Her Latest Single Might Be Called ‘Over,’ But Cece June’s Career Is Just Beginning
For those among us who race to comment “First!” on every newly-released Phoebe Bridgers’ music video, Cece June is a sparkling young singer-songwriter from Barcelona (currently living and studying in Ann Arbor, Michigan) who deals with all the wise, soulful, and heartfelt themes of your favourite indie artists, but for whom in ten years, you’ll be able to say, “I’ve been there since the beginning.” After releasing her debut EP Pieces in 2021, written three years earlier at the tender age of seventeen, June’s musical success as an independent artist has flourished, including the amassing of over 230k streams on Spotify. Now, following the release of her latest single ‘Over’ in June 2022, June has big dreams and an even bigger commitment to her creative progress, including a full-length LP slated to be released in 2023!
Editor Caitlin Andrews had the lovely opportunity to have a chat with Cece about her upcoming releases, her experiences of Spanish-American culture shock, and one of her biggest goals over the next 30 years—to open a flower shop!
Caitlin Andrews: Hi Cece, so nice to get a chance to chat with you! How are you doing?
Cece June: “The pleasure is all mine. I am currently on the plane back to Barcelona, Spain for the summer, so it’s safe to say I am extremely happy!”
CA: Your latest single ‘Over’ was just released on June 10th! How are you feeling about the track? Has the success of your previous 2021 EP, Pieces, affected the way you feel about or approach new releases?
CJ: “I am relieved! I am glad ‘Over’ is finally out and I am very proud of the work that has been done. To be fully transparent with you, releasing music has always made me slightly nervous. When I released Pieces, I was trying to hit the bullseye of a dartboard blindfolded—I had no idea about the industry. I couldn’t count on the safety net of an editorial [team] or a label, and I pretty much befriended the idea of learning by force. The beauty of it is that I didn't miss the board at all. I put out music that meant a lot to me, and it happened to also mean a lot to the people that made it reach 250k streams in a year.
I do not want to compare the success of 'Over' with that of my first EP because I don't think that would do me any good, but I am thankful for what the EP taught me, both during and in the year after its release. I think that if things are done with strong effort and love (lots of it), then all will follow—if not right away, then eventually. That is something I am very confident in. It's only been a year since I put out music, but I have been performing and growing my music career for over six years now, and there is nothing better than having the ability to indulge in the slow burn—in learning as you go.
So I take 'Over' to be just another stepping stone in this career that I intend to make life-long. It could be pivotal or it could be something to reminisce on as I recall the opportunities that Michigan and my friends there have given me. Whatever its quantifiable success, I know this song will resonate with people, whether it's five people or a thousand—the song is a personal success for me, since it serves as a turning point in what once was and what will come in the future.”
CA: As a “queer, independent, and self-managed artist from Barcelona, Spain,” are there any elements of your music (either in sound or process) that call back to your Spanish heritage? How do you think your experiences as an immigrant have affected your creative processes or who you are as a person?
CJ: “Spain is in everything I am and in everything I do. While Spanish music isn't particularly audible in the songs I have put out thus far, my Spanish identity is. I grew up listening to my dad's records, which span anywhere from Chopin's Nocturnes to the entire discography of David Bowie or the Spanish music he listened to as a teenager in the eighties. I was especially enamored with his endless collection of vinyls—the covers of which I spent hours looking at in admiration. Music and art have always been present in my life in some way or another. My parents are both involved in the art world, so I grew up valuing it greatly. I think it is that part of my Spanish heritage that shines through in my music, especially in everything that isn't the actual music. I would like to make the listening experience one that is just as visually stimulating—a journey through the arts that becomes a journey within oneself.
