Interview: Skateland’s ‘Joyce Howell, How are You?’ EP Is a Wistful Soundtrack to Our Shared Humanity

Skateland © Lindsey Chambley
Skateland © Lindsey Chambley
Skateland’s ‘Joyce Howell, How are You?’ EP examines the magnificence of human emotion through the lens of his personal wisdom.
‘Joyce Howell, How are You?’ – Skateland




There is an internal chaos that comes with simply being.

As humans, we often feel a wide range of conflicting emotions. Sometimes it is a mixture of things like joy and pain, uncertainty and self-discovery.

Skateland’s new EP Joyce Howell, How are You? explores all that comes with being human. The offering immerses the listener in a lush, dreamy sound. We get lost in the atmospheric bliss as he takes us through the thoughts and feelings that have defined his past year. The record, touching on relatable themes of comparing yourself to others, jealousy and nostalgia, captures the true complexity of human expression and experience.

Joyce Howell, How are You? - Skateland
Joyce Howell, How are You? – Skateland

Released November 15, 2024, Joyce Howell, How are You? draws inspiration from both indie rock and bedroom pop. Crafting a sound that’s intimate and raw, his music sucks you in with warm, ethereal charm. Dorian Williams II, AKA Skateland, is an Austin, TX-based singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Williams started writing songs and trying out different instruments in his bedroom, leading to the creation of Skateland in 2022. The artist brilliantly fuses melancholic vibes with new wave and pop production, for a unique style that is pensive and infectious.

The five-track Joyce Howell, How are You? – Skateland’s second EP, following 2023’s New Wave Revival – opens with the gleaming “Sunset Cinema” that focuses on goodbyes, centers itself with “Autobahn!,” a narration of relationship waves, and ends with the experimental sounds of title track “Joyce Howell, How are You?”

This meditative, moody EP is the ideal delicate depiction of human awareness. Atwood Magazine recently spoke with Skateland about his name, negative comparisons, and so much more; read our interview below and listen to his latest record, out now!

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:: stream/purchase Joyce Howell, How are You? here ::
:: connect with Skateland here ::

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Skateland © Lindsey Chambley
Skateland © Lindsey Chambley



A CONVERSATION WITH SKATELAND

Joyce Howell, How are You? - Skateland

Atwood Magazine: First of all, I love your artist name Skateland! How was that name conceived?

Skateland: I’ve always liked the idea of ambiguity and that was the goal when picking the name. I wanted something that was one word, and would look good on a t-shirt or festival poster. I’m also really into fashion and film, so I wanted a name that could almost serve all three purposes…like at first glance someone should read it and have a hard time deciphering whether it was a band, a brand, or an art house. I had a running list of names in my notes app for like a year, and I would write them out in different fonts and stuff like that, just messing around. Skateland kept sticking out to me so I picked it and never looked back.

Your dreamy indie pop meets rock sound is wholly mesmerizing. How did you concoct your style?

Skateland: Pretty much everything I do starts with a soundscape! Usually I sit down and mess around with various pads and synths until I feel like I’ve built a solid base that almost resembles a score or an indie version of an orchestral arrangement, and then once I lock into what the vibe of the soundscape I’ll start writing and playing instruments over it. On rare occasions I’ll do the opposite and start with acoustic guitar or bass, and then sort of color everything else in around that! I did that a lot on this EP and it was really fun.

Skateland © Lindsey Chambley
Skateland © Lindsey Chambley



Your reflective EP Joyce Howell, How Are You? details the human experience touching on themes such as jealousy, longing and nostalgia. What was it like creating this unique 5-track collection?

Skateland: Honestly it was a real challenge. When you’re starting out in music, everything you do can feel so life or death sometimes. There’s this unspoken awareness that you’re building a sort of sonic resume that people are going to lean on when they’re trying to figure out where to place you. It’s like, “Man I really love softer folk stuff but if I release a few of those songs then people are going to pigeonhole me in that category” etc., and you start to run yourself in circles.

Same thing with real life! Relationships, career choices, even what you decide to wear… it’s all sort of the same. Getting over that was the key, and once I stopped caring about it everything came together pretty quickly. In its simplest form the EP is me publicly trying to find my way and figure out who I am, both in music and in life. It was a very rewarding and fulfilling experience and I feel like I grew a lot from it.

“Sunset Cinema” is a wistful, shimmery piece all about grappling with goodbyes. What inspired the track?

