Tennessee

your friend juniper builds worlds where emotions are raw, love isn’t sugar-coated, and every note carries the weight of something real. With makesmehappy leading the charge for her next album, she’s taking listeners beyond the predictable highs and lows of love songs, exploring the in-between—the messy, unfiltered parts that make relationships human. In this interview, she opens up about crafting music designed to hit like a dopamine rush, the balance between creative freedom and self-promotion, and why Nashville’s storytelling tradition has shaped her lyricism in unexpected ways. From the way she assigns colours to her songs to her belief in slow, meaningful career growth over viral fame, Juniper’s perspective is as thought-provoking as it is refreshing. Read on to step into her world of sound, sonder, and sonic connection.

Juniper, welcome to A&R Factory! With makesmehappy kicking off the rollout for your upcoming album, there’s a lot to unpack about your creative vision and the way you approach music as a full-spectrum experience. makesmehappy offers a perspective on love that isn’t just about the highs but also embraces the messier, unpolished parts. What drew you to write a love song that challenges the typical narrative?

I know there are many songs out there that touch on so many aspects of love, but it tends to be in these certain worlds of either gaining it or losing it. There’s this whole middle area of navigating it that’s really the juicy bit. Love, in every kind of relationship, is really challenging, and sometimes it’s pure joy, and in others, it’s really putting aside your desires or expectations for the sake of another person, and it’s all driven by the same thing: love. I wanted a song that took me through that turbulent and wonderful journey of expectations and compromise and deep connection, almost like a simulator. I figured no one is ever alone, so there had to be other music lovers out there searching for that song as well. I think I honestly got too impatient and decided to make it myself.

You’ve described your music and visual content as designed to trigger a dopamine release, almost like an essential vitamin. How do you translate that idea into the way you produce and arrange your songs?

I desperately push for every second of my songs to inspire the listener to feel something. I’m a person with high expectations, and it for sure creeps into my music and content-making process. I had to really discover why I wanted to live this insane lifestyle and make music, and it came down to wanting to affect people in a positive way. Music and art are extremely powerful and I want someone who discovers me to have an experience from the second they go to my profile to the very end of the first song they hear and then have it just continue. I want my music and content to be like a good friend.

It takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s just so worth it. I make all of my own visual content as well as my music, and right now I’m really diving into a new aesthetic of sondering, which is the realization that you’re one of many complex lives. It can make you feel small in the existential sense but also fill you with awe and curiosity. So, welcome to my little world where we wander, ponder and most of all, sonder! 

Since you write, record, and produce everything yourself, what’s your creative process like when you’re shaping a track from the ground up? Do you start with a sonic idea, a lyric, or something visual?

My songs often begin with lyrics or weird voice memos of me humming a melody. Song seeds honestly come to me at the most inconvenient times, like when I’m in the shower or driving or trying to fall asleep. All of a sudden, lyrics will just start flooding into my brain, often with a rhythm. I have to get them down immediately or literally just repeat them until I can. Sometimes, I feel like one of those characters in a movie who has visions and the world stops, and they seem to lose control and have to draw something or write something.

I’ll always finish the song acoustically before I record anything. It starts with the main instrument and a vocal demo and then I’ll produce the song fully and often record the final takes of the vocal last before I start mixing. The ideas come as I go with production. I often hear a rhythmic part or a melody in my head and then figure it out on whichever instrument I’m hearing and layer things in until I can’t hear any more parts. That’s when I’ll go in and really strip back and take things away until it’s only what the song really needs. Sometimes, a simple production is the most effective. You have to be willing to undo and go back and redo and all these really annoying things but refusing to compromise with your songs has to be the main goal.

Your upcoming album is your second full-length project. How does it build on or contrast with your debut in terms of themes, production, or the emotional weight behind it?

My first album was really an attempt for me to just get all these songs I had in my bank out. It varies so much from song to song, and I truly love it and think all of those songs deserved to be released, but it’s not a cohesive album by any means. This second full project was more intentionally put together as an album, and there is definitely a strong cohesiveness throughout it lyrically and sonically.

