June McDoom Makes Folk Music With the Bass Turned Up

June McDoom’s debut album, *Follow the Light*, blends intimate folk songwriting with the deep bass of Jamaican dub, bringing together musical traditions that shaped her upbringing. The fusion matters because it gives her hushed folk sound a fuller, bass-led character while keeping the handmade approach she developed on her first EP.

Raised in Florida by parents who grew up in Jamaica, McDoom heard Jamaican music at home, where her father built speakers and DJed. She later studied voice in New York, initially focusing on jazz, and began writing songs for her 2022 self-titled EP before graduating in 2019. For the album, she set a rule to be more deliberate about lyrics and continued recording with her partner, Evan Wright, without aiming for a polished or perfect sound.