King Josephine is wearing a long rope and standing on a small stage in a dimly lit room. The list cast her, and the music starts – a song about longing, a song about a love lost. King Josephine‘s third single, “Lover Is Just a Name,” is a powerful yet tender blend of RnB, soul, and pop, which is my gateway into her music. The Amsterdam-born and Berlin-based artist released her debut EP Note to Self on March 7th, and I met her to talk about music, anger, and patience.
Becoming King Josephine
On one of the first sunny days in Berlin, I met King Josephine in a cafe in Neukölln where we sat right by the window to catch the few rays of light that made their way in. The singer is one of Berlin’s most anticipated new voices in RnB and soul. Her debut single got over 1 million streams on Spotify and the single “Shitty Wine” won the Listen To Berlin Award of 2023/24.
Photo by Nadja Krüger
I wanted to know where her musical journey began: “I started taking piano classes when I was seven, and I was in every music or theatre project of my school. But my priority was film. Music was my fun, film was my work.” Six years after she moved to Berlin, King Josephine started working at Monster Ronsons, a famous Karaoke bar. “That’s where my name, King Josephine, originated. I was a host and sang as much as I could. That’s where I met Giancarlo, my drummer, who plays a crucial part in my musical journey. With him, I started recording demos and finally allowed myself to take music more seriously. Monster Ronsons was a catalyst for me.”
Realizing how much she loved performing on stage, King Josephine felt more and more stuck in the film world. Both friends and strangers encouraged her to try music, which she describes as her biggest love. “Music has always been a huge part of my life. I belong on stage and I just had to allow myself to pursue that dream”.
Finding the Joy
A week after the first release, “Sweet Craving,” her now-manager, Lorena Junghans, got in touch, and they quickly started working together. King Josephine says: “All of this is new to me. I am still trying to learn the lingo to communicate with other musicians and to be able to confidently translate my artistic vision to others. I am happy to be able to prioritize my voice and work on my music while others help me with organizing and marketing.”
King Josephine’s voice is somber and touching yet cheerful at times. But she was faced with an immense setback just as her music career was about to set off with the release of “Sweet Cravings”. Fifteen years of working in hospitality harmed her voice. “I couldn’t sing for a year and I started to get inquiries for shows but I was without a band and voice. It was incredibly frustrating. This was the first time I ever experienced stage fright. The first show was terrible for me. Performing and knowing I can’t give it my best was difficult. I couldn’t accept any good feedback because I couldn´t believe it. But it got better with every show and I found the joy in it again.”
Note to Self
The songs on King Josephine’s most recent release, Note To Self, started as drafts and scribbles during the pandemic and have gone through many different phases. While working on these songs, the artist went through “a time of big losses”. A long-term relationship ended and her father passed away due to COVID-19.
“I lost the ground beneath my feet. It was a time of loss of love. The songs on the EP are not about that because they were already finished when it happened. Now, they have taken on a whole new meaning. The songs are products of transformation and different phases within the last eight years of my life.”
Letting out Emotions
A document of the journey the artist and her music have gone on, is the song “Skills”. What started as a breakup song but turned into a sharp and witty hymn on anger and how we deal with it. In the lyrics, King Josephine sings about the frustration of people not knowing how to deal and communicate with their anger and emotions in interpersonal relationships. “I realized how much anger I had accumulated over the last years. We are not taught how to express anger and sadness in ways that are not harmful. We lack the skills and affect each other with that. Going through that learning process made my lyrics ot sharper. I know now what I want to say and release my emotions while singing.”
“Being socialized as a woman, a Black woman in particular, expressing anger or emotions is not something we are encouraged to do. Because of racist and sexist stereotypes, it is perceived as threatening, hypersensitive or exaggerated. So, I didn’t dare to speak about my feeling, my anger. Actually, I often didn’t even know what I was feeling. That has already gotten better. Music also played a big part in learning how to express emotions and to regain power.”
The songs “Shitty Whine” and “Note to Self” express that struggle with patriarchal and white-supremacist society. Yet, they are also inspired by the empowerment of the Black Lives Matter movement. “Finding my own Black identity is a journey and I am still experiencing an identity crisis. However, I can at least put my finger on the feeling now. My network – my family, friends, and therapy – has truly helped me deal with my grief and allow emotions. I did a lot of work on my own, but this is not something you can do alone.”
Taking the Time
King Josephine went through many life-changing phases in the last few years. Her ability to be optimistic yet vulnerable and honest about setbacks and losses makes her songs resonate. As most of the sun had passed us by and our tea cups were almost empty, I asked the artist about her younger self. “I would tell my seven-year-old self to have patience because everything leads you on the right path. Sometimes I wish I had prioritised music earlier. But I also know that I wasn’t ready yet. I have to call it to mind every once in a while.”
“I am 37 now and I sometimes ask myself: can I still do this? Am I still allowed to make music? And I know that I am, but sometimes it just seems like everyone is 19 and hates millennials. And fair enough I hate millennials too. For a long time, I didn’t dare to go for it. I think I just needed that extra time to grow.”
Note to Self by King Josephine is out now via KINDA. You can stay up to date with King Josephine via Instagram and website. King Josephine will play her album release show on the 26th of March in Berlin at Kesselhaus. You can get your tickets here.