After experimenting with noise bands, touring with the likes of Girl Talk and creeping his way from a drum set to the intricacies of computer algorithms, 23 year-old Joe Williams is emerging from the darkness to conquer that which grips hold of all, but is tackled by a brave few; under the guise of White Williams he explores the perverse world of pop
music.

Dazed Digital: How did your foray into the world of pop music take shape?
Joe Williams: I was in a noise band in high school, then I was making music on my computer, I had a solo project that was a karaoke-style performance and the music was more deliberately dark. I also had two bands, Machete and my other band that I still work with, USA Crypt. But some point, I just started picking up guitars and I had no more interest in dark music, or much less.

DD: The songs on Smoke seem extremely post-9/11, particularly "New Violence" and "Headlines". All of this chaos and societal crumbling is being described and the gore of it all is marveled at as an exciting, new frontier. Does that relate to the war, and how so many developments have been made in weapons while science and medicine have been put on hold?
JW: The lyrics to "New Violence" kind of acquired meaning, for me, after I'd written them. Before then it was sort of a construct of sounds and patterns, and then I was like "this song could be about disaster, or graffiti, or something much more behind-the-scenes like the World Bank or something." Sound wars, microwaves, military technology… I try to make my lyrics more symbolic than they are about something specific, like, "here's my song about my shitty stepdad." I find that if I try to write a song about something before it is written, it becomes a cliché. "Headlines" has something to do with the absurdity of people and the media, and the obedience that it commands.

DD: While listening to the record, I couldn't help but draw comparison to the attitude and vocal style of Sparks and T. Rex. Were they of any influence to you?
JW: Sparks is amazing, actually, and I love T.Rex. It's a bit sarcastic but less tongue-in-cheek. I was very obsessed with the 'Canon of Glam' at a certain point, especially from a standpoint of production, lyrics, and engineering, but also just the lawlessness of it. They were rock stars, but they were also creeps. It was more of an ambiguous time for rock music, and they used synthesizers which is important to me. Also, the music from Germany was big and is still super important to me.

DD: Your album cover features Sophia Lamar as twins, smoking out of a hookah while crying. How did that imagery come about?
JW: Andrew Strasser did the album art. He also does art and visuals for Girl Talk. Andrew and I created the concept out of a story I heard about a girl from Cincinnati, who was really upset about something, a boy or something, and she was bawling over it but it didn't keep her from hitting from this bong. So we were pretending to cry and taking bong rips and that's how it started. Initially it was going to be Sophia and this other model named Patricia Dow, but she backed out for personal reasons so we ended up pasting Sophia around. Her fake tears are made of Elmer's glue!

DD: What can we expect from White Williams in the future?
JW: I have already started working on new tracks. Songs like "Headlines" and "In the club" were some of the first White Williams songs. I've learned a lot since then. I would really love to tour Europe and London but I'm waiting on a european release. I'm trying to figure out how to budget in some videos, we have a great premise for a video for "In the
club". I'd like to work with more musicians on the next album as well.

White Williams tours the U.S. and Canada through the end of September,
Smoke will be out October 2007 on Tigerbeat 6.

White Williams at MySpace