Entering Juno Empire’s artistic universe is an experience like no other. Packed with kaleidoscopic synth tones, dazzling electronic textures and heightened nostalgic flair, the American troubadour and musician navigates dream-pop, leftfield and psychedelia with a charmingly blissful character, making for a listening experience that’s rather otherworldly and hypnotising. ‘Seeds’ is the perfect example of that.
Juno Empire’s latest effort, ‘Seeds’ is the liquid and sonic rendition of Juno Empire’s cosmic creativity. A wealth of rolling drums, dazzling soundscapes and bright, uplifting synthetisers help the record reach angelic levels of dystopian glory. The listening experience provides pure, unfiltered escapism, a particularly needed quality during such gloomy and troubling times.
‘Seeds’ also comes with a wonderful music video, one that truly showcases the kind of eclectic, colourful aesthetic Juno Empire is going for. Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the Tempe-based musician to learn more about his artistry and future goals… interview below!
Hey Alexander, how is it going? We have been listening to JUNO EMPIRE’s past singles, and it’s clear that you are going for a truly expansive, luscious and whimsical sonic universe. There’s also a certain vintage flair in it, am I correct?
Hey! I’m doing great, thanks for listening and for the kind words! I’m definitely trying to craft a unique atmosphere for each track. There are definitely certain sonic qualities that I love to work within, and will continue to return to, but ideally, Juno Empire becomes a universe where the songs feel like their own unique planets and solar systems, and I never want the project to feel boxed into a singular genre or sound. I am also obsessed with analogue synthetisers, and I think that inherently brings out some of that vintage 80s sound, but I’m always looking to expand into new territories as well. I think there’s still so much uncharted territory with electronic music, and I am eager to explore.
‘Seeds’ seems to embrace a more electronic, dream-pop outlook (M83 come to mind). Would you say that JUNO EMPIRE’s sound is constantly evolving?
I loved that you mentioned M83. I’m a huge fan. I would definitely agree that the Juno Empire sound is always evolving. Thematically, I intend to keep writing music that evokes a sense of wonder about the human experience in every song, but I want to explore many facets within that. All of my tracks so far have been packed with sound and little room to breathe — it’s always really fun to produce songs like that, but I’d also like to challenge myself to write something more sparse and sensitive at some point.
The reader might not know this, but you, Alexander Thomas, are first and foremost an EMMY award-winning composer. Can you briefly take us through some of the highlights of your career?
Of course! Prior to piloting Juno Empire, I was (and still am) a composer for film. I received my first Television Academy Award through their national College Television Awards program. It was for a student film I created called The Mutable Life of Oscar Clark, which I wrote, directed, edited, produced, and scored. The film won the award for its score, and went on to play at several film festivals. Since then, I’ve been very fortunate to work with some really wonderful producers and directors, and have scored dozens of short films and advertisement packages — many of which have received awards ranging from regional EMMYs, to the American Advertising Federation ADDYs, and film festival accolades.
How did you start making music? Was there a particular influence when you were young?
I started learning guitar when I was thirteen years old, and picked up piano around eighteen, but I didn’t really get deep into writing until I reached my college years. I was never a virtuosic player on any instrument, and I always struggled to play instruments as competently as my peers, but I just stuck with it because I loved it. I composed a piece for string quartet when I was 20 years old, and entered it into a district-wide competition at a community college I was attending at the time. It ended up placing second in the competition, and that was the first time I was ever recognised for my musicianship.
That was the point I realised writing was maybe going to be my way to express myself through music. After that, I studied composition formally under one of my professors at the community college, and a doctoral student I had sought out, and those lessons became the gateway for me into film scoring, and writing in general. My early compositional influences were some of the film composing titans like John Williams, Thomas Newman, and Danny Elfman, but later down the line, when I decided to get into song production, I got a lot of inspirational fuel from MGMT, The Strokes, and Daft Punk.
Do you feel more confident writing music alone, or within a team?
Coming from a film scoring background, I’m pretty comfortable writing alone. Songwriting has felt a bit more vulnerable and difficult to navigate at times, especially with lyrics, but having released a few songs now, I’m starting to find it really therapeutic, because I get to be intimate with my own thoughts, and music is such a beautiful way to explore them. While I have grown to enjoy that personal time, I’ve had amazing collaborative experiences working with my friend Andrew Lineweaver.
I record, mix, and master tracks for his indie rock project Tommy’s Dream, and through our sessions in my home studio, he’s made some great contributions to Juno Empire as well, namely on drums. You can hear him on the guitar during the chorus of my last single, “Stranger”, too. I also had a really fun experience bringing my friend Thomas Jacob Jr., who releases music under the electronic project known as Lunar Cambridge, to record the synth solo on my debut single “Gold Eyes”.
Going back to ‘Seeds’, your latest effort; there’s a rather unique and philosophical message behind it. Was there a particular experience that prompted you to reflect on our collective consciousness and the way time shapes our reality?
I have always been very interested in topics surrounding consciousness. I think it’s so fascinating that neuroscientists have yet to determine what consciousness really is and where it comes from. It is probably the most essential component to our lived experiences, but we still have not yet even discovered if it emerges from brain structures, or if it is a fundamental, irreducible part of reality. It’s a humbling thing to consider.
To answer your question more specifically, though, I had watched a video essay about Neville Goddard’s quote “The present moment does not recede in to the past. It advances into the future to confront us, spent or invested. Not gone is that last moment, but oncoming.” The narrator challenged viewers to look around their room and notice how every object is a fossil of a past decision. I realised time isn’t just something we pass through, but it passes through us, multiplying whatever we choose to become in a very real and physical way, and that was just so profound to me that I wanted to explore it in a song.
If you had to give a piece of advice to any up-and-coming producers out there, what would that be?
Let go of outcomes, and stay hungry to create and to learn. I think artists should do everything they possibly can to get their art out to people and spread their messages, but not feel discouraged if the response doesn’t meet their expectations. If you’ve made something and released it, you’ve already won. Everything else is extra.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
My main focus right now is releasing songs, working on getting enough material to perform, and just spreading the word about Juno Empire. I have big ambitions for what a Juno Empire live set will look like, and I want to take it on the road. Over the long term, I just want to keep making songs that help people feel more aligned with the experience of living.
Life can feel hard and stressful, but when we can expand beyond our lived experience and observe what a unique opportunity it is to be alive, I think we can find that peace and beauty in this experience that was meant for us. Juno Empire will always come with that indie flair, fun aesthetics, and a little bit of an edge, but when people look behind the veil, that’s what I hope to build for them there.
