In If Solely, an earlier tune of Melbourne-based musician June Jones, she invitations the listener to fulfill her in a online game – ‘I designed my character to be principally true … / However regardless of how arduous I attempt, I can by no means actually be her’.
Tracing her music from emo punk in first band Two Steps on the Water to electro to pop in her solo choices – Diana, Leafcutter and Pop Music for Regular Girls – it’s clear that Jones is alight with the artwork of transformation and exploring new sonic areas to see the place she matches in.
A trans musician who has spoken about her ADHD prognosis, Jones’ music is extremely private, the lyrics forensic, interrogating gender id, psychological well being, incapacity, a childhood of trauma, how creativity works and what therapeutic would possibly appear like.
In an interview with NME, she likens her thoughts to a shopping center meals courtroom: ‘I’ve by no means seen my inside world so effectively described by exterior actuality: very shiny, very loud, heaps happening, arduous to concentrate on something.’
June Jones: focus
Relating to music, although, Jones appears in a position to focus. She is a one-stop powerhouse, writing, recording, producing, mixing and releasing her newest LP, Would That It Have been a Fortress. Studying to document on her personal throughout lockdown, these new songs shift once more right here to catchy and exuberant pop that swirls round a way of calm and confidence, with notes to lovers and tender entreaties on the best way to transfer past what binds us.
Within the single Bachelorette, a clean mixture of bass, guitar and membership cool, she goals of settling, hoping for a bridge of understanding, of a simple vibe, ‘by no means losing a day in mattress with you,’ whereas Be Trustworthy is a stripped again and intimate dialog, tender particulars of lovers like a ‘butterfly keyring,’ looking for connection. Backed by Remedy-like synths, Jones’ voice is seductive however has readability; she desires to be heard.
June Jones: voice
Jones has spoken of the tensions she has skilled in the best way her voice sounds as a trans lady singer: ‘I really feel continuously conflicted about what individuals are studying into the sound of my voice,’ whereas additionally having fun with working within the deeper register (NME).
In her newest EP, this self-consciousness appears to have moved on. Her voice is polished and lustrous, distinctive, particularly within the wave-like All I Bought, which presents a lingering distinction between an prompt catchy dance hit and unusual imagery flights: ocelots, taking a sip from a chook’s beak, a misplaced kiss ‘masticating on my tongue’.
June Jones: disappointment
There’s disappointment on the pop’s core, too. From the primary piano chord strike to the rise of strings, we discover a lot buried in Complete World and its refrain line, ‘I’ve obtained the entire world in my coronary heart’: the empathy of characterisation and what she has to supply, ready for it to be acknowledged and seen.
The helicopter-whir of beats brings the listener aloft to consider fantasy and the devastation when it plummets. ‘Whether or not it’s with magic or a household / Each of them are equally as arduous for me.’
June Jones: Eyes on Me
In my favorite monitor, Eyes on Me, the tone is at first playful, exploring video games for lovers, looking for clues: ‘I’m on the lookout for a lead pipe within the kitchen, within the research.’ The driving heartbeat kilos the listener alongside the practice tracks to a spot the place ‘that is actual life with me, not on the display screen’. The façade is coming down and what’s left in its wake? The wheel-skids within the monitor carry Jones again from the sting.
This tune’s use of lyrical repetition appears to encapsulate Jones’ profession thus far and what she’s getting down to do as an artist, a mantra of types: what occurs if you get previous rage, if you threat transferring past trauma to a spot of consolation and heat?
Just like the EP itself, the tune is a chrysalis, wrapping her and the listener:
‘I wanna be completely different to what I’ve been, I wanna discover, I wanna know extra, I wanna remodel, attempt all the things, I wanna be completely different to what I’ve been …’
If you need extra of an August soundtrack, try this audio feast of recent albums from Australian artists:
Emily Lubitz, Two Black Horses, 18 July
People Bitch Trio, Now Would Be a Good Time, 25 July
Dojo Cuts, By no means Have I Ever, 14 August
Mama Kin Spender, Guarantees, 15 August
Emma Louise and Flume, Dumb, 22 August
Would That It Have been a Fortress is launched on 29 August 2025.
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Kirsten Krauth is an writer, poet and podcaster. Her bestselling novel ‘Nearly a Mirror’ was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and SPN E-book of the 12 months, and sparked a profitable podcast about 80s pop and post-punk songs.
