SERPENTWITHFEET is the performance name of Josiah Wise, an experimental musician and singer from Baltimore, United States, based in Brooklyn. He is associated with alternative R&B, ambient pop, art pop, R&B and singer-songwriter styles, and his work also draws on soul, gospel, experimental and art pop elements.

Background

Wise is born in 1988 and is raised in Baltimore. His family is religious: his father owns a Christian bookstore and his mother is a choir director. He joins a church choir as a child, and gospel and classical music are major early influences. He is openly gay, and he uses gospel music from an early age as a way of expressing his sexuality.

Career

He attends the University of the Arts and sings with neo-soul bands in Philadelphia before moving to New York City, where he begins working with Robin Carolan of Tri Angle Records. He releases the blisters EP in 2016. The release includes previously available songs including “flickering”, “blisters” and “four ethers”, along with “penance” and “redemption”. The EP is co-written and produced with The Haxan Cloak.

His debut studio album, soil, is released in 2018. He releases music on Secretly Canadian and Tri Angle.