Joseph King

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For the victim of the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire, see that article

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

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

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.

Simultaneously during his involvement in Murder My Sweet, Joseph formed another band. In addition to Joseph on lead vocals and guitar, the band included Julian Mandrake (guitar), Johnny Goudie (keyboard, backing vocals), Brad Byram (bass), and Josh Rodgers (drums). The band played a few shows in Texas, but was dissolved in 2006 when Joseph reformed the project in New York with a new set of musicians and named the band Deadbeat Darling.