Bandmates to Soulmates

For this week’s Love Letter, we’re going behind-the-scenes of Danielle and Josiah’s interview from mid-July. The pair sat back down with Meet Cutes NYC to tell us the full story of how Danielle’s search for a drummer and ended up finding them a partner.

Take a look.

Thanks for talking to us again! We’d love to hear the full story of how you met

Danielle: We actually met for the first time in 2021 when we were in two separate couples.

Josiah: We we’re just munching down on queso, like Oh, you’re my person’s friend. Cool. Nice to meet you. Just double date duty. We didn’t think anything of it. 

Danielle: It was so surface level of a meeting. We both went our separate ways with our own couples and lost touch after. 

What brought you back together? 

Josiah: I had been in New York for a bit because I’m in a band there and went to school there. Danielle had moved here for a theater gig but was transitioning into music. And one day she was like “Hey, I remember you play music here. I really need a drummer for this gig, do you know anybody?”

And what was kind of crazy about that was at that time I was really itching to play drums because I hadn’t played for a while. So we met up and had some rehearsals and had a really good first show. That kind of kicked things off. 

What made you think of Josiah? 

Danielle: I just didn’t know anybody in the music space! So I was digging through my brain about who I knew in the city. 

What were your first impressions of each other when you reconnected? 

Danielle: I was in my business mind because we met up for rehearsal. I was just like “Here’s my music. How can we work it out?”

Josiah: I’m attracted to creative people. I had been single for a while at that point, not having any luck of resonating with anybody. When we met up for that first rehearsal I was like Oh, they’re really talented and they’re smart and they grind. There were a lot of green flags in that moment. 

But honestly I was just trying to do a good job. I didn’t want to be that musician that tries to get with somebody in the band. You see that a lot and it really ruins things. I was just grateful to be playing drums again. 

I definitely had some inklings of attraction at that first rehearsal, but I was inclined to keep it professional because I didn’t want to be a fuck boy. 

Well, we’re here talking right now. What changed? 

Danielle: So we had our rehearsals and we performed the show. When the show ended Josiah had kind of disappeared. And I was like Where’d he go? I wanted to hang out!

So I texted him “Hey, come back! We’re going out.” And he told me he had to go put the drums back and suggested a bar for us to go to. We met up there, and that’s where I realized there was kind of a vibe. A person there was making moved on him and it made me feel kind of jealous! 

And so I inched my way into being like, “Hey, you can do what you want, but I kind of did want to get to know you…” 

We had a night of playing ping pong and pool against each other. And then later that night I made a move. 

Josiah: I was definitely trying to play it cool and wait for Danielle to hit me up. I didn’t want to be too thirsty. 

How did things grow from there? 

Danielle: We took it really slow. 

Josiah: We were so mature!

Danielle: We were very mature. I was in the process of moving on out of my own emotional baggage. From that first interaction that was more than friends, it took like seven months of seeing each other casually, knowing that one person could be seeing other people with the freedom and the space that I personally needed to move on from where I was at. Josiah was incredibly patient. 

Josiah: I had about a year after my relationship where I was able to have my own emotional healing journey. I was very thankful that I was able to have that in my back pocket, because Danielle needed that when we first met up and hit it off. I knew exactly what they were saying to me, because I had just gotten out on the other side of it myself.

And then the time came when Danielle felt ready enough and had had enough personal time that it happened and we were in a relationship. 

Danielle: I really am proud of us for that, and proud of myself for asking for that. 

What has the reaction been like to sharing your story with Meet Cutes? 

Danielle: It’s definitely been interesting. I try to keep my stuff a little more private because it scares me to have my stuff out in the open as someone with a music persona. But I was telling Josiah how heartwarming it was to see people feel our lovely, magic rapport and lift that up and root for it in a way that I never would have anticipated at that kind of scale. 

Josiah: That’s the big takeaway, for sure. But also, we’re artists, so this has been great. It’s so hard to break through the noise in today’s world, so I was happy we were able to just be ourselves and people were resonating with that. 

Danielle: Selfishly, we did get some followers, so thank you for that!

Wanna watch Danielle and Josiah’s original Meet Cute video? Click here.

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Interviewed and transcribed by Nicolas Vega. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.