Mitch: Your debut album, Follow The Light, just came out on 16October. Do you mind sharing a bit about the album and the themes that can be found throughout?
June: Essentially, the record started as this idea I had where I wanted to do some sort of fusion between folk music. I’m specifically a really big fan of late ’60s and early ’70s underground folk music, so I’m always writing from that inspiration era.
My family is Jamaican, so I grew up listening to a lot of Jamaican music, and I wanted to have elements of that in this record too. That was the starting concept.
I record my own music, so I ended up adding a bunch of other elements too. It’s a mixture of all the things I really love sonically in this project.
Mitch: What do you hope people feel while listening?
June: I named the record Follow the Light because I was thinking a lot about my family while I was writing the songs, and how I grew up around a certain type of music but found a completely different type of music on my own. I thought about how important it is to cherish the people in your life who nurture you and help you find who you are. You become a little bit of them, but you also form your own identity.
The message of Follow the Light is a reminder to people to look at the people in their lives who bring them light, hone in on them and honour them. I’m doing that through the music and what I’m talking about.
That’s a really wordy way of saying that I want to honour the people in my life who bring me light and remind people to do that too.
Mitch: If the album was turned into a movie, what would the plot be? What would the movie look and feel like?
June: My favourite movie ever, and honestly a big musical inspiration of mine, is The Sound of Music. I’m obsessed with it. I used to watch that movie basically every day as a kid because we had one of those cars with a TV and DVD player in it, so I would just watch it every day.
I didn’t realise it until recently, but I think that movie has really inspired me sonically. Visually, it’s also a big inspiration. I love how nature appears in the movie, and I feel like I’m really inspired by nature visually with the record.
Mitch: What’s your favourite memory from making the album?
June: I made the record with my partner, so it was really special because it was a slow process of us gradually building the record. We had a harp player come in, as well as a violin player, so I think doing all those little sessions with classical musicians was really special.
Mitch: Without using any genres, how would you describe the sound and style of the album?
June: I would say it’s a colourful record that explores discovering yourself and the journey of finding yourself, and how that can feel hard. It does so in a sort of dreamlike space, a reflective space.
Mitch: You’re also touring the album around the US, UK AND EU. Why should people come along to a show? What can they expect from a June McDoom show?
June: Playing live is really special for me because, over the past several years, as I’ve found this project with June McDoom, I’ve gotten super into recording and making records. But I started off as a singer, and I studied jazz in school. I was a jazz voice major, so singing has always been the most special experience for me. Being able to sing live is a really special experience that I cherish.
Mitch: Can Australia expect any shows soon?
June: I hope so! I don’t have any on my current calendar at the moment, but I hope that happens at some point, sooner rather than later. I’m crossing my fingers. I’ve never been to Australia, so I would really love to go.
Mitch: What’s the best way for people to support you and the album?
June: I’ve just moved to a new label, which I’m really excited about, and we spent a lot of time making a really special vinyl. I’m really excited to have that come out, and it would probably be a really special way to listen to the record.
Shows will also be a really nice way to connect with people.
Mitch: What’s one thing you’d love to manifest for your career over the next 12 months?
June: When I think about the next 12 months in my career, I’m really excited for people to hear the whole record and for more people to experience it. I don’t know if this is really a goal, and I’m not really a manifester, but I’m genuinely curious to see how people process the record. It has a lot of parts of myself that I’ve mixed together, and I don’t think it’s the most stereotypical record.
I’m curious about how people will live with it. I also think it’s a record that will take some time, so over the next few months, it’ll be nice to see how people react as they spend time with it.
I’m mostly looking forward to that, and then being able to play the songs live.
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS!!
Mitch: Favourite track from the album?
June: Right now, I think it’s ‘Forever’.
Mitch: Favourite lyric from the album?
June: “Dream like a girl as I grow old”
Mitch: If you could feature any artist on any track from the album, who and on which track?
June: It would be pretty epic to have Bob Marley. I think about him a lot because my family, especially my dad, listened to Bob Marley so much when I was a kid. Jamaica is such a small country, so I think about how he’s left such an imprint on the world. That would be super epic.