An Interview With Juno Lev
Interview by Mollie Smith, Photography by Mikayla J. Yurman
Juno Lev has always made unconventional music.
The 24 year old artist first gained popularity in the early 2020s with pandemic bedroom-pop, drawing from popular artists like Clairo and Lucy Dacus. Lev’s musical origins lie further back than 2020, owing to her having grown up in the New York City music scene. Her references bridge genres; ranging from Carole King and the New York City live music scene of the early aughts to horseshoe crabs, synth sounds, and, increasingly, environmental theory. This fascination with sound recently led Lev to complete a Masters of Design in Sound for the Moving Image through the Glasgow School of Art, where she graduated this past November. Lev credits the program with furthering her practice in all aspects — including her sound design, her gender and self-described ‘trans-species’ theory, and her music career. Her new single, Licorice, incorporates all of these aspects, demonstrating the evolution of her sound over the last few years.
We sat down with Juno Lev to talk about sound design, horseshoe crab-sonas, and how everyone should “Take Estrogen, Bitch.”
Mollie Smith: What’s the last song you listened to?
Juno Lev: Oh, this is embarrassing. It’s a demo of one of my own songs. Before that, Billions, by Caroline Polacheck.
MS: How would you describe the music you make?
JL: I’m trying to use a lot of samples to collage and create a sort of patchwork sound. I would say indie folk.
MS: Do you think it’s always been indie folk, or have you moved more into that sphere?
JL: [Laughs] You know the answer to that! I think it used to be more pop-ish and in the genre of bedroom pop and Clairo-esque popdom. I leaned very heavily into the bedroom pop idea, but as I’ve gotten older and more confident in my mixer skills as a musician I’ve been trying out new things, even though I still record a lot of my stuff in my apartment.
MS: You’ve lived in several different parts of the world now; New York, Ohio, Glasgow. Do you think these places have influenced the music you make?
JL: I mean, obviously New York is such a culturally important place and I grew up surrounded by so much music and going to so many children’s concerts. I was really into Sofar sounds gigs when I was like 16/17, because they were accessible — a lot of the artists I wanted to see were playing in bars and I couldn’t go see them. I think my first concert was Panic! At the Disco at Madison Square Garden. I was 15. The result of me being in Ohio in the middle of nowhere ended up being that I had a lot of time to work on my own music, especially because I started college in 2020. There was a lot of time in my dorm working on things. And then, I mean, the music scene in Glasgow is so great. I posted a TikTok about this a couple weeks ago, about all the Sombr drama that I’m sure we’ve all seen by now. They talked a lot about concert etiquette, and I mean, I’ve been to shows that have 14 year olds there. It’s not my favorite audience environment, but for the most part I feel like the audience is here. I’ve only played one show in Glasgow, so like, what do I know? But I have been to my fair share of concerts in Glasgow, in Edinburgh, London, and around the UK. At least in Glasgow, people feel more present in the moment with the performance. My boyfriend, Matthew, is a jazz musician and when we go to jazz gigs, we see college aged kids getting down to jazz music in a way that you really wouldn’t in the States. I think a really important part of going to a concert is having some sort of ego death and accepting that you are not the most important person in the room. I think for a lot of people in America and a lot of kids who have been raised on TikTok, you can go viral in an instant and it’s really hard to accept that you are not the most important person in the room, and the concert isn’t just about you.
MS: Are there any distinct musical inspirations that stand out to you? Artists, musicians, etc.?
JL: I’m a firm believer in the Carole King to Lucy Dacus pipeline. I listened to Carole King a lot as a child, and I’ve listened to Lucy Dacus a lot in the last five years. That kind of musical style really calls out to me. For current inspirations, I’ve listened to a lot of Lomelda recently, and Adrianne Lenker. I also find a lot of my oomfs really inspiring. There are so many people that I’m mutuals with that I feel so lucky to share this space with – like Annie DiRusso, Katie Kirby, and Runo Plum, and Rosie Tucker, who I opened for a few years ago. I also love Rachel Jenkins, her new album is incredible.
MS: Is there anyone you’d love to open for, out of that list or generally?
JL: I can’t stop thinking about the recent Sombr controversy…I’d love to open for him in Glasgow, I think that would be awesome. You know who I would really love to open for? Benson Boone. I think that would be the most awesome thing ever.
MS: [Laughs] Please elaborate.
JL: Okay, hear me out. He’s trying to like, up, his image, right? He needs a funky trans girl to open for him. I think it would be a really good PR move, and I think we would get along.
MS: Speaking of changing your image and how far you’ve come, I wanted to ask you a bit about the earlier part of your career. You first gained popularity for your song I had gay sex with god (it could’ve gone better). When the song hit 1 million streams in 2023, you wrote on your instagram that you wished your 18 year old self could see where you were now. Is there anything else you’d tell that version of yourself?
