Indie pop sister duo JOSEPH confront the hardest mornings head-on in “Closer to Me,” turning pain into a fierce, life-giving reminder that you can still find your way back to yourself – a blazing reckoning of resilience and self-compassion, and a powerful window into the authentic and exhilarating world of their upcoming album ‘Closer to Happy.’

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Stream: “Closer to Me” – JOSEPH

I needed something that reminded me to be gentle with myself, put my hand on my heart and know that I’m safe, that despite not knowing what to do, that I can love myself and take care of my body and spirit the best I can that day.

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Mornings are the hardest part – that unsteady moment when you wake and everything feels a little too sharp, a little too heavy.

The pain hits first, sweeping through you before consciousness does, and with it comes a rush of turbulent feeling: Confusion, shame, the dread of not knowing how to make any of it stop. And in that swirl of noise and doubt, you can feel yourself slipping further from the person you want to be – the grounded, patient, tender version of you that the pain obscures. It’s in this tension that JOSEPH’s latest single lands – urgent and aching, like a shockwave breaking through the weight of a new day.

Like touching a live wire, “Closer to Me” erupts with searing guitars and a full-bodied rush of motion, the kind of electric current that snaps through the air and sends your pulse racing to match it. JOSEPH’s energy is raw, volatile, and visceral, a dynamic fury of churning chords and thunderous drums, of restless nights and anxious mornings distilled into one sonic tempest – a combustible combination of harmony, hunger, and heat. It’s exhilarating and kinetic, a spirited flurry of feeling that surges forward with enough force to make your hair stand on end.

But inside all that voltage lives something gentler and far more intimate: Meegan Closner searching for softness in the midst of chronic pain, writing a song she could wake up to on her worst mornings, something that might remind her she is safe and worth caring for. “Closer to Me” carries that duality in every beat – the ache and the adrenaline, the churn and the self-soothing – giving sound to a private struggle while capturing the band at a moment of profound transformation. It’s a reckoning, a release, and the beginning of a new chapter for JOSEPH as they step into the most unguarded, unfiltered, and boldly alive era of their career.

Wake up alone
First thing
Can I bring myself to say I love you
Out loud, I love you

Put my hand on my heart
Breathe in
Even though I know nothing’s okay
I’m here
It’s safe

Even if I don’t mean it
Say that I care
Show that I care

Released November 5^th via Nettwerk Music Group, the feverish “Closer to Me” is the latest breathtaking preview of JOSEPH’s forthcoming album Closer to Happy (out January 30^th), their first full-length project since the departure of sister and co-founder Allison Closner. This new era finds the duo of sisters Natalie and Meegan Closner stepping into a bolder, guitar-forward sound, co-producing for the first time alongside Luke Niccoli to match what they describe as a more authentic and alive version of themselves. “We are today a more free, open, and honest version of ourselves,” Meegan reflects. “Sometimes the hardest decision to make that feels like it may end everything actually creates room for new beginnings and fresh perspectives.” That sense of rebirth pulses through “Closer to Me,” a song that feels both jagged and tender, eruptive and intimate.

I just wanna know what you want
What do you want?
I wanna be sweet to you, darling
So tell me, tell me
What it is
I’m listening
Come on
Get closer to me
I wanna be closer to me

The track hits hard from the jump. Urgent guitars snap into motion, the tempo pushing forward like a heartbeat skipping into overdrive. There is a physicality to the arrangement, a churn of rhythm and harmony that mirrors the emotional shockwaves running beneath the lyrics. Meegan’s voice is radiant and raw, soaring above the distortion with a power that feels both vulnerable and unbreakable. She is pleading, steadying, anchoring, clawing her way toward a gentler way of being. Lines like “Put my hand on my heart, breathe in… even if I don’t mean it, say that I care” hit with seismic force, landing somewhere between a mantra and a survival mechanism.

This is where the emotional architecture of the song reveals itself. “In my body’s experience of chronic pain, while it is obviously physical, a large part of the journey is mental,” Meegan shares. “I needed something that reminded me to be gentle with myself, put my hand on my heart and know that I’m safe.” Writing “Closer to Me” became an act of self-rescue, a way of breaking through shame, confusion, and exhaustion long enough to remember she deserved tenderness. “I wanted to write a song that would help me wake up on mornings where my body is experiencing pain and shift my mindset towards loving and nurturing myself and move it away from self-hatred and shaming myself for not having answers for why my body feels the way that it does… [So] we wrote a song for those mornings. It is raging but also gentle. It is urgent while also heartfelt.”

That duality is what makes “Closer to Me” so gripping. The song feels like a collision of adrenaline and ache, a burst of lightning tearing through fog. The guitars roar, the drums drive forward, and Meegan sings like she is holding on to herself with both hands. Yet inside all that fire is a quiet plea for understanding: “I just wanna know what you want… I wanna be sweet to you, darling.” It’s self-compassion refracted through the desire to show up fully for someone else, even while learning how to show up for yourself.

