Joey Valence & Brae burst onto the music scene with unabashed energy and swagger to spare. Their bombastic style reminded so many of The Beastie Boys — a compliment hoisted upon them due to that aforementioned energy and swag.
However, the comparison goes much deeper. Like the legendary trio, Joey Valence & Brae are a brotherhood whose love for music and their fans jumps out from every beat, every bar and every moment you spend in their presence. This is a duo that thrives off the energy and passion of their audience, and will go to no ends to repay it tenfold.
With their new album HYPERYOUTH, Joey Valence & Brae have constructed their most mature album — expanding their sonic palette while also tackling the prescient idea of aging while still maintaining a sense of youth and self.
Recently, we caught up with Joey Valence & Brae to discuss their new album, fame, collaborations and of course, the Cheesecake Factory.
Very stoked to speak with you. I remember seeing you for the first time at Sea.Hear.Now 2023 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. You guys blew me away.
Brae: Wow! Dude! See here now, that was a really fun festival to play. It was so fun playing on the beach and like being able to see the water. Also that was the 1st time I was able to drive my own car right behind the stage, and it was so sick.
Let’s kick things off by talking about the new album HYPERYOUTH. The concept that prevails throughout the album is the idea of growing up without getting old. Can you talk about why you chose that as the theme of the record?Â
Joey Valence: It just felt really obvious. It’s something that everybody experiences. I remember us sitting at [a restaurant] and just being like, “I feel like this is just the right thing.” We’re all getting older and at this point we’re not kids anymore. It’s hard to accept growing up. But, it’s okay to grow up and still hold this childlike wonder in yourself and accept the world changing around you.
Brae: The other thing is our audience is growing alongside us, which is really fun. When we started a couple of years ago, everyone that’s at the show is our age. As the progression of JVB moves forward, so does our fan base. We relate to them so much, and we’re super tight knit with our community and our fan base. So it’s cool to relate to them and vice versa through the music.
In the three years you’ve been performing, you two have absolutely blown up. I want to know how you remain true to yourselves? I look at both of you right now on this call and I can imagine three years ago you were wearing the same clothes, sitting the same way, and speaking the same way. But it’s undeniable that the fame and success is there — how do you process all this?Â
Brae: Well, what you can see is we’re in a Ritz Carlton right now, and there’s a hot tub over there.
JVB: Actually we’re just in underwear and shoes and we have diamond encrusted toenails.
Brae: One of the biggest reasons is, actually, we still live in our hometowns. We still live with our families and our parents right now. Every time we come home from a tour we’re just chilling out with our same friend group. I go to Joey’s and work. We see each other from time to time, we work on music. I still hang out with my younger sister.
So it just feels the same when you go home. You don’t get treated any differently. We don’t really get recognized in our town. It’s such a small, little place. Even when we’re out traveling maybe we get recognized when we’re shopping at the mall, or when we’re at the festivals and people see us and they want to take pictures. We’re so blessed to be here, and we’re just always stoked to be anywhere. Traveling and touring is so much fun. So you just take every day and every open door and every opportunity as it comes. It’s not that difficult to be humble, to be completely honest…
JVB: …especially when you make music just because you enjoy it. If you go into music with this only goal for self-fulfillment then you’re not going to have these things come in and cloud your judgment. The goal was never to get famous, get a bunch of money and buy a mansion. It’s just self-fulfillment. So as long as you just keep that sort of mindset, it’s not that difficult.
Wait, I thought the ultimate goal for you two was to get enough money to open your own Cheesecake Factory in your hometown.
Brae: Oh, goodness, yeah, that’s massive. We were just there last night.
JVB: We sure were! Shout out Cheesecake Factory!
This was going to be the last question, but let’s just get into what the Cheesecake Factory order?
Brae: It actually changes a lot. Actually for one of our buddies it was his first time at Cheesecake so we were giving him the absolute rundown on it. Don’t skimp over the Skinnylicious menu; I had the grilled steak medallions and they were absolute fire.
JVB: Two orders of bread. Why are you bringing me one? We’re gonna two orders off the rip…
Brown bread, obviously.
Brae: Brown bread. That’s huge, you get it. Then buffalo blast as the appetizer … fire.
I have no idea what that is.
JVB: It’s Buffalo chicken dip wrapped and deep fried with buffalo sauce … insane. It’s crazy. And you just get whatever you’re feeling [at Cheesecake Factory]. Everything is good.
Brae: Yeah, we get a different cheesecake every time we go. I think we’ve run through every single cheesecake over the years.
I always go with the banana cream cheesecake.
Brae: Wow! Good man! He [JVB] loves that.
Alright guys. Thanks for the interview. I’m gonna head out.
Brae: Yeah. Awesome. Food review with JVB all right, we’re done!
Jokes and cheesecake aside … how do you think HYPERYOUTH stands out lyrically and sonically from your previous albums?
Brae: HYPERYOUTH is certainly an evolution in all ways. Joey’s production on this is absolutely insane. It’s the best beats we’ve ever had. All of our verses just the flows. The pockets that we hit on this album are — I don’t want to say that they sound much different than what we have done — but they certainly are stepped up. The things that we’re speaking have purpose. Everything was storyboarded out for HYPERYOUTH — all the imagery and the colors and the sounds. The sampling was huge for this album. So I would say that this is definitely the most thought out and leveled up sound of JVB, thus far.