Skateland: Ironically I wrote “Sunset Cinema” a long time ago, it was one of the first Skateland demos. It’s about saying goodbye to someone I loved very much which made it very sentimental to me, but I’d had some trouble with figuring out how to package it so it sat on the shelf for a while. I’d experimented with typical breakup ballads, quiet piano songs, and big arching M83 kind of things, but I felt like the final form was still eluding me. Then one night this past summer I was listening to a bunch of old ’70s records out on the back porch with some friends (Al Green, Fleetwood Mac, King Harvest, etc.), and it hit me like a ton of bricks that this was the direction I should take Sunset Cinema. Obviously I put my own kind of shimmery spin on it, but I knew I wanted a rhythmic low end groove that had good pacing and a ton of acoustic guitar. The next morning I started working on it and the song was basically done in like 8 hours. A rare victory.



“Postcards” is a delicate, fuzzy synth-driven track that wraps us up in warmth. What was the process like when constructing this release’s sonic?

Skateland: Similarly to “Sunset Cinema,” I’d had an earlier version of “Postcards” for a while under a different name, but it sounded completely different. Then I actually met up with a producer friend of mine named 10pmtoclose just to kind of mess around in the studio with no real agenda, and we started making this sort of Wes Anderson-esque arrangement that I really liked. After a while I started singing the old “Postcards” melody over it and it just kind of worked. Everything fell into place and it was very serendipitous.

Often online we see the highlight reels of people’s lives and it is easy to be plagued with toxic comparison. This concept makes “Postcards” highly relatable. What advice would you give to someone who is constantly comparing themselves to others?

Skateland: Log off! It’s not real, and if you treat it like it’s real you’ll ruin yourself. This day in age I feel like we’re all living two lives, our real one and then our Internet one, and it’s affecting how we perceive ourselves. The quickest way to become discontent is to scroll through someone else’s Instagram feed…so as hard as it is I feel like we should make a conscious effort to ground ourselves in reality and limit how much we’re looking into what other people are doing. It’s easier said than done but it can’t hurt to try… and that’s the message of “Postcards.”



“Autobahn!” expresses the highs and lows of relationships, just like the Autobahn highway has speedy twists and turns. Can you explain the offering in more detail?

Skateland: “Autobahn!” is such a goofy song and that’s why I love it so much. In relationships I feel like we’re all over the place, but it’s inevitable because that’s what makes us human. I wanted to write something that reflected that, but did it in a way that was lighthearted and fun instead of trying to be serious and moody. The song was so fun to make because it’s almost entirely programmed, so it felt like I was back in college again cutting electronic music and ranting about some silly relationship.



I understand you are a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. How have you managed to home in on so many creative skills?

Skateland: Skateland is relatively new, but I’ve been doing music in some form for my entire life. As a kid I grew up playing gospel in church, which is where I learned how to play instruments like bass, drums, guitar etc., and I’ve always been grateful that I was able to cut my teeth in that environment. I’ve always written poetry, but when I was a teenager is when I started writing songs. I played in a ton of bands in middle school and high school that gave me the space to practice that craft. That’s when I really learned how cathartic writing your thoughts down in song form could be, and on top of that seeing other people resonate with those thoughts gave me a natural high that inspired me to keep at it.

Finally, in college is when I got into the more technical/digital side of things and started learning production. I started out building more EDM-centric arrangements on Garage Band and then Logic, and basically through trial and error started figuring out how to lay entire songs down from start to finish.

Now I’m in my 20s, and it feels like all of those phases of my life and skills I learned have culminated into me now being able to carry out the vision for Skateland.

Skateland © Lindsey Chambley
Skateland © Lindsey Chambley



You performed a Live Nation set alongside indie greats like Two Door Cinema Club and Day Wave; any stories you can share from that show?

Skateland: More than anything, I think it just felt good to be seen in that moment, and know that people were starting to take notice of what I’ve been working on in these two short years. Those are two acts I’ve always loved, and to be in the same building was definitely very affirming. I got to watch Two Door up close from sidestage, and it was a masterclass in performing. You could tell they’d been doing it for so long and were so locked into their craft, and it showed me what being a true professional looks like. I opened for Foster the People this past year and it was the same deal, just seeing the cream of the crop do their thing and taking lots of notes.

Finally, who are some artists on your current playlist you can recommend to our readers?

Skateland: Some acts that I’m really vibing with right now are Lightning Bug, Sea Lemon, Portraits of Tracy, Dayglow, and binki! They’re making really creative art and I’d love to work with any of them… internet citizens, do your thing and make it happen!

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:: stream/purchase Joyce Howell, How are You? here ::
:: connect with Skateland here ::

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“Joyce Howell, How are You?” – Skateland



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Joyce Howell, How are You? - Skateland

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? © Lindsey Chambley

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