Joe Popp was born in East Hanover, New Jersey. His family relocated to Jacksonville, Florida in 1977 when he was 12. He began to play guitar and write songs. Popp served as the front man for the bands One Minute Father (1986-1987) and Ant Farm (1989-1990) before relocating to Tampa, Florida in 1990.

While in Tampa, Popp was the front man and guitarist with two punk trios, dogs on ice (1990-1994 Allied Records), who would open for Green Day, and his eponymous band, JOE POPP (1995-1997 Space 44 Records). While in dogs on ice, he built and wired his first studio, Bugland, located in downtown Tampa. He recorded his band as well as several other well-known Bay Area bands in the space.

JOE POPP debuted as the opening act for a sold out Toadies concert at Janus Landing in St. Pete, FL. The band then scored a run of other opening slots for national acts including: Seaweed, Jawbox, Mike Watt, Schleprock, five-eight, Superdrag, the Specials, Suicide Machines, Hagfish, Mr. T Experience, Squirtgun, Blink 182, Joan Jett, Life of Agony, Cheap Trick, Six Finger Satellite, and others. The band also played at the 1996 South By Southwest Music Conference as Florida's only unsigned showcasing act, and was invited to the Independent Label Festival in Chicago, and the CMJ Marathon in New York.

Tampa was fertile creative ground for Popp. He was also hired as an actor for a series of Paragon television commercials, performed spoken word, appeared on billboards, and performed as a solo acoustic artist. He was also a member of the Busch Gardens marching steel drum band, Sounds of Steel (1992-1995).

Popp got involved in theater while in Tampa. First as a sound designer, and then as a composer and performer. He worked extensively with Hillsborough Moving Company, Jobsite, and American Stage, who produced his rock musical adaptation of Macbeth (1997). This production still holds the attendance record for American Stage's In the Park series with over 20,000 attendees. Seattle Public Theater remounted the show as Macbeth: A Rock Musical with an all femme cast in 2023. All but three of performances sold out.

In 1997, Popp joined I.A.T.S.E. Local 321 and accepted the front of house sound engineer position for the Jaeb Theater at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. He also worked in the other 3 theaters in the building as a composer, sound designer, F.O.H. Engineer, monitor engineer, and touring Broadway show support. On one particular day, Popp had loaded in a touring Broadway show in the 2,610 seat Morsani Hall, then went to mix as the front of house engineer in the 1,042-seat Ferguson Hall, while his sound design was being used in the The 312-seat Jaeb Theater, and his mini opera JY2K was being performed by Jobsite Theater in the 130-seat Shimberg Playhouse! He worked there until he left for NYC.

Joe Popp arrived in New York City at the end of May of 2000. His first year and a half, he freelanced as a recording studio tech. He also worked short stints at Columbia University (A/V Tech), Galapagos Arts Space (Technical Director), and, City Sound Productions (Studio Manager and Tech). In 2002, Popp landed the position of Technical Director of the Sonic Arts Center - the music recording program at The City College of New York where he served for 22 years. During his tenure at CCNY, Popp also taught three classes as an Adjunct Lecturer: Studio Tech Workshop, Rock Ensemble, and Sound Design II for the Masters Degree Film Department.

Popp, continued his work in theater with Jobsite. They produced his original rock musicals MAXWELL (2002) and Pericles (2009-2010) in both Tampa and NYC. He also collaborated with playwright Rinne Groff on several productions, the most successful production being In The Bubble (2007), co-composed by Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Civilians), and directed by Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal, Dear Evan Hansen).

In 2007, Popp returned as a front man and guitarist with his long time collaborator Tylor Durand and formed The Hornrims. The band performed in New York City and released three albums before disbanding in 2012. He would go on to perform with several more projects including the experimental band Plasma in the Ukraine, and the acoustic rock duo Lost Axis.

Working in the audio and music recording industry lead Popp to be selected as one of the recording engineers on Joseph Bertolozzi's Tower Music album. Working with the composer, Popp spent two weeks in 2013 on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France recording samples to be used on the project which was released in 2016 (Innova).

A motorcyclist for most of his life, Popp came up with the idea for a TV series called Popp Over America where he would tour the 48 contiguous United States as a singer-songwriter on a motorcycle. He shot, directed, and edited an award-winning pilot episode that he released in 2017. The series did not get picked up, but Popp did the tour with his own funds and released self-produced YouTube videos of his 95 day, 16,000 mile adventure.

His life coming full circle, Popp rekindled his relationship with his high school sweetheart, got married, and moved back to Jacksonville in 2023 after 33 years of being away. He still records with his band mate Martin Rice in JOE POPP, and they recently released the 4 song EP, One Per Cent (2024). He continues to perform as a singer-songwriter around Florida. He completed construction of Popp Rock Shop his Studio/Workshop/Performance Space in August of 2024.

Joe is happy to announce that Popp Rock Shop is now his full time gig!