It’s not very often Nigerian musicians take the path to honesty in their songs. When it happens, a single is dedicated, almost never a full body of work. For twenty-three-year-old June, short for Just, you, not everyone, however, her sonic craft which she’s been honing since she was five, is an extension of her reality, rife with mental health allusions and she wastes no time in plugging her situation to the world. Her debut EP, Juneisatale, is an encapsulation of this.
The six-track EP describes a continuous journey of dealing with self-doubt and building confidence, of feeling purposeless and wanting to give up, of wanting to fight demons made by a mental disorder or giving in. Even with the going back and forth in this journey, she decides that positivity might be the only cure to pull herself out.
The first three songs: The Sojourner’s Story, Fly Away, and Lonely speak of a multitude of emotions of uncertainty, feeling lonely and not understood, not knowing how to fight. But the latter songs: Hey June, DIY, and Soon find June chiding herself to be more, deciding to do things for herself and believing that her craft will be recognized eventually.
Juneisatale is arranged in the order that it is, to explain that June’s continuous journey ends with believing that if she decides to pick up herself, she’ll be fine. In a way, she hopes she’s able to speak other people’s truth.