Coming to the US was a tremendous cultural shock because I felt deprived of that ability to appreciate art in basically anything and everything around me. A building facade, the grid structure of the city, the beauty of a well-set table, and the wonder of enjoying it with loved ones... Once I got used to not seeing it, I decided to create it, or enhance it at least. I try to bring art into everything I do, and every part of the process of doing. From the cover art, which is a work by the renowned Donald Sultan, to the photoshoots with which I have promoted the song, I believe in aesthetic beauty, and I truly can't do without it. I find inspiration in artists, living and dead, but also in the magic of mundanity—of making something quotidian a special thing.”
CA: It’s no secret to say you have a wide variety of interests—you’re currently studying Art History and PolSci at UMICH! How do those fields affect your creative process? What do you hope the next ten years of your life will look like? Do you have any specific goals, either in those fields or in songwriting, that you’d like to achieve over the next 30 years?
CJ: “I like to think of my two fields of study as two sides of me. PolSci is the rational, serious, disciplined and professional one, and Art History the emotional, stimulating, nonchalant and passionate one. Nonetheless, I truly value both, for they allow me to explore two different fields that sporadically intertwine and share a brief moment in space and time. Most classes at UMICH have taught me something that has wholly shifted who I am and who I want to be, and whether I end up pursuing one or the other professionally, nothing will take away the influence it has had on the way I view the world, and I guess, the way I would like to live and leave it.
In that way, I think that whether I wind up becoming a diplomat, a museum curator, or [if I choose to] pursue music full-time, my two fields of study will be inherent in me. Ten years from now, I would like to see myself [living] between the US and Europe. However, it’s easy to feel in between them and not fully present in both. If I have learned anything from moving from Spain to the USA, it is that roots take time to grow, and that pretending you can keep both of those lives simultaneously alive is foolish. As of now, I hope to leave the US after graduation, but to do so feeling like I have something to come back to. Succeeding in more than one market is tremendously hard, but I don't think not-trying is an option. It never has been.
And 35 years from now? I would like to own a flower shop somewhere.”
CA: Who would you consider your main musical influences? How, if at all, do you think they’ve shaped the style, themes, or genre of your music?
CJ: “Artists influence me in so many different ways that the list is obnoxiously infinite. I create music in hopes of making people feel like I have felt listening to Bon Iver and Damien Rice. I hope to tell stories as beautiful as Lily Talmers and Phoebe Bridgers do. I hope to make people sing like I do with HAIM and Saint Motel, and I wish to become someone to come back to as I come back to Joao Gilberto and Radiohead. Those are wishes and hopes, of course, but they all drive me in some way or another.
'Over,' however, is a bit of all of the above. It was my first time experimenting with vocoders, with syncopation, and with silence. It was a slow and gradual buildup—from guitar and voice, to adding cello and drums. I looked to The Japanese House for inspiration, but it was written at a time when I was also consuming a lot of music by artists such as Gracie Abrams and Holly Humberstone whom I dearly adore too. In a way, ‘Over’ is a memory box of a very specific time this year and my drive to break away from what I would have made a few years ago, but rather experiment with new sounds.”
CA: You also have a debut LP scheduled to arrive in 2023! What’s the process been like of recording a full-length album in comparison to your previous singles and EPs? Did you have any specific inspirations that motivated you to create the LP itself?
CJ: “My LP is my baby. ‘Over’ is independent from what will be my debut eight-track record. This album has been wholly recorded with friends and people I admire greatly. It began with four guitar-voice demos in the bedroom studio of Samuel Uribe-Botero, also a third-year student at UMICH and one of the most talented people I know. It doubled in track numbers and it gained a life [of its own.] What started with my drive to tell a story became a holistic narrative—a book, a movie, or a mere conversation with a friend. It’s an album meant to be listened to in order, with ears, eyes, and hearts fully engaged. It follows the loss and the healing of oneself after hitting rock bottom, and the ups and downs that come with that.
