We asked and you delivered! PG tapped its diverse audience to see what prized possessions our readers keep in their personal gear collections. The submissions ran the gamut from a holy-grail guitar acquired via inheritance, a high-school graduation present, a post-coma-recovery treat, a rockin’ wedding gift, a self-build project, and many great tales of cherished tone tools.
Colin O'Hara
My mum passed away a few years ago and left me some inheritance. I used some of that money to get something I would’ve never afforded otherwise, and I knew it would never leave my side as long as I live—the above 1964 Fender Jaguar (from the pre-CBS era). It’s my most valuable (sentimental) possession and the most amazing guitar to play to boot!
Steve Tanner
If I had to pick just one it would be my 2016 Gibson Les Paul Traditional. We had lost both parents in rapid succession and after we settled everything, I had enough for a down payment on a condo and I set aside some money for a new guitar. It’s kind of the last thing they gave me.
Eric Tower
My 2011 Gibson Les Paul Studio Deluxe that I bought with my high-school graduation money. With its coil-tapping capability, I can achieve single-coil sounds along with the typical humbucker sounds of a Les Paul. And it has the most-comfortable neck I’ve ever played as well. It’s been my main guitar ever since I bought it!
Antoine Lespine
My Fender Super-Sonic. It’s not an expensive guitar but I wanted it for a long time. Finally, after recovering from a coma and long hospitalization, I decided to buy it just for the pleasure of enjoying life.
Dave Dardo
My 1983 Fender Strat Elite (hard tail) because it’s so versatile. It offers pleasing bright tones and with the turn of a few controls I can get some nice, thick mids. Pairing it with a Mesa/Boogie Single Rectifier 50-watt head into a Budda 2x12 and 2x10 open-and-closed back combination cabinet is magic.
Geo Jet
For many years, this was my go-to rig for larger venues. It’s so adaptable with the Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Mini Humbuckers in the Firebird going through the Marshall Vintage Modern half-stack. And for straight-out rock and blues, the smallbox 1987 Marshall Jubilee 2553 stack just can’t be beat.
Jeff Boule
To me, prized = integral. When you bill yourself as an electronic guitarist, you need a guitar to interface. My 1977 Fender Mustang that has a Roland GK-2 Guitar Synthesizer pickup paired with a set of Lace Red and Blue single-coils—plus a Kahler Trem and Sperzel Locking tuners—does just that. It’s my first guitar and still my main guitar.
Charles Gouger
This is my collection. The one I save if my house is on fire is my white Fender Mustang (on the couch). It’s the cheapest one in my collection, but the one I cherish the most.
Ray Vasquez
I seriously can’t pick! I waited all my life to have a setup like this: a 2005 Fender Stratocaster (MIM) that has a Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1b JB Jr Strat humbucker (bridge) matched with Seymour Duncan Antiquity single-coils (middle and neck). The VHT 12/20 is dimed for dirt, while the Vintage Sound Vintage 35 (Vibrolux-style 1x12 combo) is a loud 35 watts, so I only run it at 2.5 for cleans. This is the best tone I've ever had.
Justin Michael-Thermal Tran-Sheetz
My prized possession has to be the Tele I put together using a custom Warmoth body and neck. The body is mahogany with a cherry burst and the neck is roasted maple with a reverse headstock. I loaded this with some Seymour Duncan P-90s (the bridge has a humbucker-sized P-90) and wired a volume boost on my push-push tone knob. It plays like a dream and sounds amazing.
Bones BFMC
My first Gibson was a 1959 Melody Maker I got in 1973 from my aunt for $100 including a Gibson amp. Never looked back!
John Farmen
My 1959 ’burst clone. I never thought I’d like something that wasn’t a Tele so much.
Gregory DuPont
Easy! It’s my 2009 Ibanez Xiphos XPT700 that has a custom powder-coated trem, pickup rings, and tuning pegs.
Tracy Cooper
I have five Strats, two basses, a Tele, and three acoustics, but my go-to is the beautiful Beatrice. She’s a Jim Deacon Strat-style guitar that carries Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010–.046). She’s heavy to hold, but she sounds amazing. I bought her as a run-down, non-working wreck, and I brought her back to life. She’s mama’s best girl!
