Joe Altier stood in front on the stage at Margaritaville in Destiny USA, facing a sparse crowd.

“Happy Monday, everybody,” he exclaimed to the audience.

One of the few people in the crowd shouted out to correct him; it was Tuesday night.

Covered in tattoos and wearing a black shirt with cargo shorts, Altier shows hints of his past as the lead singer of a heavy metal band called Brand New Sin. Now, he is the current lead singer of a different heavy metal band, Elephant Mountain, based out of Syracuse. On the side, however, Altier becomes Just Joe, a performer with a completely different sound, performing with just a keyboard and his voice.

Altier’s voice shares a bluesy southern rock sound with Lynyrd Skynyrd. With his bare feet propped up on the bottom of his keyboard, Altier is casual and effortless when he performs, naturally flowing from song to song without break, even though he does not have a generated set list before going onstage.

With over 3,000 cover songs, original music from his previous and current bands and original music from Just Joe in his repertoire, Altier finds it difficult to decide what to play each night. Sometimes, he goes to his Spotify playlist of all his songs, hits shuffle and plays whatever song comes on first. From there, he just goes with the flow.

Tuesday he started with The Beatles’ “Come Together,” and proceeded to play a wide variety of songs, including “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash, “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John.

Just last week, Altier performed in a different venue every night of the week throughout Upstate New York, including engagements such as private weddings and events open to the public at restaurants and bars. This week in Syracuse, he’s performing at Woody’s, Local 315 Brewing Company and Pizza Man Pub.

Altier said that his love of music sprouted at a young age. He was influenced by his parents’ music growing up, such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles, but he also had two older brothers who introduced him to ’70s classic rock. Altier discovered his love for heavy metal when he found Metallica and KISS.

As he got older, he realized he enjoyed performing music when he started bringing his keyboard to high school parties and people would ask him to play. He jokes that when girls started paying attention to him is when he got hooked on performing.

Former bandmate Kevin Dean said Altier’s first band, Brand New Sin, formed when a local Syracuse band, Godbelow, changed its writing style and began looking for a new drummer and vocalist. Altier auditioned as vocalist and they liked him, and Godbelow evolved into Brand New Sin.

There were times Altier performed with Brand New Sin for two to three thousand people, the most being around 15,000. In the transition from such large venues to smaller ones, such as Margaritaville, Altier totally had to change his mindset. In big crowds, as the lead singer, Altier had to find a way to connect with the larger audience. In smaller crowds, that’s a little bit easier to do.

Between the years of 2010 and 2014, Altier released cover records each year, and with Just Joe and Elephant Mountain, he put out a total of six records. Although he has not been creating new music for a while, instead focusing on performing and his personal life, Altier thinks perhaps it’s time to get back into writing and producing.

As Altier has grown up, his inspiration for his music has matured with him.

“Before it was all about crappy relationships and all the partying I used to do. Life is so much different than it used to be,” Altier said. The artist is now married and has a ten-year-old stepdaughter and a two-year-old little girl.

Although Altier has no idea what will inspire him next or what will come out of his new music, he is sure his family will be included in it. But for Altier, it’s easy to find inspiration anywhere.

“If an artist says that they can’t find inspiration…really? In this day in age? Go on Facebook and write about some crazy person you see on your Facebook feed or watch the news for five minutes. It’s everywhere,” Altier said.

Altier admires songwriter Jason Isbell, and said that he would love a chance to pick his brain. Altier admits that when he hears a great song, he gets intimidated and inspired at the same time. For a second, like all musicians, he will have ego issues and crippling self-doubt about his abilities, but instead he uses this inspiration from other musicians to grow as an artist himself.

One of Altier’s most memorable moments as a musician was when Brand New Sin’s song was featured in the background of the classic comedy “School of Rock.” Altier and the rest of his bandmates can easily be spotted in the background of the battle of the bands scene. Although this music scene is a completely different vibe than Just Joe, both the heavy metal and the piano have an equal spot in Altier’s heart.

“When you hear how I sing in the metal band and you hear how I sing as Just Joe, it’s like two different people,” Altier said. “I’m lucky to have the ability to do both.”

According to former bandmate Dean, Altier is one of the best frontmen in the business.

“I don’t care if there’s two people or 2,000 people,” Altier said. “I get to play my music for a living so I can’t complain. If there’s one person here who may be digging what I’m doing, in this day and age that trickles down really quickly.”

Published on September 28, 2016 at 7:27 am

Contact: lmeyers@syr.edu