Joelistics grew up in Sydney, the offspring of a Chinese Australian father and an Anglo Australian mother, playing drums in punk and funk groups, but drawn to hip hop with its outspoken politics and ad hoc sonic cannibalism. At the beginning of the new millennium, Joelistics took the first of a series of 'voyages' around Australia, working as a fruit picker, visiting hippie festivals and hitch hiking across the country, eventually settling in Melbourne where he discovered a city going through a creative boom.