Rob Peard
I gotta say it’s my Supro Limited Edition David Bowie Dual Tone with Bigsby (seen alongside the Milkman Sound The Amp). Some might say this is a shameless cash-in on Bowie’s legacy, but to be honest, I had always wanted this model because I’m a Link Wray fan foremost. Plus, I liked the idea of having a Bigsby without the compatibility issues of the original. It took over a year to receive my order, but it was perfectly constructed and set up. This is #115 of 432 made.
JB Gimena
My 2012 Fender American Vintage ’52 Telecaster is my number one guitar. It’s most precious to me because it was a gift from my wife for our wedding.
Ryan Coy
I’m a big David Gilmour fan, so it has to be my Black-Strat-esque Stratocaster that I pieced together. It features the same pickups as his signature Custom Shop model—Seymour Duncan SSL-5 Single-Coil Strat (bridge), Custom-wound Single-Coil Strat (middle), and Custom Shop Fat ’50s Single-Coil Strat (neck)—and an American Vintage synchronized tremolo with a shortened trem bar.
Phillip Eakens
Can’t make a decision so I’ll say my 2001 Gibson Les Paul Standard—arguably the world’s most perfect guitar—and my 1959 Harmony Stratotone. (It was the first guitar I ever played.) Can you hear that? The sustain … well you would if you were playing it!
Jesse Shafer
My prized possession is the guitar I built during the summer after I graduated high school. It has a mahogany neck and body, a maple top, and a rosewood fretboard. It has a Gibson scale length, and its neck is modeled after my other Les Paul, but it thins out towards the body and has a volute. Hardware includes Grover tuners and a Gotoh bridge. I disconnected the bridge pickup, and the neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan JB with 500k volume and tone pots. The side dots were made with red and blue crushed-up colored pencils. I spent about 10 hours making the truss rod cover by plying all kinds of wood-scraps together. I finished it with polyurethane. While I was buffing the body, I accidentally dropped the guitar and the body cracked in half. At one time, the entire back of it was covered in red paint. In a panic to get the paint off, I ended up touching the front of it and now there are red fingerprints on the front within the finish. The bolt-on neck joint is super crude. I made a little wooden badge inside the “f” hole.
It’s very rough around the edges—I was 18 and idiotic when I built it. That said, it plays and sounds like a dream. One of the most resonant guitars I’ve played and certainly the most resonant that I own. Intonation is astoundingly spot on. I have played many gigs with this guitar and have logged a couple thousand practice hours on it. I wouldn’t trade it or the stories I have with it for the world!
Ben Robertaccio
This 2000s Gibson Vegas Standard and my all-rosewood Tele work in almost every recording situation.
Rambo Brown
This EVH 5150III head has something special in it! I’ve tried to replace it with other EVH options (100W, EL34, 50W Stealth), but nothing ever works like it does. It pisses me off and haunts me in my sleep. I always come back to this MF-er!
Reza Moosavi
I’ve been lucky enough to acquire a few Kenneth Lawrence instruments. The first (and my favorite) is this Custom Explorer, aka “The White Walker.” This is ultimately the best guitar I’ve ever played for a multiplicity of reasons: Its level of clarity, punch, and sustain. The craftsmanship is breathtakingly exact, and it feels absolutely smooth due to the hand-rubbed oil finish.
Danny Medrano
I own my dream guitar! It’s a Gibson RD with Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers. It’s so well balanced, the action is perfect, and its intonation is perfect. It handles every type of tone or style you can throw at it. Plus, it’s just a sexy hunk of mahogany. (These Dr. Z cabs are a close second.)
Reinaldo Andrade
My mid-’90s Yamaha Pacifica 912J. When I first saw the photo of Michael Lee Firkins with a Pacifica in Yamaha ads in guitar magazines, I knew that one day I would have my own. It was love at first sight.
Back to my 912J—it’s an incredible guitar. You can play all styles of music with ease, and it has beautiful tones. Inside detail: it came from the factory with DiMarzio pickups (a custom humbucker in the bridge and a pair of HS-2 single-coils in the middle and neck positions). If I had to stay with just one guitar, it would be this one.
Matt Deeley
This 2003 Gibson Les Paul Standard. And for me, the Les Paul’s from this era were superb. I’ve owned many guitars over the years, but this is the only one that’s stayed the course. It’s been played to death.
