Meet your latest metalcore addiction: June Turns Black. As you already know, JTB will join Rock la Mures in 2024, so we chatted with Rach and Dan about the band’s songwriting process, oddest concert habits, and their upcoming RLM show.
Hi there! For starters, can you introduce the band to our audience? How did it all start?
Dan: We are four people that chance brought together who love music and each other. We are flawed humans making flawed songs for others to relate to. We share our innermost scars and our passion. It’s aggressive and raw, but at the same time we want people to feel safe and at home in our music. I guess you could sum up a big part of what we do as “emotional damage – the band.”
Honestly JTB has been in the works for a couple of years, and kind of happened randomly and by accident. Quite literally! Rach and I wanted to start a metalcore band, so we started looking for people and Cezar, our bass player, was an old friend with whom we reconnected shortly before 2020. He’d recently had an accident where he hurt his head and decided to make some major changes in his life. We got him drunk, we were talking about how we needed someone to handle the low-end and he thought getting into a band was a wicked idea. We explained what plans we had for the band and he replied something that he still says to this day whenever something is proposed: “The car is loaded, let’s go.” As for David, our drummer, this is a dude I’ve known for almost half my life now so it made sense to have him in the band. We had different people try out, but, in the end there is no-one I’d rather have on the kit – he brings his unique prog and alternative-tinted flair to our djenty sound.
How did you come up with your band’s name? Why not July Turns Black?
Rach: The month of June is my personal bad omen because anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (from deaths or health issues to houses catching fire) and it soon caught on for us and our crew – the weird thing is that this month slowly became our entire team’s bad omen. So we decided to transform this month into something better. I’ve also designed these “marks” which can be seen in our video projections and promo materials that translate to “the sun goes dark” which symbolize a constant eclipse, looming over us, reminding us to be kinder to each other because you don’t know how much time you have with one another.
For a fan-to-be who may not have yet heard a June Turns Black track but is reading this as their introduction into your world, how would you describe your sound and where it’s going?
Dan: It’s a bit difficult to pigeonhole, but we describe it as electronicore/screamo-djent – we have a lot of production, but the emotion and the rawness of Rach’s vocal delivery is a big focus for us. Our sound is constantly evolving as music on a global scale keeps evolving and we’re like sponges. It doesn’t matter if it’s an EDM banger, a K-Pop super-hit, a filthy Deathcore breakdown, or some weird niche industrial song from the ‘90s – we’re into it and if we like it, it’s very likely it’ll become an influence for us. We consider ourselves citizens of the musical world, we enjoy sounds from all over the globe and respect the cultures from where they came, from the US and UK to India, Japan or even Kenya.
Can you tell us a little about the band’s songwriting process?
Rach: Basically it starts with me coming up with snippets of ideas or weird sounds, that I collect over time on my phone. Before we schedule a songwriting session, I lock myself in a dark room and work on an idea that fits the vibe we want to go for, evolving it into a base. After that, I either show the idea to Dan and we work on it just a little bit to get a feel for the song (usually this is in the form of a basic beat with a vocal) or I present the idea to the whole band and build it up from there. I try to listen to everyone’s feedback and adjust wherever possible, incorporating their experiences as well. Sometimes I come up directly with an entire composition and know exactly what I want the song to be so we focus more on the production side, and not so much on the song/lyric writing. Even though a song of ours usually starts from a vocal and a beat, it’s not always a must – any idea, no matter how rough it is, can become a full song (from a beatboxing voice memo to just a word or a concept); and if I vibe with it, I go to my dark room and render it in my head.
What kind of themes are you exploring?
Dan: We tackle unpleasant topics that stem from things that happened or are happening to us. We talk about our experiences with abuse, mental health issues, the problems facing our world and environment today, and interpersonal relationships.
Rach: For me it was a good experience to talk about my own health issues (I have polyarthritis) because it helps me not only mentally, but also physically. Usually I am pretty self-aware of my surroundings and if I find myself in a situation where I’m living through a very strong emotion, which is not my own, I go into an introspective state and I try to understand it wholly. If it fits within our band’s world, then I put it into a song. It can be something very simple and out-of-context – like someone picking a living flower and that makes me sad – that’s where “We Kill What We Love” came from.
How do you know when a track is ready? Does it ever become difficult to either refine ideas down or to stop perfecting?
Rach: A song is never ready, I just know in my gut when to stop.
Dan: All throughout our process of working on a song, we slowly refine it more and more as we go. From the initial demo to the final release it’s gone through several phases and sessions dedicated to vocals, lyrics, guitars, bass, drums, production, mixing and mastering. All of it being handled in-house and with feedback from the band and our team. Usually it’s straightforward, we set deadlines for ourselves and we say “ok, this is final” but I’ll admit that sometimes, I’m guilty of coming up with a wildcard element towards the latter stages of production. For example, the interlude beat that you hear on “Hurt Me” is totally different from the one we had in our demo – I had this idea of embellishing the basic 808 and electronic drum samples with Indian and Arabian percussion, adding vocal chops, and actually bringing in some Enigma influences to make it feel more special. Other times, it is more difficult.
