The inception of Joyce is marked when songwriter Jody moves from London to Berlin to join his old friend and guitarist Nikolas. Shortly thereafter, Alessandro (drummer) and Igor (bassist) are added to the line-up and the band kicks off by winning a few contests in their native Northeast Italy. Blending distorted strumming, mellow guitar phrasings and catchy melodies into a euphonious abreaction, Joyce are resolved on transcending their own origin. They go on performing at the Open Source Festival (Düsseldorf) and start cutting their teeth on the underground music venues in Berlin, such as the iconic Wild at Heart. Whereas the lyrics make an effort to endear themselves with a poetic outline, their sound seems not to care. Melting together shades of punk, grunge, noise rock, often arranged in conventional pop structures, the message "all is well, all is bad" echoes. With their cathartic live performances and nihilistic attitude, they aspire to trap people in a vortex of rock nostalgia.

"Heart in a shell" cunningly disguises itself as a common pop rock ballad, while preventing you from confidently calling it so. The first two verses "Half the world's in chains / While all the whispers drown" disclose the heartfelt lyrics and the unconventional style of the song, adding poetic depth to the raw grit and fuzziness of the riff. Its final crescendo aims to thrust Joyce' first single out of time.