Joseph Torres
This is my PRS SE Mark Tremonti. (I believe it’s from 2012 judging by the serial number.) I’ve had this guitar for five years now and it’s become my ace. I love it because of its versatility and how comfortable it fits in my hands. Every time I pick it up, I remember why I wanted it in the first place. Oh yeah, I got tacky and put an Apple sticker on it. Anyway, it’s a great guitar and I can’t recommend PRS enough.
Richard Leo
I can’t afford a Gibson, but I didn’t need to with this one. The mid-’90s, Asian-made Vesta copy has the weight, tone, and feel of a Gibson 10 times its price. Plugged into my Laney VC30-212 and with clever manipulation of the tone and volume dials, I almost never need pedals. It was stolen a couple of years ago in a home robbery and still hasn’t resurfaced in the second-hand market. I haven’t found anything quite like it since.
Ryan Embree
My PRS Torero. I got it modded the way I want it with all kinds of FU-Tone goodies. This thing screams and is my main for a reason. I found it while used-guitar hunting and fought with the seller super hard to even get my hands on it.
Jeremy Santos
My 1980 Guild D-25 (made in Westerly, Rhode Island). I’m only the third owner of this absolute workhorse guitar. In fact, the guy I bought it from had a Fishman Matrix system put into it at a store in Westerly by a former Guild employee! As a founding member of a local Rhode Island acoustic duo, having a well-built, amazing-sounding acoustic is a top priority. I’ve used many different guitars over the years, but none compared to the sound and feel of this Guild! This will always be my number one. And being a Rhode Islander myself, having a guitar that was built here is pretty cool!
Rod Nesser
My 2012 Fender Cabronita FSR (MIM) that’s been retro-fitted with Fender locking tuners, a Rutters La Burrito bridge, a Les Paul-type, square-brass jack plate, and a Warmoth .09 black pickguard. I purchased this guitar in 2012 and it’s been my number one instrument since. In fact, I seldom play any of my other guitars. Together with my Vox AC30C2, Boss FRV-1 Reverb, and Selah Effects Feather Drive, this guitar has been my tone for the last eight years (and I don’t intend to change anything anytime soon). Initially, I did contemplate replacing the Fideli’Tron humbuckers for actual TV Jones Filter’Trons, but I actually like how the original Fideli’Trons sound through my amp against the bass player and loud drummer—they really cut through live! Needless to say, this axe is a keeper!
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Guitarists are used to coveting cranky, old gear, but if you’re not a rack user, the H3000 might not be for you! If you ever see one of these in a studio, be sure to take some time to check it out, and maybe give the plugin a try.When it debuted in 1987, the H3000 was marketed as an “intelligent pitch-changer” that could generate stereo harmonies in a user-specified key. This was heady stuff in the ’80s! But while diatonic harmonizing grabbed the headlines, subtler uses of this pitch-shifter cemented its legacy. Patch 231 MICROPITCHSHIFT, for example, is a big reason the H3000 persists in racks everywhere. It’s essentially a pair of very short, single-repeat delays: The left side is pitched slightly up while the right side is pitched slightly down (default is ±9 cents). The resulting tripling/thickening effect has long been a mix-engineer staple for pop vocals, and it’s also my first call when I want a stereo chorus for guitar.
The second-gen H3000S, introduced the following year, cemented the device’s guitar bona fides. Early-adopter Steve Vai was such a proponent of the first edition that Eventide asked him to contribute 48 signature sounds for the new model (patches 700-747). Still-later revisions like the H3000B and H3000D/SE added even more functionality, but these days it’s not too important which model you have. Comprehensive EPROM chips containing every patch from all generations of H3000 (plus the later H3500) are readily available for a modest cost, and are a fairly straightforward install.
In addition to pitch-shifting, there are excellent modulation effects and reverbs (like patch 211 CANYON), plus presets inspired by other classic Eventide boxes, like the patch 513 INSTANT PHASER. A comprehensive accounting of the H3000’s capabilities would be tedious, but suffice to say that even the stock presets get deliciously far afield. There are pitch-shifting reverbs that sound like fever-dream ancestors of Strymon’s “shimmer” effect. There are backwards-guitar simulators, multiple extraterrestrial voices, peculiar foreshadows of the EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine (check out patch 208 BIZARRMONIZER), and even button-triggered Foley effects that require no input signal (including a siren, helicopter, tank, submarine, ocean waves, thunder, and wind). If you’re ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000’s singular knob makes a pretty good substitute. (Spin the big wheel and find out what you’ve won!)
