Joe Casey

Joseph Kevin Barry Casey (born January 31, 1977) is an American musician based out of Detroit, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of post-punk band Protomartyr. He is known for his distinctive vocal style, "anti-charisma[tic]" stage presence, and sardonic, literary lyrics which often incorporate philosophical themes. He is also responsible for creating the band's visual aesthetic.

Early life

Casey was born to an Irish-American Catholic His father - a construction inspector for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department - was a fan of history, which in turn encouraged his interest in the field later on. Solitary in nature and fond of playing video games, he remembers being an avid reader as a child, treating it as "a competition [...] to see who [among his siblings] could read the most".

He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy and remembers being a good student, though he describes his academic performance in college - University of Michigan - as being "pretty bad". His school friends included many future musicians, including the members of garage punk band Tyvek (whom he would accompany on a few of their tours and cite as an influence on Protomartyr's music).

In March 2008, while on a trip to Texas with Tyvek, his 72-year-old father died due to complications during a routine hernia surgery. His death acted as a "wake-up call" to Casey, and would subsequently have a huge impact on his lyricism. He and Butt Babies started to jam together in 2010, soon adopting the name "Protomartyr" - referencing Saint Stephen.

Aside from their 2012 debut No Passion All Technique - which was later reissued in 2019 to positive reviews - all of Protomartyr's albums, including 2018's Consolation EP, have received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Metacritic, the band's discography (excluding their debut and including the Consolation EP) has an average score of 83/100, indicating "niversal cclaim". The Agent Intellect and Relatives in Descent even managed to break the top 5 of Billboard'''s Top Heatseekers chart, and songs from these two albums have been featured in TV shows such as 13 Reasons Why, The Rain and The OA. They have extensively toured around the world and have performed at multiple noteworthy festivals such as SXSW, CMJ Music Marathon, and the Pitchfork Music Festival.

Casey has also performed as a guest on numerous other records. He provides backing vocals on Tyvek's 2012 album On Triple Beams (alongside Greg Ahee). He sings lead vocals on the tracks "Rope" and "Slang Words" by The Gotobeds off of their 2016 & 2019 albums Blood Sugar Secs Traffic and Debt Begins At 30 respectively. He is also credited as the composer of the track "Why'd You?" off of the former album.

Artistry

Lyricism and themes

According to an interview with Los Angeles Review of Books, Casey writes lyrics after listening to the music composed by the rest of the band. and "blue collar" "beat poetry". His lyrics often consist of references to pre-Enlightenment sources For example, the lyrics to "A Private Understanding" reference Heraclitus, while "Bridge & Crown" references the deity Hermes. The philosophical concept of existentialism also informs a lot of his writing. He has often cited Irish literature as a big influence on his lyrics, a Spin interview noting that he'd "daydream" in college of being to Detroit what James Joyce was to Dublin.

According to Ben Ratliff - who considers The Agent Intellect to contain "ome of the strongest lyrics of 2015" - Casey's lyrics often render "Detroit as a pile of symbols and emotions". "Casey writes lyrics about the lives of the working class and dystopian visions from the heartland", writes Lauretta Charlton for The New Yorker, noting - as have other sources, including Casey himself - the influence Detroit has had on his lyrics. His lyrics on Relatives in Descent have been labeled by many as political, despite Casey refusing to label it an "anti-Trump" album, finding it no less political than the band's previous releases up until that point. Ana da Silva of The Raincoats compares his apocalyptic lyricism on Ultimate Success Today - with its "theme of things ending, above all human existence" - to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Alexis Petridis finds Casey's "pre-cognitive powers" in his lyricism on the album to be similar to those of Mark E. Smith, one of many critics/sources to find similarities between the two as well.

Vocal style and live performances

Casey has been described as having a baritone and a "half spoken, half sung" sprechsang vocal style, which he pejoratively describes as "mumbling". It has been compared to Ian Curtis, Nick Cave and Mark E. Smith.

Casey has often been singled out in reviews of Protomartyr's live performances. In fact, humorous critical descriptions of his introverted appearance and "anti-charisma[tic]" onstage persona have even been compiled on a widely referenced Tumblr blog titled DESCRIPTIONS OF JOE CASEY. “Joe is one of the best lead singers right now,” Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage claimed in an interview with Spin, “His whole stage thing is awesome, but it’s not even a ‘thing’—it's just who he is.” and claims that on-stage drinking - a common feature of his live performances, where he brings "at least 6 beers" - helps him deal with it.

Artwork Cover artwork designed by Casey (featuring a drawing by Alex Leonard) for the Protomartyr split single with R. Ring, A Half of Seven (2015). Casey is responsible for the entirety of Protomartyr's album and flyer artwork, He describes his process and the origins of his aesthetic as follows: He originally lived there with his mother, until he and his brothers decided to relocate her to the suburbs due to her worsening Alzheimer's disease in 2014. Casey's mother died in 2021. Casey got engaged the following year, and got married in Detroit on May 20, 2023.

Casey is a "movie lover", and his favorite games include NFL Blitz and Red Dead Redemption 2''.