With new single “Dance With Him” and upcoming EP Dance With Joey, the Los Angeles-based indie pop project turns romantic obsession, pop culture, and the pursuit of stardom into a celebration of queer joy.
What if the fantasies we entertain about our favorite celebrities aren’t really about them at all, but about our own desire to feel seen, desired, and extraordinary?
For Joey Nebulous, the queer indie pop project led by Midwest-born, Los Angeles-based musician Joseph Farago, the distance between everyday life and impossible fantasy has always been fertile creative territory. His music inhabits a universe where celebrity crushes become love stories, heartbreak comes wrapped in irresistible melodies, and the pursuit of fame feels just as ridiculous as it does deeply human.
Now, Joey Nebulous announces Dance With Joey, a five-track EP arriving in January 2027 via Mendel, alongside its playful lead single, “Dance With Him.”
The track began with an unlikely source of inspiration: Paul Mescal dancing in a Gucci advertisement.
“I began writing this track in 2023, when Paul Mescal’s Gucci ad kept popping up on Instagram,” Farago explains.
Mescal’s seemingly effortless movements inspired a repetitive chorus built around the fantasy of sharing a brief waltz with an A-list celebrity. It’s an absurdly specific premise, but beneath its humor lies something universal: the desire to briefly escape the ordinary and experience a moment that feels larger than life.
The accompanying music video, directed by Nick Pillot with help from Sarah Ritter, takes that fantasy into even stranger territory. Inspired by a pink monster puppet Farago discovered in Jackie Smook’s apartment, originally constructed for an unrealized horror film, the video incorporates puppeteering and miniature model building into a surreal celebration of romance.
It’s a visual world that understands something essential about Joey Nebulous: sincerity and silliness don’t have to be opposites.
The Beautiful Absurdity of Wanting to Be a Star
Across Dance With Joey, Farago embraces the contradictions of contemporary queer existence, moving between the desire for recognition and the pleasure of simply being alive.
Influenced by the indie rock sensibilities of Pavement and The Magnetic Fields, alongside the unapologetic pop instincts of Charli XCX and Kim Petras, the EP trades traditional genre boundaries for a more instinctive approach to songwriting.
“Dance With Him,” produced primarily by Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp and co-produced by Nick Levine of Jodi, replaces the band’s familiar live-drum arrangements with electronic bass and snare, pushing Joey Nebulous toward a brighter, more dance-oriented sound.
Longtime collaborator Margaret McCarthy of Moontype contributes vocals, while Levine produced and mixed the EP in their home studio. Scoops Dardaris handled mastering.
The result is a compact, approximately eight-minute collection that moves through yearning, heartbreak, resilience, and pleasure without treating any of those emotions as mutually exclusive.
There is something particularly compelling about Farago’s willingness to acknowledge the desire for stardom without disguising it as artistic detachment. In a cultural landscape where ambition is often carefully packaged as authenticity, Joey Nebulous seems comfortable admitting that wanting attention can be funny, embarrassing, and completely sincere.
From Midwest Bedrooms to Los Angeles Dance Floors
Joey Nebulous began in 2015 during Farago’s college years in Oberlin, Ohio, initially serving as a personal outlet for his thoughts about celebrity culture, romantic longing, and the small absurdities of daily life.
The project eventually developed into a full band in Chicago, becoming part of the city’s collaborative independent music community and sharing stages with artists including Remember Sports, Beach Bunny, and Soccer Mommy.
Following the 2019 EP Give Yourself a Kiss for Me, Joey Nebulous released the 2023 double single Break / Jennifer Aniston, featuring a collaboration with Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos on “Break.”
That same year, the band released its debut full-length album, Joey Spumoni Creamy Dreamy Party All The Time, through Dear Life Records. Recorded across several years, the album reflected the collaborative spirit of Chicago’s independent scene.
Now based in Los Angeles, Farago continues the project alongside Pao Yumol, Nick Levine, Blake Burgess, and Elias Williamson, bringing together longstanding collaborators and newer members.
With Dance With Joey, that evolution takes on a distinctly pop-oriented direction. Yet the emotional foundation remains intact: an interest in the things people secretly want, the fantasies they construct, and the strange ways popular culture becomes entangled with personal identity.
Romance, Fantasy, and the Freedom to Be Ridiculous
Perhaps the most interesting thing about “Dance With Him” is that it doesn’t attempt to justify its own premise.
A celebrity crush becomes a dance song. An abandoned horror-film puppet becomes a romantic protagonist. The pursuit of an impossible encounter becomes an excuse to celebrate desire itself.
For Joey Nebulous, pop music offers a space where those contradictions can coexist without explanation.
And maybe that’s what makes Dance With Joey feel especially relevant: its refusal to separate emotional vulnerability from pleasure, or ambition from self-awareness.
Sometimes the fantasy isn’t about whether the dream will ever come true. Sometimes it’s about how much fun we can have imagining it.
“Dance With Him” is out now. Dance With Joey arrives January 2027 via Mendel.
Dance With Joey — Tracklist
- Ding Ding Ding
- Airplane Joey
- Dance With Him
- I Wanna Be A Star
- Yes 2
Watch: Joey Nebulous — “Dance With Him” (Official Music Video)
Photography: Joni Babb.