“If you’re ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000’s singular knob makes a pretty good substitute.”
But there’s another, more pedestrian reason I tend to reach for the H3000 and its rackmount relatives in the studio: I like to do certain types of processing after the mic. It’s easy to overlook, but guitar speakers are signal processors in their own right. They roll off high and low end, they distort when pushed, and the cabinets in which they’re mounted introduce resonances. While this type of de facto processing often flatters the guitar itself, it isn’t always advantageous for effects.
Effects loops allow time-based effects to be placed after preamp distortion, but I like to go one further. By miking the amp first and then sending signal to effects in parallel, I can get full bandwidth from the airy reverbs and radical pitched-up effects the H3000 can offer—and I can get it in stereo, printed to its own track, allowing the wet/dry balance to be revisited later, if needed. If a sound needs to be reproduced live, that’s a problem for later. (Something evocative enough can usually be extracted from a pedal-form descendant like the Eventide H90.)
Like most vintage gear, the H3000 has some endearing quirks. Even as it knowingly preserves glitches from earlier Eventide harmonizers (patch 217 DUAL H910s), it betrays its age with a few idiosyncrasies of its own. Extreme pitch-shifting exhibits a lot of aliasing (think: bit-crusher sounds), and the analog Murata filter modules impart a hint of warmth that many plug-in versions don’t quite capture. (They also have a habit of leaking black goo all over the motherboard!) It’s all part of the charm of the unit, beloved by its adherents. (Well, maybe not the leaking goo!)
In 2025, many guitarists won’t be eager to care for what is essentially an expensive, cranky, decades-old computer. Even the excitement of occasional tantalum capacitor explosions is unlikely to win them over! Fortunately, some great software emulations exist—Eventide’s own plugin even models the behavior of the Murata filters. But hardware offers the full hands-on experience, so next time you spot an old H3000 in a rack somewhere—and you’ve got the time—fire it up, wait for the distinctive “click” of its relays, spin the knob, and start digging.
You can access your complete TONEX library, including Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, quickly load favorites to audition, and save to a designated hardware slot on IK hardware pedals. This easy-to-use application simplifies workflow, providing a streamlined experience for preparing TONEX pedals for the stage.
Fine-tune and organize your pedal presets in real time for playing live. Fully compatible with all your previous TONEX library settings and presets. Complete control over all pedal preset parameters, including Global setups. Access all Tone Models/IRs in the hardware memory, computer library, and ToneNET Export/Import entire libraries at once to back up and prepare for gigs Redesigned GUI with adaptive resize saves time and screen space Instantly audition any computer Tone Model or preset through the pedal.
Studio to Stage
Edit any onboard Tone Model or preset while hearing changes instantly through the pedal. Save new settings directly to the pedal, including global setup and performance modes (TONEX ONE), making it easy to fine-tune and customize your sound. The updated editor features a new floating window design for better screen organization and seamless browsing of Tone Models, amps, cabs, custom IRs and VIR. You can directly access Tone Models and IRs stored in the hardware memory and computer library, streamlining workflow.
A straightforward drop-down menu provides quick access to hardware-stored Tone Models conveniently sorted by type and character. Additionally, the editor offers complete control over all key parameters, including FX, Tone Model Amps, Tone Model Cabs/IR/VIR, and tempo and global setup options, delivering comprehensive, real-time control over all settings.
A Seamless Ecosystem of Tones
TONEX Editor automatically syncs with the entire TONEX user library within the Librarian tab. It provides quick access to all Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, with advanced filtering and folder organization for easy navigation. At the same time, a dedicated auto-load button lets you preview any Tone Model or preset in a designated hardware slot before committing changes.This streamlined workflow ensures quick edits, precise adjustments and the ultimate flexibility in sculpting your tone.
Get Started Today
TONEX Editor is included with TONEX 1.9.0, which was released today. Download or update the TONEX Mac/PC software from the IK Product Manager to install it. Then, launch TONEX Editor from your applications folder or Explorer.
