Little Joy is a Brazilian/American rock band formed in 2007 by Los Hermanos singer/guitarist Rodrigo Amarante and The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Amarante and Moretti met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. In 2007, with Los Hermanos on hiatus “for an undetermined amount of time”, Amarante travelled to Los Angeles to collaborate with Devendra Banhart on his Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon album. He and Moretti met during recording breaks and talked about “anything but music.” Through mutual acquaintances, they met multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro, who encouraged the pair to work on a few songs Moretti had begun writing. The band then moved into a house in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles to write more original music and record some demos. The band was christened “Little Joy” after a cocktail lounge not far from their house. Their eponymous debut album was recorded with the help of producer Noah Georgeson, whom Amarante met during his sessions with Devendra Banhart. It was released by Rough Trade Records on November 4, 2008.