This is urgent
Listen
Everybody needs understanding
I need understanding
I know it hurts
I’m trying
I know I can ride through the shockwaves
I know this pain
It’ll be okay

Even if I don’t mean it
Say that I care
Show that I care
Even if I don’t mean it yet
Say that I care
Show that I care

Writing the track helped shift something fundamental for Meegan. “I have gained so much love and understanding by letting my close friends and family in and asking for help,” she says. “Writing this song was magic. It was one of those songs that feels like it was already written and you just had to be a vehicle to let it have sound. And in turn, it gave sound to a part of me.” That revelation reverberates through every moment of the track, especially its climax, where the repetition of “Get closer to me” transforms from yearning into something like self-acceptance.

“Closer to Me” crystallizes what makes this new chapter of JOSEPH so exciting. As a standalone release, it’s striking. As a taste of what Closer to Happy promises, it’s electrifying.

JOSEPH are at their boldest and brightest, channeling upheaval into momentum, pain into propulsion, and yearning into something with teeth. “Closer to Me” does not just make you feel something; it makes you feel awake, shaken into attention by its blaze of guitars, its thundering pulse, and its rush of blood and honesty. It’s a song born from pain but built for resilience, carried by the kind of clarity that only arrives when everything feels uncertain.

And maybe that’s the quiet power of “Closer to Me”: It doesn’t promise to erase the hard mornings, but it offers something steadier to meet them with – a voice to hold onto when your own feels faint, a reminder that even on the days when everything hurts, you can still find your way back to yourself.

It’s the sound of motion, of truth breaking loose, of a band stepping into a new era with voltage running through every note. And once it hits, there is no going back. We caught up with JOSEPH to explore the roots of this new chapter, the songwriting behind the single, and the emotional and creative shifts shaping Closer to Happy. Read on for a candid conversation about growth, sisterhood, rebirth, and learning how to care for yourself when it feels hardest to do so.

I just wanna know what you want
What do you want?
I wanna be sweet to you, darling
So tell me, tell me
What it is
I’m listening
Come on
Get closer to me
I wanna be closer to me

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:: stream/purchase Closer to Happy here ::

:: connect with JOSEPH here ::

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Stream: “Closer to Me” – JOSEPH

A CONVERSATION WITH JOSEPH

JOSEPH: We’ve grown in one thousand ways as people, as sisters, and as musicians over the last decade plus that we’ve been in this band. It’s no small task to do business with family. We’ve had moments throughout that time where we wondered if we should keep going for reasons like, “we want to still be friends when we are 80 years old” and “there are other things I want to do with my life” to name a couple. Then, of course, that did happen when our sister, Allie, told us it was real this time and she needed to go her own way. This band has been all of our adult lives and to get the opportunity to grow into something new, each of us, because of Allie’s decision, was an amazing gift.

We are today, a more free, open, and honest version of ourselves. And while you’ll only see that expressed through Natalie and I, Meegan, in the band, that’s true of Allie too doing what she’s doing. Sometimes the hardest decision to make that feels like it may end everything, actually creates room for new beginnings and fresh perspectives and realities you couldn’t have dreamt of.

JOSEPH: Most of the hard work of this album was in the before process deciding if we wanted to make another album without Allie, knowing it would never be the same. In saying yes, we walked into a new era of ourselves that felt more real, authentic, and alive than ever. This album embodies all of those feelings. We worked with our producer and friend, Luke Niccoli, to match the production to that spirit and brought our vocals more forward and pushed ourselves to sing higher belting notes and softer, more personal, in your ear parts. As we have always purposed to do, we wrote songs that are personal, reflective, and honest. Because there are only two of us storytellers on this album, I think people will get to know each of us individually a little better.

JOSEPH: In my body’s experience of chronic pain, while it is obviously physical, a large part of the journey is mental. I was looking for something to help me in my moment that I wake up. The mornings that don’t look like Cinderella waking up in her bed with birds flitting around her, but are rather immediate pain and body hatred and confusion and shame for not knowing what to do for myself to make it stop.

I needed something that reminded me to be gentle with myself, put my hand on my heart and know that I’m safe, that despite not knowing what to do, that I can love myself and take care of my body and spirit the best I can that day. So, we wrote a song for those mornings. It’s raging but also gentle, and it is urgent while also heartfelt.

JOSEPH: I don’t talk to many people about the pain that I’ve experienced and we’ve never written a song about it for that reason. It’s been a very personal thing I feel, but I’ve gained so much love and understanding by letting my close friends and family in and asking for help from them. Writing this song with Amanda Bantug and Daniel Ellsworth was magic. It was one of those songs that feels like it was already written and all you had to do was be a vehicle to let it have sound. And in turn, it gave sound to a part of me.

JOSEPH: I hope anyone who may be able to relate to this song, in whatever form of pain, whether that be physical/mental/emotional etc., might find a thread in it that leads them to a more gentle conversation with themselves as they wade through the sometimes intense physicality of being a conscience inside of a human body.

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:: stream/purchase Closer to Happy here ::

:: connect with JOSEPH here ::

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Stream: “Closer to Me” – JOSEPH

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