he carried it with him. Growing up playing drums in bands, he spent years producing and co-writing for other artists before turning inward. When it came time to make something for himself, he didn't choose a lane. "It's kind of what came out," he says. "Just some dark electronic stuff that I would like to listen to." What emerged was Snakes of Russia: aggressive, atmospheric, and entirely its own thing.

The synths that keep showing up

His first synthesizer was a Roland SH-101, which he still owns. A Juno 106 followed, then a Moog Model D, reissued about eight years ago, which has become the most-used instrument in his studio. On the software side, Serum and Zebra appear on nearly every record, often layered directly against hardware. "I'm not a purist by any means," he says. "Whatever sounds best, whatever gets it across."

A documentary shot in Salem

For his last record, Joseph cold-emailed Kurt Ballou, guitarist of Converge and producer of records by High on Fire and Chelsea Wolfe, with a simple pitch: treat my synths like guitar notes. Ballou said yes, and Joseph flew to Salem, Massachusetts. A friend came along to film it, and that footage became True Surrender. "I love seeing making-of videos," Joseph says. "So it was a really cool, fun experience, and I'm glad we got the documentation of it."

One case, two pads, no band

His current live rig fits in a single modular case: stems running through Ableton, four channels of MIDI into the modular via Yarns, and Roland drum pads for live tom hits. "Everything is just right there," he says. The setup has evolved at least five times in five years. Now, with live drums folded back in, it's the closest it's felt to the physical energy he grew up playing in front of. "If someone dropped a bag of money on my front door tomorrow, I would hire a full band and it'd be like a fucking Nine Inch Nails show, but for now, it works."

Art that wrote the album

The cover of the upcoming LP came before the record did. Joseph found the work of illustrator Morgan Sorenson, who goes by MCE Machine, on Instagram, licensed a piece, and made it his screensaver. The music followed. "I just wanted to write a whole record just to put that on the cover," he says. The full artwork hasn't been revealed yet, but a special box set with an embossed lid is already in the works. "It's been my screensaver since the day I saw it. Like, literally."

On the road as the black sheep

Joseph is heading out on a North American run as direct support for Ten Years, playing rooms he's never hit before. He's used to being the odd one out on rock and metal bills. "People are a little bit confused, but they're into it," he laughs. "They just don't know. They're like, I don't know what that was, but I know I'm into it." The LP drops in November. The singles are already rolling.