For the past few years, the New York-based singer-songwriter known as June McDoom has been making spacey, elegant indie-folk. McDoom grew up in a Jamaican family in South Florida, absorbing reggae and folk, before moving to New York to study jazz performance. She started putting out her own music in 2022, and she collected her early EPs on a self-titled compilation last year. She also toured with people like Nick Hakim and Brittany Howard, and she took part in Sub Pop's 2024 Margo Guryan tribute compilation Like Someone I Know. Now, McDoom has signed with Jagjaguwar and announced her full-length debut Follow The Light, out this fall.
June McDoom recorded Follow The Light with her partner and regular collaborator Evan Wright. Lead single "Without You" is not a Harry Nilsson cover, though it does have some of the same tender studio craft that Nilsson brought to his music. It's a spaced-out reverie that makes time feel like it's passing more slowly. In a press release, McDoom says:
I wrote "Without You" about that feeling of realizing how meaningless life can feel without the person/people you love, and how you can feel like nothing without them around. I wanted the arrangement to reflect the emotional journey of that realization. The ending celebrates the awareness and commitment to never take that person for granted, because it’s never too late to change how you’ve been.
Below, check out the Bing Cao-directed "Without You" video, the Follow the Light tracklist, and June McDoom's upcoming shows.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Human Angel"
02 "Without You"
03 "Outside The Window"
04 "Forever"
05 "Get Out Of My Life"
06 "Grandpa"
07 "Dream Dub"
08 "Memory"
09 "Mountain"
10 "Searching To Find"
11 "Weaver"
12 "Follow The Light"
TOUR DATES:
9/05 - Salisbury, UK @ End of The Road Festival
9/08 - London, UK @ Rough Trade West
9/09 - London, UK @ TBC
10/16 - Boston, MA @ Cafe 939
10/17 - Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
10/21 - Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
10/22 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby's
10/23 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
10/24 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
12/06 - Portland, OR @ Jack London
12/07 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
12/10 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echo
12/12 - San Francisco, CA @ 4 Star Theater
Follow The Light is out 10/16 on Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.
