Joseph King

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Joseph King
Background information
Genre(s)	Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist
Instrument(s)	Vocals Guitar
Associated acts	Canvas Murder My Sweet Deadbeat Darling

Joseph King is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known as the frontman for the band Canvas.

A native of San Antonio, Texas, King moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to major in religious studies at Stanford University.

In 1995 King met fellow musician Ben Rada at a coffee shop in Palo Alto and the two began jamming together. King and Rada, along with various friends, toured the west coast club circuit for two years. After their band played the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas in 1999, King and Rada decided to relocate to King's native state.

The band settled in Austin, adding bassist Brad Byram, lead guitarist Julian Mandrake, and drummer Scott Thomas. The group called themselves Canvas, and released three albums and toured relentlessly, playing over 500 concerts, before breaking up in 2006.

As early as 2004 King began writing songs with former Billy Idol guitarist and record producer Mark Younger-Smith. Upon the breakup of Canvas, King and Younger-Smith decided to put a new band together. Along with Canvas's drummer Scott Thomas, they recruited bassist Darryl Phillips, and keyboardist Stefano Intelisano. The group, which dubbed themselves Murder My Sweet after the 1944 mystery film, promptly wrote an album's worth of songs and began touring the Texas club circuit. While Canvas was a straight-forward rock and roll band, Murder My Sweet had a heavier electronic sound. By late 2006, King left the project and was replaced by Aaron Barrera.

King currently resides in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he is persuing a solo career and fronting the reggae-influenced soft rock band, Deadbeat Darling, which includes Sanjay Jain (bass) and Alex Wong (drums).