“What if ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit was a ballad?”
That’s the question Just Joe asked as he sat down at a piano, performing the 1999 nu-metal song with a tenderness equal to the anger in Fred Durst’s voice more than two decades ago. The result is a haunting cover that would fit the soundtrack for “Deadpool 3″ or a Jordan Peele movie.
“It’s just one of those days / Where you don’t want to wake up / Everything is f---ed / Everybody sucks,” Just Joe sings.
Just Joe, whose real name is Joe Altier, said he originally recorded the piano ballad cover of “Break Stuff” for a TikTok video last year, but has begun sharing clips more often on Instagram and YouTube as those sites have emphasized short videos in recent months. The reposted video caught Durst’s attention this week, who commented on Just Joe’s Instagram with two emoji — a music note and a UFO — and shared it to his own social media.
“From what I gather, (Durst is) pretty active on social media and comments on stuff,” Altier told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “I think it was pretty organic.”
Now the video has nearly 400,000 total views on TikTok and more than 67,000 on Instagram, according to Altier. Publications like Metal Hammer, Revolver Magazine and Metal Injection have written about it, calling the UFO emoji Durst’s version of a thumbs up. (Limp Bizkit’s late ‘90s tour featured a UFO on stage and Durst previously wrote an “American Aliens” blog.)
“The least romantic song ever written somehow gets a moving makeover, and Fred digs it!” Metal Hammer wrote on Facebook.
Warning: Video contains explicit lyrics.
And fans want more. Hundreds of comments are asking for a full version of “Break Stuff” or a whole album of piano ballad covers of rock songs.
A whole album of metal covers is coming soon, Altier promised, in addition to a handful of singles he’s already released on Spotify and Apple Music. Highlights include original songs and gentle takes on Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon,” Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
Altier said that he chooses which songs to make full recordings of based on demand from his videos on TikTok and Instagram. A ballad version of “Down Under” by Men at Work was a no-brainer after it gained nearly 500,000 views on TikTok, for example.
Altier, who performs solo as Just Joe, is a full-time musician also known for his work with Syracuse hard rock band Brand New Sin and as an on-air personality on K-Rock (WKRL / WKRH). He tours frequently and said he may take his upcoming album of piano ballad covers on the road this year, in addition to a potential Brand New Sin reunion concert.
He built a large following on social media by emphasizing piano covers of rock songs during the Covid pandemic, gaining nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok (@justjoesyracuse) and close to 9,000 on Instagram (@justjoesyracuse). He often tags the original artists’ social media pages, but most of the attention each video gets is because his creative interpretations are really good and cover multiple genres, ranging from Dio and Iron Maiden to artists like Guster, Madonna, ABBA and Travis Tritt.
The piano ballads also match a growing trend on TikTok: Sped-up and slowed-down songs.
Billboard reported in November that 80% of the top 100 sounds on TikTok are tempo-altered, sometimes thrusting old songs by artists like Thundercat, Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, and Nelly Furtado back onto the charts. Sometimes record labels will even release official versions of the slower or faster remixes if they’re popular enough; two versions of Cafuné's “Tek It” both have more than 120 million streams on Spotify.
“For me, it was something to do on the side, and now it’s (a big deal),” Altier said.
For more info, visit justjoe.com.
Joe Altier, who performs as Just Joe, is a Syracuse musician and a K-Rock radio personality. (Provided photo)
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