He'll recite the details of your love with his family
And what was once a whisper will become a deep rumbling sound
Serpentwithfeet, moniker of the Baltimore-born Josiah Wise (born July 9, 1988), is an experimental musician based in Brooklyn, New York who became known for his artful blending of gospel with disparate genres such as electronica and classical music.
Moving to New York after initially training to be an opera singer and getting rejected by the conservatories he applied to, he would become apart of Philadelphia's neo soul scene and release his first single "Curiosity of Other Men" in 2014. This would lead up to the release of blisters, which would garner acclaim and recognition from numerous experimental musicians and producers, most notably Björk.
With this Wise began to work on his studio debut with assistance from noted producers such as Clams Casino and Florence + the Machine collaborator Paul Epworth. Inspired by a breakup as well as the power of Wise's own vocal peculiarities, soil arrived in June 2018 garnering accolades for it's gospel-meets-experimental electronic sound.
His work can be found on YouTube
, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp, among other places.
Discography
- blisters (EP) (2016)
- soil (2018)
- Apparition (EP) (2020)
- DEACON (2021)
Tropes present in his work
- all lowercase letters: soil and all the song titles are written in lowercase. By contrast, DEACON's album title is in all caps.
- Biblical Motifs: Serpentwithfeet often references his Christian upbringing and incorporates biblical and religious themes into his music, such as the Garden of Eden, heaven, and spiritual awakening.
- Costume Porn: Practically his most noticeable quality outside his music. I mean look◊ at◊ him◊.
- Intercourse with You: "seedless", "cherubim" and "waft" from soil, and "Wood Boy" from DEACON.
- Lighter and Softer: In comparison with his first studio album soil, DEACON is more an album about romance and love.
- Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: His sound can be described as Aretha Franklin meeting with Arca for brunch. Serpent himself has even called his work, "pagan gospel".
- Queer Romance: Much of serpentwithfeet's music, especially the DEACON album is about male/male love, specifically between black men.