I was 17 when I recorded my first EP, and had truly no hands-on role in the process of producing the song. I worked with a producer who kind of did what he wanted with the ideas I gave him. While I love that EP, the emotional weight that the LP carries cannot be compared. I’ve seen it “grow up” to be something greater than I could ever have imagined I could accomplish at 20 years old. I owe it all to the people who have been involved—my band, who transformed the songs, but also the creative team behind the music videos that will accompany each song and the artists visually representing each track. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I hope it’s palpable just how proud and excited I am about it.”
CA: What has been the best part about being an independent / self-managed artist so far? Have there been any challenging moments you didn’t see coming, and how have you managed to overcome them?
CJ: “Freedom. Signing with a label was never really anything I considered in depth. I knew that the second I did, my aforementioned ability to ‘grow as I go’ would be supplanted by deadlines, pressures, and, most likely, decisions I did not want to make. I was set on getting educated and graduating, and a label would’ve impeded that. Besides, all that a label would do (fund the album, etc.), I have done myself. One of the biggest reasons, however, was the fact that I did not want to sign with anyone before I knew who I was or what I wanted to do or be—not that I fully know now. These years as a self-managed artist have allowed me to see the ins and outs of the industry the hard way, but have also forced me to be upfront with what I want, and to work hard to get it.
In the industry, nothing is given. For that reason, being independent is both a blessing and a curse. As an independent artist, you rely on yourself pretty much. As such, how a song does is really up to how well you promote it, the lengths to which you go, and the time you spend preparing for what comes before the big day. The biggest issue I am facing lately is the realization that if you want to be an artist nowadays, you also have to be a public figure, and the pressure that comes with that is awful. I try hard not to let it get to me, but again, nothing really guarantees you will succeed when it’s you against the world.”
CA: If you were asked to give someone one reason why they should listen to your music, what would you say?
CJ: “I want my music to be the kind you send your friend when they’re going through shit. A helping hand; something as soothing as the reminder that it’s OK to not always be OK. A means to put into words the thoughts you perhaps were drowning out.
I strive to make music that won’t leave someone indifferent, but rather prompt them to take action upon feelings they might have, or to even learn something new. I value artists that have taken me somewhere else—Phoebe Bridgers incited me to read Walden, for I learned about it in her song “Smoke Signals.” I discovered one of my favorite songs to this day—“Abacus” by Fionn Regan—when Bon Iver sampled his lyric, “The days have no numbers” in their track ‘00000 Million.’ The LP is filled with little hints—precious things from me to you.”
CA: Tell us about your upcoming plans! Do you have any further releases or events scheduled over the next six months or so?
CJ: “For the next three months in the summer, I will be in Spain filming six music videos and playing a bunch of shows here and there. I want to take the time to work on the details of the album release as best as I can, and there isn’t a better way to do that than in the peace and beauty of the Catalan countryside. In the fall, I will return to Ann Arbor and hopefully start playing the album tracks with my band, “Cece and the Crawlers.” I'll be getting ready, and excited, for the release of the first songs around late October, or early November. All this while being fully aware that things change and what it is now might be wholly different in six months. But isn’t that exciting!?”
CA: Where can our readers at Periphery find you?
CJ: “I mostly function on Instagram (@cecejunee) but my YouTube will shortly be filled with little movies to spend an afternoon dissecting, my Spotify will soon be the place to start a new story, and as per TikTok, you will also start seeing me there on a more casual level… The things one must do!
But if you really want to find me, I will be at Argus Coffee Shop in Ann Arbor—writing, reading, or stressing about my next exam. It is all part of the journey.”
Periphery Magazine thanks Cece June for her contribution, and wishes her luck with her future releases! You can find her on social media and streaming platforms here:
Instagram: @cecejunee
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXargQ5T2wq2ZIB6akYK0jw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7EpAJ937kGsrE1CAsYKDiQ?si=AZ3Me7cAQoOSRogZpHerbg
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ceceonono?lang=en
If you are interested in being featured in Periphery Magazine’s interview series surrounding interesting people in creative roles, please contact Madison Case at theperipheryzine@gmail.com.