Haley Heynderickx was my big inspiration for the sound of the album. I love the intimacy and saturation of her music. For the lyrical content, the moral of the story is really to sonder and realize how crazy this world is that we live in and that we only get one weird little life on it. I think as a species, we focus on all the wrong things and separate ourselves from each other in all these ways that don’t matter. Spend less time thinking about yourself and way more time thinking about the world and the strange and beautiful people in it. It’s medicine for the brain and the heart without the long list of horrible side effects while a lady twirls on a beach.

What’s been the most effective way for you to reach listeners who truly connect with your music?

Slowly. I know it sounds like I am being cheeky but slow and steady wins the race. I want an authentic, grassroots fan base grown through actual engagement, and that just simply takes longer. I could really spend most of my time trying to go viral and rise to fame quickly, but it’s not a great long-term investment and I’m a musician, not an influencer. I’ve had friends go viral multiple times and it’s great for the views on that one video and the streams on that one song but I haven’t seen it curate a true fanbase who stays with you. I’d way rather spend my time making really good songs, putting together a great live set, making authentic content that’s easy because I actually enjoy making it and then travel the world and share my music in person with people.

There’s a strong visual element to everything you do, from colours to the way you present each track. What role do visuals play in shaping the way your audience experiences your music?

I think music and visual art are soulmates. They can exist without each other and still be extremely wonderful but they’re even better together. Color is a really strange thing because it doesn’t really exist, at least without light. We really only perceive color based on the wavelength and the object it’s bouncing off of and that’s just insane and amazing. I always wanted color to be a part of my brand because it’s a universal language. Every song of mine is attached to a color that not only visually represents the song but scientifically does as well. Our brains react to different colors in different ways and I want to utilize that to enhance my songs. It’s kind of my way of adding frosting to a piece of music.

Nashville is known for its rich musical landscape, but your style stands apart from the city’s more traditional sound. How has being in that environment influenced your work, if at all? 

Nashville is a great place to be if you want to really grow as a lyricist and songwriter. Country music is about storytelling above anything else. It stems from the structure of classic 12-bar blues where every song essentially has the same movements but it’s the story and the way the singer tells that story over those movements that makes it unique. There’s a depth of forethought in country lyrics that I love where a line at the end will finally tie together a phrase or idea from an earlier part of the song. It’s like the whole song is connected in these really clever ways, like a novel or a movie rather than just a good hook and who really cares what we’re saying in the song you know? Being in this environment has absolutely helped me grow as a musician. It’s also really about talent in Nashville instead of clout or connections and that’s why Nashville is quality over quantity. Country music is definitely what makes up a majority of the landscape here but so many artists these days are blending genres, as they should, so it doesn’t feel so important that I am not a country singer.

Independent artists often have to balance the creative side of music with the reality of promoting it. How do you manage both without losing the heart of what you want to create?

Oh my gosh, I lose heart all the time! Musicians have to be so disciplined and work so hard and put so much of their own money into their careers without getting anything in return for a long time. I honestly don’t think anyone from any other field of study would accept the terms in their careers that artists are pretty much forced to accept. The music industry is broken…really broken so we have to support each other and really go back to basics. It really feels like every system is broken because nowadays pretty much everyone is working two or more full-time jobs and can’t afford basic essentials.

I’m still finding the balance and I think I always will be. I don’t think anyone ever fully gets it or finds the one true method because it’s so dependent on so many things. I had to find where the deficit was in my own process and make peace with the fact that I had to save up money to invest in marketing for my releases, tours and live shows. I’m still hoping to get a manager or a booking agent this year because it’s really overwhelming a lot of the time but I’m a big believer that nothing good comes easy and it proves to me every day how much this is my passion and my purpose because no matter how hopeless it seems, I just keep doing it.

You clearly believe in this album and its potential to connect with listeners. If people take away one thing from this record, what do you hope it is?

Sonder. Think about others way more than you think about yourself. Be beautiful in the ways that really matter. Forgive people as quickly as you can and for the love of Mary fight for a life where you’re spending most of your time doing something you love. If you let it, life will break your heart. Love yourself so much that you’re willing to sacrifice to be healthier and a better person. It’s not about indulging every feeling or thought like truly allow yourself to grow and change.

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Find your preferred way to listen to your friend juniper’s latest single and connect with the artist via this link.

Interview by Amelia Vandergast