Joi were brothers Farook (born 24 October 1968) and Haroon Shamsher (14 November 1965 – 8 July 1999), born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and brought up in the East End of London to a Bangladeshi father and an Indian mother. Their passion for music developed at a young age as their father was a professional flautist who had a shop in Brick Lane selling saris and musical instruments he imported from India. He also had Hindi, Indian classical and traditional Bengali music records, and ran a traditional music shop. Their father would organise sessions and record with Baul artists, and sell the tapes.