EPK - EXTENDED ARTIST BIO WITH LINKS
Joy Frost is a pop singer songwriter from Salt Lake City, Utah who lives in Ireland. She blends influences of vintage jazz vocalists into her contemporary pop songwriting, where she is best known for her dark, velvet voice and her lyrical skill of putting universal struggles into words which deeply resonate with her listeners. JFs regularly releases material on Spotify where she has amassed over 80,000 monthly listeners through multiple Spotify Editorial Playlist additions. Before live music had to be put on hold, she spent years busking regularly on Grafton Street.
Joy has had her songs featured in TV shows (The Fosters The Prom Episode, Sneaky Pete Season 3 Premiere, etc), used by companies such as LIDL and Disneyworld and recorded by other signed artists including Lord of the Lost and Scarlet Dorn. She recently signed to the indie label frtyfve records/instrumental for a six single contract. They discovered her through her cover of Yellow by Coldplay.
Origin Story
Joy Frost, born Bri'anna Joy Cootey, was born on March 11th 1992 at 19:19 in Orem, Utah under a waxing gibbous moon on a Wednesday. Joy has always been writing songs. She wrote her first song when she was 2 years old, even before her very first memory. Her mother, Robyn Joy Frost (after whom she is named) taught her to sing in church choirs. Her father Douglas Cootey, who is also musical, was the one who very first introduced her to audio production and helped her record her earliest songs. Her family was always very supportive of her pursuing music.
Joy spent her childhood and teen years performing and writing. As a teenager she took vocal lessons from Mindy Pack and Dean Kaelin, vocal coaches who have worked with artists like Justin Timberlake, David Archuleta and Miley Cyrus. At age 13 she began producing a music industry podcast, Bitz of Brin, which she continued producing until she turned 18. One of the listeners of this podcast bought her her very first guitar, her beloved purple Ibanez AEF30 which she still uses. Joy took the podcast down in her early twenties. In high school Joy was the lead singer of a bluegrass folk band and attended a charter school called East Hollywood High which specialized in film, where she learned video editing and production. She was the Class of 2010 Valedictorian and wrote a song as her graduation speech. In college she worked at a TV station where she helped produce an acoustic music television show which featured local artists in Utah. She went on to teach herself German and study audio engineering in Germany at the SAE Institut Hamburg.
In 2016 she won a songwriting scholarship from Constituting America, who flew her Nashville. There she got to record on Music Row with one of Elvis Presley's old studio microphones as well as sing together with Vince Gill in his home studio. The video of that duet is at 12 million views on YouTube. The duet is of Vince's favorite hymn, How Great Thou Art, which he also performed with one of Joy's vocal biggest influences, Carrie Underwood. Joy is not religious herself, though she was raised in the Mormon Church in Utah and spent her childhood singing in church choirs where her mother was the director. Joy has been an ex-mormon since she was 19 and identifies as bisexual. After leaving the church she began going by her middle name, Joy. She soon emigrated to Germany, taking on her mother's maiden name for her music.
Musical Style & Influences
Joy has a 3 octave vocal range. She has access to whistle tone high notes, and has a strong belt for power ballads, but her favorite room in her voice is her low resonant chest voice, where she can comfortably sing down to D3. Joy focuses her music on writing raw, honest lyrics on introspective topics which most writers sleep on. The last three singles she's released centered around unique themes of mental health, chronic nightmares and self employment. Her strength lies in writing gently delivered deep lyrics. Her favorite lyrical device is outer space metaphors. While she can play guitar, piano and produce, her ultimate musical gift is her soulful voice. Many people have described her singing voice as velvet, and her speaking voice as ASMR level calming.
Joy's voice was likened to Amy Winehouse by songwriter Robin Frederick at the TAXI Music Convention. One of JF's fans described her voice as “Joss Stone meets Nora Jones, time travelling to hang out with Bishop Briggs, Adele and Billie Eilish in their sunniest moments.”
Under her greatest vocal influences Joy lists: Ella Fitzgerald, Adele, Shirley Manson, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, Christina Aguilera, Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan and Whitney Houston. The great black artists and vintage jazz crooners are her ultimate inspiration. If she was born 100 years earlier she would have loved to be featured on a Benny Goodman record.
Under general musical influences, Joy lists: David Bowie, Max Martin, Coldplay, Britney Spears, Michael & Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift, Lana del Rey, Pink, Justin Timberlake and The Weeknd. Mostly she just loves a sexy minor key progression.