Joji Artistfacts

September 18, 1992
Born George Kusunoki Miller in Osaka, Japan, Joji grew up between two worlds; his mother is Japanese, his father Australian. Before he ever touched a microphone, he spent his days catching frogs and running through rice fields near Osaka, moments of quiet he now credits for the meditative calm that seeps into his music.
He attended Canadian Academy, an international school in Kobe, Japan, where diverse backgrounds and languages influenced his early outlook.
At 18, he left Japan for the United States to attend the New York Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2016.
Before Joji the singer existed, there was Filthy Frank, his chaotic, surreal YouTube alter ego. Under that banner, Miller created popular comedy sketches that mocked the internet's weirdness. The Filthy Frank channel helped popularize numerous internet memes, including the "Harlem Shake" dance craze in 2013.

Miller's other persona, Pink Guy, made absurdist rap albums that unintentionally laid the groundwork for his serious musical ambitions.
He left the online world in 2017 to focus on music, citing "pretty gnarly" medical issues that included a neurological condition (stress-triggered seizures). That experience bleeds into his themes of fatigue, memory, regret and longing across songs like "Slow Dancing In The Dark" and "Past Won't Leave My Bed."
Joji's earliest experiments in music started on GarageBand after hearing Lil Wayne's "A Milli" and trying to recreate its beat. "I tried drum lessons for a month and didn't learn anything, couldn't do it," he admitted to Time.
GarageBand remains his secret weapon: Joji told Schon magazine he continues to use the Apple software because "it looks the same as when I was in seventh grade, and I like to work with what I'm comfortable with."
With his 2018 debut album, Ballads 1, Joji became one the first Asian-born artist to top the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart. He learned of the milestone while eating a slice of cheese.

"I don't think I celebrated," he told Harpers Bazaar. "I was like, 'Alright, what's next?'"

His 2022 single "Glimpse Of Us" went even further, breaking into the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 and becoming the first song by an Asian artist to reach #1 on Spotify's Global Chart.
Despite his massive success, Joji still works small. He prefers minimal setups that let "emotional noise" lead, starting most songs with wordless syllables before shaping them into full lyrics.
Evolving as Joji has given him insight into George Miller. "Being in studios and meetings all the time for 24 hours with no windows, I've realized just how much I depend on nature because I'll go apes--t if I can't be with or near wildlife," he told TMRW magazine.

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