For more information and videos about TONEX Editor, TONEX Pedal, TONEX ONE, and TONEX Cab, visit:
www.ikmultimedia.com/tonexeditor
Valerie June’s songs, thanks to her distinctive vocal timbre and phrasing, and the cosmology of her lyrics, are part of her desire to “co-create a beautiful life” with the world at large.
YouTube
If you’re familiar with June’s sound, you know how effortlessly she stands out from the singer-songwriter pack. Her equal-parts warm, reedy, softly Macy Gray-tinged singing voice imprints on her as many facets as a radiant-cut emerald—and it possesses the trademark sincerity heard in the most distinctive of singer/songwriters. Her music, overall, brilliantly shines with a spirited, contagiously uplifting glow.
Owls, Omens, and Oracles opens with “Joy, Joy!” with producer M. Ward rocking lead guitar over strings (June plays acoustic on nearly all of the tracks and banjo on one). It then recurringly dips into ’50s doo-wop chord changes, blends chugging, at times funky rock rhythms with saxophones and horns, bursts with New Orleans-style brass on “Changed” (which features gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama), and explores a slow soul groove with electronic guest DJ Cavem Moetavation on “Superpower.” Bright Eyes’ multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott helmed the arrangements with guidance from Ward and June, and frequently appears on piano and Hammond organ, while Norah Jones supports with backing vocals on the folk lullaby “Sweet Things Just for You.” The entire album was recorded live to tape, which was a new experience for June.
June shares her perspective on the album and her work, overall. “It’s not ever complete or finished, your study of art,” she offers. “It’s an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things. Every artist that you bring in has a different way of performing with you, or the audience might be really talkative or super quiet. And all of that shapes the art—so it’s ever-expansive. It’s pretty infinite [laughs], where art can take you and where it goes.... I kinda got lost there a little bit,” she muses, laughing.
June’s favored acoustic guitar is this Martin 000-15M, with mahogany top, back, and sides.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
June didn’t connect with guitar in the beginning, but discovered her passion for it later, when the instrument became a vehicle for her self-empowerment. She took lessons as a teenager but was a distracted student, preferring to listen to her teacher share the history of blues guitarists like Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt. “I didn’t pick it up again until I was in my early 20s, and my band that I was in with my ex fell apart,” she says. “I still was singing and I still was hearing these beautiful voices sing me these songs, and I didn’t want to never be able to perform them. It was a terrible feeling, to be … musically stranded.
“And I was like, ‘Now, I could go get a new band and get some more accompaniment, but how ’bout I get my tail in there and keep my promise to my granddad who gave me that first guitar and actually learn how to play it, so I’ll never feel like this again.’ The goal was that I would never be musically stranded again.”
She became a solo performer, learning lap steel and banjo along with guitar, and called her style “organic moonshine roots music.” Today, she eschews picks for fingers, even when strumming chords, and is a vital blues-and-folk based stylist when she lays into her playing–especially in a live,solo setting. After two self-released albums, 2006’s The Way of the Weeping Willow and 2008’s Mountain of Rose Quartz, she connected with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who recorded and produced her 2013 album, Pushin’ Against Stone, at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound, which helped launch her now-flourishing career.
Valerie June’s Gear
Guitars
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
Effects
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- MXR X Third Man Hardware Double Down booster
- J. Rockett Audio Archer boost/overdrive
Strings
- D’Addario XL Nickel Regular Light (.010–.046)
- Martin Marquis Silked Phosphor Bronze (.012–.054
Photo by Travys Owen
As we talk about art being a shared experience, June says she can be a bit of a hermit at times, but “when it’s time to share the art, then there you are. Even if you’re a painter and you just put your painting on a wall and walk away, that’s an interaction that brings you out of your studio or your bedroom to understand this whole act of co-creating—which to me is a spiritual act anyway. That’s why we’re here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?
“And I think it’s so fun,” she enthuses. “I enjoy learning, even when it’s hard. I’m like, ‘Okay, this chord is killing me right now, or this phrase.... but I’ma stick with it. And then that likens to something that I might face when I go out into the world. I’m like, ‘All right, I can get through this.’”
I suggest, “When you say ‘co-creating,’ it sounds like you mean something bigger.”
