Back Home by Geo-Joe

Last February, Wichita couple Georgia Sutton and Joey Lemon signed up for the RPM Challenge — an international music challenge that encourages participants to write and record an album in just one month. They named their project Geo-Joe and set the goal of completing ten songs by March 1st, 2024. While they weren’t completely successful in meeting their original deadline, the delay only came because they liked the songs too much and didn’t want to rush the full-album release. Instead, they shared one song on March 1st and chipped away at overdubs on the other nine songs throughout the spring.

In June, Joey rescued an old Ampex tape machine formerly housed at High Fidelity Studios where midwest punk legends The Embarrassment recorded their debut album in the 80s. While Ampex tape machines are still used in many top studios today, this particular unit had been in storage for nearly 30 years. One of the cards literally lit on fire when Joey powered it on for the first time. He was devastated by the setback but also knew that he wanted to use this Wichita relic to put the finishing touches on Geo-Joe. After shipping parts back and forth to a repair shop in Philadelphia, Joey was able to get the machine back up and running, and by mid-August, he was finally able to mix all ten songs down to tape and send masters out for digital distribution and vinyl pressing.

Georgia and Joey talk a lot about the human elements of art and music. They prefer to lean into imperfections instead of over-editing. They are both naturally drawn to slow tempos and minor keys, so the project easily developed a mood. The writing process was symbiotic: When Georgia led on keyboards, Joey would add structure on drums or bass. When Joey led with guitar, Georgia would find ways to elevate his droning chord progressions. Writing melodies and lyrics together happened in a way that neither of them could explain outside of their seemingly endless shared talking points: love, grief, art, capitalism, inequality, religion, etc. The album’s narrative stems from a last-minute road trip to Kansas City where Joey attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference. Georgia joined, snuck in, was kicked out, and happily explored the city instead. Each song explores a scene from this trip, beginning to end. The sound crosses a variety of genres, from slowcore rock to baroque pop, but some easy musical references are Tom Waits, The Smile, and Low (another band built around a couple).

Geo-Joe is Georgia Sutton and Joey Lemon. They live together in Wichita, KS. They are both teachers. Joey runs a recording studio out of their basement. Upstairs, Georgia draws, paints, and makes hand-pulled prints for her shop, The Big Harumph. Joey asked Georgia if she would like to record a few songs together as part of the 2024 RPM challenge. Thus began their collaboration.