June McDoom Tickets

When June McDoom’s love of vintage folk from the sixties and seventies blossomed, she was quick to realise there were seldom any artists with similar identities to her own. She sought to change that, in turn writing gorgeous neo-folk music that feels both timeless and of our times. 

Brought up in South Florida within a Jamaican household, the singer-songwriter was raised on reggae music, which permeated every inch of her family home. Her father listened exclusively to reggae, while her banjo-playing grandfather adored mento music (Jamaican folk music). Quickly recognising her own passion for music and storytelling, McDoom delved into vintage records from the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Judee Sill and Tia Blake, mesmerised by these artist’s harmonies, poetic lyricism and stripped-back craft of simply voices and nylon strings. They were three artists that would prove to be enormously influential throughout June’s budding career. 

Aged seventeen, she relocated to New York City to study a degree in Jazz Performance, though admittedly wasn’t well-versed in the illustrious history of American jazz music. But it was this self-professed lack of knowledge - admitting to not even knowing who John Coltrane was - that shaped her musical stylings from then onwards. Embracing her own heritage with artists like Anton Ellis, she forged her own identity, with the intention of pushing folk music towards a different audience.

Remaining in New York City once her studies came to an end, June McDoom had already begun writing the songs with future engineer Evan Wright that would make up her self-titled EP in 2022. With experimental Brooklyn-based label Temporary Residence Ltd. recognising her raw talent, her debut single ‘The City’ was released that same year. ‘Stone After Stone’ came next, followed by ‘On My Way’ - which has since accumulated over half a million streams on Spotify - all of which showcase of her hazy and heartfelt psychedelic soul-inflected folk, complete with reggae-styled upwards guitar strokes and immersive, avant-garde production. 

Springboarded by the acclaim from her celestial debut EP, McDoom quickly began working on her follow-up, With Strings. Assembling a collaborative cast of peers including fellow jazz conservatory Sammy Weissberg, whose handiwork curated the string arrangements, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Kate Davis, and Nick Hakim, the neo-folk fast-riser revisited songs from her earlier catalogue with lush chamber orchestration. 

McDoom also paid tribute to her life-long favourite artists on 2023 EP With Strings with covers of Judee Sill’s ‘Emerald Green River’ and ‘Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair’, a song she became entranced with after hearing Tia Blake’s and Nina Simone’s versions. 

Nick Hakim (who shares a recording space with McDoom in Greenpoint) invited McDoom out on tour with him, with the singer-songwriter then secured a support slot for alt-J at a hometown show at Playing Kings Theater in Brooklyn. 2024 is shaping up to be a year of promise for June McDoom as she heads to London for two shows in April at intimate venues Folklore and The Old Church.