You have a hell of a range of collaborators on this album from JPEGMafia to Rebecca Black. Can you talk about why you chose these artists to join you.
JV: We make music, firstly, with our friends, and that’s the most important thing. Whenever we have these beats that are starting to move along the line we already immediately know who’s going to be the feature on it. There’s no labels [saying] we should try and find the biggest pop star to be on this. We’re like, ‘We want this person [and] let’s see if we can get them.’ [The requests] mostly come from Instagram DMs. We just reach out to the person. That’s how almost all of the collaborations happened. We’re just like, ‘Hey, we’re big fans and we want you to be [on this song].’ Usually, we’re already friends so it’s either “Yeah” or “I don’t have the time right now” — but mostly every time it works out. Rebecca was fantastic. We really wanted a female presence on this album on a lot of the songs. So They’re very purposeful in approaching people in the same lanes as us.
Any dream collaborations?
JV: Tyler, the Creator.
Brae: Yeah, Tyler, the Creator.
JB: He would be so amazing. Skrillex, please. Just please.
Brae: Daft Punk.
JV: Daft punk reunion. JVB x Daft Punk album.
 Just recreate the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.
JV: Oh, my God, “Derezzed” is one of my favorite songs ever.
One thing I noticed with your live shows, you guys have so much energy. You make me tired just watching you. How much of a symbiotic relationship is between you and the audience. How much are you feeding off their energy?
Brae: Yeah, it’s pretty tiring. We’re pretty tired. You do get tired and traveling sometimes sucks but when you step out on stage, you’re like, “Oh, shit! Here we go!” The crowd is always lit. At Lollapalooza it was insane. It was so much fun. The crowd was just jumping the entire time and so we were. We feed off the crowd directly.
JV: We’re tired because we care. Yeah,
Brae: We’re tired because we care …oh, that’s that’s a bar.
JV: We give a 1000% percent energy every time we go out. Even if the crowd’s not responding, which is not very often, we’re 100% performing just for ourselves because it’s fun. There’s never a moment where we’re not having a good time on stage ever.
Speaking of festivals — being on Lollapalooza is pretty incredible.
Brae: Yeah, it’s dope. Lolla has a special place in our heart, because that was one of the first huge bill festivals that we got to play two or three years ago. We were on this really tiny stage in the middle of the day, and to play like a cool stage now later in the evening, and have our font size go up like a tiny bit it’s pretty fucking cool.
I’ve interviewed a lot of bands who like to take their songs and recreate them for the live experience. Do you do that with your music?
JV: All props to people who want to elevate their live show with bringing in new elements and instruments and everything. But I’m like … I fucking produce this. I like this beat. I want you to hear the beat that I spent hours and hours slaving over. I don’t want it to be changed at all. The one thing that we want to do, though, and we’ve seen like Tyler [the Creator] and and JPEG[Mafia] like to do this in a live setting. There’s nobody stopping you from using different samples and things like that. So we’re gonna put in some of the stuff that didn’t clear and extend some of the samples and areas and just make it like a kind of experience where sometimes stuff is a little bit different. But you know I, fucking made the beat. I want you to hear the beat.
You have been doing this pretty aggressively for the past few years. What do you love about this group that keeps you coming back every day with this unbridled passion?
JV: I mean, we love it.
Brae: Yeah, man, this shit is so fun. This is my brother, right here. Getting up on stage is the most fun. We love our tour crew to death … our DJ, our photographer, our videographers, our tour managers, everyone that we get to travel with. It’s the coolest fucking job in the world. You get up on stage, You go back to the hotel and we’re just eating snacks and watching TV. We get up the next day and chill in the airplane. It’s just such a cool job. It feels like an endless boys night all the time. We’re just so grateful.
JV: Don’t get us wrong we care so much about the business, too. We’re involved in all the business. We work our asses off to make sure shit runs smoothly. We have a great fucking team of people who genuinely care. We’re all just like having the best time of our lives and we’re just here because we love it. We do it for no other reason than that.
Brae: Shout out to our whole team, too. Everybody on our team they’re just as excited as we are about all the stuff that we’re doing. It keeps the world of JVB spinning in a positive way.
What are five things outside of the album release that you’re absolutely stoked for the rest of 2025, and dip into 2026.
Brae: We got the HYPERYOUTH tour coming up. Get your tickets if you haven’t at jvbsucks.com. Come see a show. Come dance. Come bounce. Come cry. We’re excited.
JV: For just things in general, not even about the album … I’m excited for Christmas.
Brae: I am excited for Christmas low key. I’m excited for Labor Day. We’re going on a little vacation. I’m excited to drive my car. I got a new car a few months ago and haven’t even been able to drive it. I’m pretty stoked to just go home and drive around and do nothing.
JB: Honestly excited to start working on album four.
Brae: Low key. I want to start working on new music. There’s already so many ideas for new stuff. And like, I just want to get back, like, you know, in the room and just start making noises and shit, yeah.
HYPERYOUTH by Joey Valence & Brae drops on Friday August 15. Tickets for the HYPERYOUTH Tour are on sale, click here to buy them.
