Joslyn Hampton is certainly an animated performer when she fronts the Lexington, Ky., R&B troupe Joslyn & the Sweet Compression. And now, thanks to the video for the group’s new song “What Did You Think Was Gonna Happen,” premiering exclusively below, Hampton is literally animated.
“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, this is cool.’ Then I did a double take and went, ‘Wow, this IS kind of interesting to look at someone else’s perception or interpretation of me as a cartoon’,” Hampton tells Billboard. “I thought it was an interesting little character, pretty neat. It’s a very fun video.”
“What Did You Think Was Gonna Happen” hails from the Sweet Compression’s self-titled debut album which is due out May 17. The group formed about three years ago, was founded by Hampton and her stepfather, guitarist Marty Charters, who’s worked before with Junior Wells and H-Bomb Ferguson. “We’d been playing in local cover bands and (Charters) got tired of playing the same old songs and other people’s music,” Hampton recalls. “He was like, ‘Would you like to have a band of our own? I think the two of us could really create something magical.’ And I was like, ‘I’m cool. I’m down’.” Both were clear, however, that the Sweet Compression was not going to make “a very popular, today, mainstream type of record. We wanted to do classic R&B, classic soul, funk. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not retiring (from the covers circuit) to make everybody’s mainstream music. Let’s do this right!'”
As the septet group releases its album, which closes with a cover of Frankie Beverly & Maze’s “Changing Times,” it’s also looking to ramp up its live game — primarily to take the act further on the road than it’s been able to so far. “We’re trying to get a wider audience to notice us and build steam and give everybody the joy we get out of doing this,” Hampton says. “We have a few festivals and stuff like that, but we’re working our way through to getting a schedule and getting to play more and show people how we feel about music, through music.”