JL: Well, first I’d like to issue a slight correction. I actually first went viral for my song gas leak – this is a common misconception. That’s the song that truly started it all – but it actually is a better song, too. If I could tell my younger self anything… I would say: “Take Estrogen ASAP, Bitch.”
MS: You’ve been on the internet posting through a lot of really authentic parts of growing up: coming out, transitioning, moving across the world. Do you have any mixed feelings about sharing your life online like this?
JL: I do, although one thing I don’t post often about is transitioning, I will say. Candid moment — I’ve been on E for almost three years. As you know, I didn’t really tell anybody at first. And I only did eventually because people were going to notice and I knew I was going to pop out with boobs at some point. I started transitioning when I was living abroad, which was like a crazy experience. There’s an Ethel Cain quote where she says, “Being trans is the least interesting thing about me.” I resonate with that. I think it’s kind of similar to how I’m hard of hearing. It’s a lens through which I see the world, and so being trans is another lens that impacts my relationship with the world. I’m not going to be posting online some transition diaries content. I’ve seen an influx of girls doing that, and I want to reach through the screen and grab them and be like, Stop doing that! I do think it’s a really personal experience. I wasn’t vlogging my first puberty, why would I vlog my second?!
MS: I think it’s so interesting that you touch on that. You and I both have spoken about how we’re queer people who came out at an incredibly young age, and it was just onwards from there. I think it’s become a thing nowadays where people want to clickbait every part of their lives — even their sexualities and genders, and these incredibly intimate and nuanced experiences.
JL: Yeah, and it has its ups and downs. Some parts of the internet still think I’m a transgender man, because I haven’t talked about this part of my life a lot publicly. I mean, I would hope they can look at me and know at this point, but also there is an area of gray room because I’m not… vlogging my shots every week. A while ago I got an email where someone was emailing me asking my pronouns so that they wouldn’t misgender me in their head. I was like, girl, I don’t care if you misgender me in your head, it doesn’t affect my actual experience! It was an incredibly thoughtful thing to ask, but this is definitely a part of myself that I don’t want to share with the world like I do everything else. I do post a lot about my life online… but I think the only difference is that I do have a bit more eyes on me than I would if I wasn’t making music. It feels weird because obviously the goal in this role is to get even more eyes on me, but as I gain more attention I become aware of how mystery and anonymity is sort of a privilege in this space. If you already have money and fame, you have the privilege of being mysterious and anonymous online — the rest of us are giving a bit away to get that exposure.
MS: Right, and that influences everything – even how you garner and interact with fans. You have such a notoriously unique and varied fanbase. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen someone say about you or your music? What’s the coolest?
JL: I have to really rack my brain, there’s a lot. I have my email on my website, so people message me about music things all the time. I could probably change it, but I do get such fun stuff. Somebody on reddit thought I was in the audience of the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 finale. That was awesome. I think a lot of trans artists get vitriol, but I don’t…so far. I’ve seen some pretty insane fanfiction be made with my songs as inspiration. The sweetest message I’ve ever gotten was an email from this dad who listened to my song Lou, and was messaging me about his trans son, and saying how he cried when he heard the song because it made him think about what his son was going through, and really understand it. I cried reading his email, because it was so wonderful. That song, Lou, definitely did not help the transmasc rumors around me…but it is a great song and I do stand by it, so. [Laughs]
MS: Your graduate thesis, Crescent Moon Shield of the Dawn, draws on a ‘trans-species’ relationship with horseshoe crabs. Do you think your fursona would be a horseshoe crab? Have you gained serious affinity towards them throughout this process?
JL: Wait, that’s so funny because I actually was talking about this with Matthew the other day. I think horseshoe crab is up there for sure as a possible one. Bradytelic evolution is awesome, and I really want a horseshoe crab tattoo or two. I think I could be a fun worm fursona as well, in the way that Heidi Klum did it. I don’t know how I would make a horseshoe crab fursona sexy though, so I’d have to really think on it. Maybe my body would be oceanic and I’d have a crab head. That could work…
MS: [Laughs] Awesome. Alright, before we let you go, are there any final things you want to promote, or tell fans to keep an eye out for?
JL: My new single Licorice, but I also think that a lot of the new stuff I have in the works is really good. I’ve been researching a lot and thinking of how to incorporate environmental theory and research into songwriting, so a lot of the stuff I’m working on is out of that. It’s new, it’s different, I’m excited.
Fans of Juno Lev’s music can find her on any streaming platform or social media by the same name. You can find her new song Licorice here. Keep an eye out for new releases in the coming months!
