June Swoon’s first LP This Town Could Be Big Enough for the Both of Us is an intimate collection of lo-fi songs, evocative of a getaway car in the Joshua Tree desert. Over the course of 10 tracks, June plays with grunge, country pop, and indie rock, showcasing command of genre and a cinematic writing style. Digital orchestras and fuzzed out guitar swirl around a core of romantic fatigue, ranging from flippant anthems to Lynchian ballads. The album is a mosaic of bedroom demos and borrowed tracking rooms of friends in Oakland, Nashville, and Los Angeles. The album was self-released in 2019 and pressed to a short run of vinyl. June Swoon toured the West Coast with punk/post-punk backing band MUTT (Oakland) leading up to the DIY release, with an album release tour and Noise Pop slot scheduled for Spring 2020. When the pandemic grounded all tours, the vinyl was hand-delivered to fans who had pre-ordered, and June returned to writing/recording her first studio album, A House With Windows Open.
June Swoon’s sophomore self-release and first studio album A House With Windows Open marks a notable evolution. The album is haunting in tone, weaving rousing indie rock with post-punk and experimental folk. While her first album used country-western motifs to explore heartache and nostalgia, this collection of songs cuts into the dark subconscious of modern America, from Ring cameras ("I look out for myself/Look out for any trouble coming/Guess we're all just looking out/Cameras in front of the house" from Love is Strange) to working class issues ("Knew I'd never own land or study in Spain/Got by adding up tip line change/Some folks pay big for a friendly face" from Water Baby). June Swoon also grapples with her own anxiety and Evangelical upbringing with strong Biblical allegories throughout, including on Blue Bayou and Passover, contrasting manmade structures with the power and wisdom of the natural world.
This is a concept album about control, and what we do with the knowledge that we ultimately have none. The album was recorded at 64 Sound in Highland Park, Los Angeles (owned by Pierre de Reeder of Rilo Kiley).
June Swoon is currently in production on a third album inspired by "Lilith Fair era country," employees taking smoke breaks on Western movie sets, outlaws real and imagined, motorcycles, working women in shoulderpads, female villains, dice rolls, movie theater seats, boxing rings and space stations (and anywhere else women were never supposed to be), muscle cars, the absurdity and inevitability of making art, self-respect, living and striving in Los Angeles, and,
for better or for worse, being on the other side of growing up.