I recently had the opportunity to interview an up and coming 5-man band from London called Junodream[https://www.junodreamband.com/]. Named as one of The Independent’s top 15 bands to watch in 2020, and recently hitting 3 million streams on their single ‘To the Moon’, Junodream have dropped their first release of the year with the single ‘Easy Life’.

 

Drawing influence from psychedelia, post-rock and prog into their unique shoegaze mix, Junodream have created a (juno)dreamy track with intense peaks and lows.

 

 

Hiya, first off could you introduce yourselves?

We are Ed (vocals), Dougal (guitar), Tom (guitar), Jake (bass) and Will (drums) aka Junodream.

 

 

What’s the brief history of Junodream? How did you guys get together?

We’ve been friends since our early teens, brought together by the fact we each played a different instrument. We spent many an hour rehearsing and we were rubbish for a long old time. We announced Junodream just over two years ago. I guess this was the time we finally felt ready to show our music. Slow and steady.

 

 

Could you tell us a bit more about your latest single Easy Life?

It was a happy mixture of ideas we had that collided together. It’s a sweet sounding song, but being Junodream we had to counter this with a creepy uneasiness. That’s what we’ve always liked in songs, lyrics contrasting with the music.

 

 

What’s the process behind making a song? How do you make a song sound ‘Junodreamy’?

Luckily we have three writers in the band – Dougal, Ed and Tom, which means we’re never short on ideas. In terms of the writing we like to use a Christmas tree analogy: Dougal often arrives with a tree and plonks it in the living room, Tom then decorates the tree and Ed’s the angel on the top. However, these roles can switch every now and then. (Does this make any sense?!) (yes!) . In terms of ‘junodreamy’, the songs have to be melodic, rough around the edges and spacey. We will no doubt add more ingredients as we go on.

 

 

As a band, or as individual members, would you say there are any big influences on your music/play styles? Do you try to listen to certain things to inspire your work?

Individually we all have slightly different tastes, which keeps things interesting. Although there’s certainly a large common ground. AIR, Beck, Spiritualized, Sigur Ros, Zero 7 to name a few.

 

 

Dream collab?

Shout-out Dr. Dre.

 

 

Most memorable/chaotic event you’ve experienced as a band? At a show or otherwise?

Hamburg in Germany, things got out of hand quickly.

 

You’ve come out with quite a entertaining podcast called Dreamcast. Could you tell us a bit about that?

We initially started this for a laugh as all we do is sit down for an hour or so and talk nonsense. Luckily people seem to enjoy it so guess we’ll continue. Ed’s a bit of a podcast wizard and chops them up into bitesize episodes, although has been known to edit in a few laughs after his own jokes, so watch out for that.

 

 

Favourite song you’ve released? What’s the story behind that?

Has to be ’To the Moon’, purely due to the fact that we whacked it out really unsure whether people would like it or not without any promotion. After two weeks, no one had listened to it and we said to each other, “probably shouldn’t do one of those again”. Then out of nowhere it’s become our smash-hit (sort of) …big up Spotify.

 

 

What do you want the readers to know about you guys?

We make better music than we do interviews.

 

 

Finally, what’s coming up next for Junodream? What’s the dream for Junodream?

A pretty tasty release or two in the pipeline. Now’s a great time to get on board the jdream. Honestly, come aboard. Please.

 

 

If you’ve had the (dis)pleasure of hearing me ramble about music over the past year, you might have heard me sing the praises of Junodream before. With the steady growth Junodream has displayed, I think it’s safe to say that Junodream is on it’s way to becoming a household name, and is a big one to keep an eye on in the UK music scene (or perhaps even globally).

 

 

Junodream are heading three live dates this autumn, with more to come in 2021. Their music is available on Spotify, Soundcloud, and other major streaming services. Good tracks to listen to include Easy Life, Limiter, Terrible Things That Could Happen, and Nobody Wants You. If you’re looking for a nice laugh, the dream_ cast podcast on their IGTV is a good listen.

Let’s hope we get to hear a few more Christmas trees from them in the future.

 

By Maheen Chowdhury