“Time wears memory thin…
heartache and new days begin”
From the Daydreamer sessions
Joel Ceballos
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Joel Ceballos is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. His new album, Daydreamer, is his first under his own name in nearly two decades.
His debut, Between Dark & Light (2001), was an attempt at a commercial record: big arrangements, obvious hooks, a young writer working out what a record was supposed to sound like. Nocturnal (2007) was the opposite instinct, a stripped-down album inspired by folk, rock, and Americana, made by someone who'd learned a little more about the songs and about himself. Both records kept him on the road for years and built a small, loyal following.
After Nocturnal, Joel didn't stop writing. He stopped releasing. The songs kept coming, most of them never left the room they were written in. He got married, raised a family, and moved into work in film and television. There wasn't much of a decision behind any of it, just less room than there used to be.
Something changed in the songs over those years. The metaphors thinned out. He kept fewer of them, and let the weak ones go before they were finished. What's left is quiet by nature: arrangements that stay close until a song asks for more room, then open up into something wider.
Daydreamer is the first batch of those songs he decided to let go of. It's a record from a writer who spent a long time learning what a song could hold, and finally had something of his own worth saying again. The first single arrives later this year, with the full album out in early 2027.