Singer Amelia June Wants to Play Wherever and Whenever

By KAREN LEIGH Palisadian-Post Contributor “All I want to do is get up there and jam with them.” So says Amelia June, speaking of her concert-going experiences. But June isn’t merely another excited music fan’she’s a burgeoning songstress who just wants to play wherever and whenever she can. “My main goal as a singer is to affect people,” she adds. “There’s something about music that is universally appealing.” June’s life of notes and chords began at age five, when she learned how to play the harp, a large string instrument commonly reserved for older musicians. By 14, she taught herself how to strum a guitar, and recently followed suit with the piano, on which she is still learning new skills. This dedication to music was in full evidence during her years at Marymount High School, where June organized benefit concerts, trilled in the school choir, starred in the drama department production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” and won a Battle of the Bands contest (a local competition for amateur musicians). After high school, June attended USC’s Stein School of Music, but left after one month, feeling that her creative flow was being restricted by USC’s emphasis on music theory and technicality. “It wasn’t a good fit for me,” she says. While awaiting her next move, June rented an apartment in Silverlake and worked odd jobs’Starbucks barista, baby-sitter’for 18 months, before learning of Columbia University’s program for non-traditional students. “It’s a really flexible program, made for people who are coming back to school after time off, or working jobs’anyone who doesn’t fit into the traditional undergraduate mold,” June explains. “I had originally wanted to apply to Columbia, but decided to stay in Los Angeles. “After I left USC, I was at a crossroads in my life, and heard about Columbia at the perfect time. I was like, ‘This is it. This is my program.'” She will start as a freshman next month, majoring in art history. “I’m also going to take history classes, classes in mythology,” she says. “And I might take a few music courses. But I’m mainly going to be focusing on music outside of the classroom. I’m not too worried about my career right now.” Nor should she be. In October, June slipped into Venice Beach’s Beacon Street Studios, owned by her uncle, John Nau, and recorded a seven-song demo CD, titled EP (which she included in her Columbia application). In addition to writing the music and lyrics and playing her own instruments, June also produced EP, aided by Nau. “My album is really raw and unfiltered. No overdubs, no pitch correction; enjoy,” June says. “When you produce an album, you’re responsible for the feel of that album. I did all my songs in one take. Most big artists will record a stanza, take a lunch break, come back, record the chorus’mine’s simpler.” As producer, she also made the decision to include unintentional errors in the recording. “I kept them because this is who I am,” says the singer, “and if fans came to see me perform live, this is what they’d hear. I’d rather be honest on my album and have people be pleasantly surprised in person.” June perfects her live vocal skills at clubs around Los Angeles, performing at Open Mic Nights, during which venue owners open their stages to amateur musicians. To date, she has strutted her stuff at Hollywood’s Highland Grounds Caf’, club Room Five, and the Universal Bar and Lounge. Still, she says ours is “a bad city for open mic, because getting shows is mostly about who you know.” In that vein, she’s worked hard to make connections, notably the L.A. rock band Books Died On, for which she is a frequent opening act, and record producer/disc jockey BT’ she sings lead vocals on his upcoming album, for which she also wrote a song. This exposure led Room Five to elevate her from open-mic performer to hired musician. “I’ve played several shows,” June says. “I made 200 copies of my demo CD, and they’re all gone’some I gave away to friends, and the rest were sold at my gigs.” The album itself features tunes June wrote over the course of the past two years, and its themes include those typical of teenage girls’romance, longing, boys. “The songs are melancholy,” June says. “They’re all based on real things I’ve been through, events from my life.” As opposed to shopping her demo to record labels, June’who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the music biz’is taking the road less traveled, hoping that her burgeoning notoriety on the L.A. club scene will translate into wider success. “My voice will be heard,” she says. “But even if a huge producer approached me tomorrow, I’d wait. I want to be musically and emotionally ready for success.” Fostering this mature plan for the future are father Joe, a medical consultant and former neurologist who lives above the Alphabet streets, mother Sharon, a pediatric optometrist who makes her home in Malibu Canyon, and sister Johanna, a junior at Marymount. All three will see June off to the East Coast, where she plans to move into a cozy Brooklyn apartment and look for after-school gigs at acoustic clubs around New York City. At the end of the day, “I don’t care if 50 fans know my name, or even five,” she says, “just as long as I affect people, as long as my songs inspire them and run parallel to their emotions. For me, that’s music.” Visit June’s Web site at www.myspace.com/ameliajunemusic.