Rach: We have a song called “Cloud Fracture” that’s about my struggles with polyarthritis and that one has gone through so many iterations I can’t even count them. The song just wasn’t coming together as we’d hoped and every time we’d go back to it, we’d just make it worse. So we scratched the entire thing and we’ll rewrite it completely, keeping only the central theme. We’re curious what’ll come out of it because this song is already more than 4 years old at this point and my musical influences have changed a lot since then.
How would your music be served best? What important messages are we missing as listeners?
Rach: I think our music is probably suited for people who are going through difficult times or are maybe not in the best place emotionally because my hope is that they can find solace and kinship within our songs. Basically someone could feel that they are not alone and that I am screaming also for them about their issues as well. If I could take all their pain away, I would, but I can’t, so we’re just in this together.
Dan: I honestly don’t think that people are missing any important messages in our music. So far, people have been very receptive and not only that, but taking our ideas and songs and applying them to their own lives and struggles. For example, when we released “Hurt Me,” people started sharing in their reaction videos, in comments and messages their own stories of abuse and we read and listened to all of them, offering our support and love. It takes great courage and strength not only to live through those things and come out the other side, but also to share them with the world and with us.
To get back to the question, if there’s one thing I’m not sure people are picking up on all the time is that we love to sprinkle little creative easter eggs throughout our songs and videos that tie into each track’s concept. For example, the Kintsugi-inspired make-up of “Hurt Me” which is the Japanese art of mending pottery with gold and that represents having value in being scarred. Or the line “The bitter end has come again/With forest fires while we hang from our wires” from “We Kill What We Love” which is about the 24-hour news cycle and how it’s affecting our emotional states throughout the day. I would love to do a series like Genius do where we deep-dive into the lyrics and videos and discuss the themes and ideas, actually!
What have you been listening to lately? Are there any songs you can recommend to us?
Rach: Chase Atlantic, Messenger, Gold Geisha, Enter Shikari, KLOUD, Jackson Wang, and Grimes. I’d recommend Chase Atlantic’s song “Heaven and Back” because it sounds so uplifting, but the message is so dark. TK from Ling Tosite Sigure – “unravel” because it’s just one of the best anime intros ever.
Dan: The funny thing about this question is that on our Spotify profile we’ve actually got playlists that contain songs that we recommend. We try to feature smaller artists as well and I love discovering new music and making that write-up. Our latest one is “Electronicore We Love” and honestly I’ve been jamming that quite a bit, but other than that, it’s kind of weird ‘cos every day is a different musical mood for me. One day it’s The Weeknd, another one is the Black Mesa soundtrack, maybe I go to a Cyberpunk / Darksynth playlist, or lately I’ve been really into a Japanese band called WagakkiBand. If you were to try and “get me” musically, at least in the context of JTB, in let’s say maybe three songs, it would be Northlane’s “Bloodline” because of the production and emotion, Mick Gordon’s “Meathook” because it’s so incredibly simple, elegant, and yet complex (and honestly this could be any Mick Gordon track at this point) and The Weeknd’s “Heartless.” But also you need to understand that this answer will most likely change tomorrow and I’ve been really getting back into ‘70s prog and mid-tempo electronica and phonk. I’ve just given up at this point and I’m going with the flow!
On a funny note, who amongst you has the oddest concert habits? We’ve seen and heard it all, so how does June Turns Black rank up?
Rach: Oh boy. It all starts with the day before a show when I clean up the entire apartment because I like to come back to a clean home and the only thing that’s messy about it is me. After that, on the day of the show, the first thing I do after I wake up is to jam my current favorite song or just blankly stare at a wall and listen to ocean sounds for an hour alone. Kind of like meditation, but without the meditating part, ‘cos I have no internal monologue so it’s always quiet up there. When we get to the venue I like to be by myself for the most part, to preserve my energy and an hour before the show starts, I hype myself up on aggressive songs. If you’ve been early to our shows, you might hear some random screaming and noises around – don’t panic, it’s just me.
Dan: Anybody who knows me, knows that I’m a nervous nellie before a show so I’ve always gotta be doing something – talking with the other artists or anybody really, anxiously walking back and forth throughout the venue, making sure everything is set up and everyone’s ok. I really just can’t sit still and I have to be having a coffee or energy drink in my hand. It doesn’t matter how small or big the show is, it always feels like it’s my first gig ever and I have to be using that energy.
What does it mean to you to be playing Rock la Mures for the first time?
Rach: When we got the news, I was buried in the production for our next releases and I was feeling so overwhelmed, so when I heard, I just started crying with joy.
Dan: It’s really a huge opportunity and honor to be playing Rock la Mures, I can’t put into words how much I appreciate it! It’s an important milestone for our young band to be playing a big festival and I honestly can’t wait to tear. that. stage. up.
What should we expect from your RLM show?
Rach: Immediately after we got the call, I started working on how to turn the show into a special experience. We’ll have synced video projections that enhance our music, we’re bringing a special line of merch, as well as tailoring our setlist and tweaking the songs to best suit such a large stage and, of course, we will give our absolute best during our performance. Expect a lot of emotion, a lot of big riffs and aggressive breakdowns and a ton of energy from us!
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us and for deep-diving into some JTB lore! Love from the June Squad.
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Cover photo by Mihnea Ene