JUNO interview

Brat summer? More like JUNO spring!

Kahlia and Sam from Brisbane indie pop band JUNO join me to chat about their new single ‘Bleach’, Bigsound, TikTok and more. JUNO says they are especially loving the collaborative side of making music recently and proud to say this release is super DIY from the recording to the sourcing of set design.

‘Bleach’ is infectious, summery and encapsulates a carefree attitude whilst saying screw you to your ex. If you’re a fan of Remi Wolf, Benee, Cosmos Midnight, JUNO may be your next favorite band.

Congratulations on the release of your new single ‘Bleach, can you tell us about it?

Kahlia: We wrote this one with our friend San Joseph and we wrote it in Melbourne and basically, I wanted to write about this topic for a while, I’d gotten a few comments from some mutual friends and an ex about changing my hair and my vibe and my style to ‘get over’ him. I thought the concept of that was just so funny and I wanted to write a song that almost knocked back at that ego. I did change my style when JUNO started, and it was for that reason. It came together quite quickly and easily.

Sam: It turned into like a breakup, empowerment anthem really.

Was there anything you approached differently or did in a different way that you’re proud of?

Sam: This is the first song where we wrote it as a song first, it was just the guitar and vocals and lyrics, and we really focused on the message of the song. A lot of the time with JUNO what happens is that I’ll be making an instrumental or working on a beat while Kahlia’s writing along to it. It was a bit of a changeup in the process for us, because we’ve had a hard time taking things from acoustic guitar into synth-y pop-y land and this turned out pretty well I’d say.

Kahlia: This release was also quite DIY like with the visuals. Our stylist Neesha, we collaborated with her and she’s incredible. We sourced the posters off the wall from Facebook marketplace and all these cool little knick knacks and she got her bed spread from when she was a kid, and just fully DIY’ed it. That was a fun element, and we’ll keep doing that because it was so fun being creative on the music and then also visually tying everything together how we saw it in our brains.

Sam: Definitely the most we’ve taken on ourselves.

Where is the best place you like to write and create music?

Kahlia: We’re really lucky we have a studio in our garage it’s really sick, it’s like a soundproof room in a room and we’re always in there. This has been a bit of a recent thing; I think the collaborative aspect of music is our favorite way to do it. We have so many amazingly talented muso friends and we’ve been getting in the room a lot more lately and I feel like writing and creating has just been more fun than ever.

Sam: Yeah definitely, we’ve been honestly, most of the time now bringing a friend in or another collaborator, musician or producer or something and trying to bring different energies into the room. Sitting in the studio with no agenda, it’s very low pressure but having other energies in the room and hanging out is how we make it happen at the moment.

Kahlia: Even with ‘Bleach’, our drummer Cody Costa, we called him in, and we said hey can you listen to this mix we’re pretty much done, we’re feeling good about it. He came in and came up with this idea on the last chorus, it’s quite epic, and we were just doing it for fun. We were ready to submit it and then we were like alright we’ll add it in. Unexpected creative moments like that are exciting and Sam and I love the collaborative process.

You guys are playing Bigsound this year, what are you hoping to get out of it and who are you wanting to see?

Kahlia: I’m keen to see Peptalk, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how good they are so I’m keen to see them.

Sam: I want to check out Towns.

Kahlia: What we’re wanting to get out of it is…we’re working every single day to put together our best show yet, we’re adding a few songs and we’re at a point now where it’s time to put out a body of work, so the songs we’ll be playing are sneak peaks of stuff that will be on that EP. This is our first time playing at Bigsound and I’m so excited about it. You’ll just walk down the street and meet so many people and run into so many people, it’s just the best social event.

Sam: Really keen for the shows but keen to just meet people and hang out with people.

Kahlia: Like I said before, Sam and I love the collaborative process so we’re keen to meet other songwriters, producers and people who get our vision and get what we’re doing. It’ll be fun, we’re so excited.

After Bigsound, you’re playing Sweet Relief festival alongside Kelis, The Presets and more, how did you feel when you landed this gig?

Sam: Kind of surreal.

Kahlia: Such an iconic lineup and it’s in a stadium, we’ve never played a stadium. We’re so pumped.

Sam: I listened to The Presets on my iPod in high school for about four years straight so being on a bill with them is crazy.

Kahlia: ‘Milkshake’ was like primary school disco jams.

Sam: So, it’s just weird seeing our name up there to be honest, but its surreal, it’ll be really fun, really looking forward to it.

How are you preparing for these upcoming shows?

Kahlia: We’re adding a bunch of new songs off this secret EP, a lot of rehearsals. I’ve been getting more cardio in because I like to put my whole body into the performance and jump around and kick around and be a bit silly and I hate being out of breath.

Sam: Nit picking.

Kahlia: Yeah, even releasing ‘Bleach’, just making sure that there’s new music out there to show where we’re heading, trying to be the most prepared we can. I think you only get to play Bigsound once, well you might get a second time but it’s sort of a once thing so we want to make sure we put our best foot forward. Rehearsing has been fun, the band is sounding so good, we have such a good band, they’re the best people, very talented.

What can we expect from a JUNO performance?

Kahlia: Very energetic, very empowering, we have a saxophone player not to brag. He puts on a really good show. Very bright and colourful.

Sam: Getting people dancing and singing along. It’s all very fun and over the top.

Kahlia: Very inclusive, we like when people clap and sing along and dance. We just like putting on something that’s really energetic and makes people feel energised.

I’ve been keeping up to date on TikTok, how important is it for bands and artists to be using TikTok nowadays to get their music out there?

Kahlia: It’s very important. I’ve read somewhere that it’s the number one place people are discovering new music, so it’d be a waste of an opportunity to not be on there. It’s also tricky because it’s a whole different platform, you have to learn a whole new skill. I made it my mission to learn how to do it and figure it out because I’m on there all the time and I do love being on there but creating for it has been a whole new learning curve.

Sam: It’s a big mindset shift because what TikTok really likes is you posting and being on there all the time, you have to keep it in your mind to turn something into a TikTok constantly.

Kahlia: And you’re not just reaching your fans, you’re reaching random people who don’t care about you and learning how to make them care. The way I’m approaching it is like learning an instrument. I might not be great at it at first but over time I’ll start to be better and if I don’t give up, I’ll get there. I think a lot of musicians talk about how important it is but it’s such a commitment with daily posting … yeah, it’s tricky.

Do you have any goals for 2025, any more you can tell us about the EP?

Sam: The EP is a big one, just get it out there and release more music and kind of do the longest EP we can without it being an album… maybe 7 songs, is 8 too many?

Kahlia: I think 8 is an album now.

Sam: We’re also looking into going overseas for a little bit, we don’t have a lot of details about that yet but trying to get out of Australia and do some things. Another headline tour, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne run. Having the year be based around releasing a bunch of music again. Last year we released 6 songs, and this coming year will probably be 2 or 3. We have so much stuff we’re sitting on that we want to share and we’re very excited to get that out!

Catch JUNO at their upcoming shows

Destroy All Lines agency showcase | September 2nd | The Brightside | Tix (free)

Bigsound | September 4th & 5th | Fortitude Valley | Info

Sweet Relief Festival | September 7 | Ballymore Stadium | Tix

Follow JUNO here