“Both in the creation of our art, but also in the creation of a life,” June replies. “’Cause how can a life be something this artistic? You get to the end of it and you’re like, ‘Wow, look at what I co-created! With all these other people, with animals, with nature, with sound that’s all around....‘ All of my life has been a piece of art or a collective creation. I imagine them like books: different lives on a shelf. And you go pick one—‘Whoa! I created a pretty fun one there!’ or, ‘Oh, man, I had no hand in that....’ Close the book, next one!” she concludes, laughing as she illustrates the metaphor with her hands.
“So does that make all of your inspirations your co-creators?” I ask.
Valerie June at one of her several Newport Folk Festival appearances, with her trusty Gold Tone banjo
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
“Yeah! Even if they’ve gone before,” says June. “I was listening to some beautiful classical music the other day, and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know who any of these artists are; they’re all dead and gone, but I’m just enjoying it and it’s putting me in a zone that I need to be in right now.‘ So, we’re always leaving these little seeds for even those who are coming after us to be inspired by.”
Some of her current non-musical co-creators are poets and authors, such as the poet Hafez, the philosopher Audre Lorde, poet Mary Oliver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist whose works include Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.
“It’s not ever complete or finished, your study of art. It’s an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things.”
“These books are so beautiful and show the relationship of humanity with nature and the way trees speak with each other; the way moss communicates to itself,” June explains. “Those ways of being can help humans, who always think we know so much, to learn how to work together better.”
As she’s sharing, I see her glance out her window. “Right now, I just saw a muskrat go across the pond,” she continues. “It’s about this big [holds hands about three feet apart] and it digs holes in the yard. It’s having such a great time and I’m just like, ‘Okay, you are huge, and I’m walking through the yard and falling in holes because of you [laughs]. I’m just watching you live your best life!’ And then there was a blue heron that came yesterday, and I watched it eat fish.... They’re my friends!” she exclaims, with more laughter.
Valerie June believes in the power of flowers–and all living thing–as her creative collaborators.
It might seem like we’re getting a bit off subject, but it’s residents of nature like these who are important in her creative process.
I share how, in my own approach to art, I feel as though we can always access creativity and our ideals, as long as we stay receptive to experiencing and sharing in them. June agrees, but comments that sometimes her best self only wants to sit and focus: “No more information; no more downloads, please.”
An encounter with Memphis-based blues guitarist Robert Belfour, who June frequently saw perform, expanded that perspective for her. She shares about a time she went up to him after a show: “I was like, ‘Hey, I would love to work with you on some music and maybe we could co-write a song or something.’ He was like, ‘Nope! I don’t wanna do it.’ And I said, ‘Whaaat?’ And he’s like, ‘No. I do what I do, and I do not do what anybody else does; I just do what I do.’”
Sometimes, she says, “I think that’s just as much of an outlook to have with creating as anything. It’s like, ‘Okay, I’m there, I’m where I wanna be. I don’t want to be anywhere else.’”
“That’s why we’re here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?”
Part of what’s so enjoyable about speaking with June is realizing that she truly exists on her own plane. She has no pretense, and in that, doesn’t hide some of the fears that weigh on her mind at times. But she doesn’t let those define her. It’s her easy, exuberant optimism that sparks a feeling of friendship between us, without having known each other before that afternoon. What are some of her guiding principles as an artist, I wonder?
“I sit with the idea of, ‘Who am I creating this for?’” she says, “and returning to the fact that I’m doing this for me, and, as Gillian Welch said, ‘I’m gonna do it anyway even if it doesn’t pay.’ This is what I wanna do. And reflecting on that and letting that kind of be my guiding force. It’s just something that I enjoy, that I really wanna do.”
YouTube It
From there, the conversation meanders in other directions, and June even generously asks me a few questions about my own artistic beliefs. We share about trusting your gut instinct, and walking away from situations and people who don’t serve us. This reminds her of a bigger feeling.
“With everything that these times hold for us as humans,” she shares, “from the inequality that we face to the environmental change, the political climate, and all the things that could lead us to fear or negativity.... I started to think about it, and I’m like, ‘Okay, well, maybe we are fucked! Maybe the planet is going to eject us and all of the other things are gonna come true! Well, if that’s what’s gonna happen, who do I wanna be?’
“I want to go out in a way that’s sweet or kind to other people, enjoying this experience, these last moments, and building togetherness through music. I want to co-create a beautiful life even in the face of all of that. That’s what I want to do.”
