Junaco is the duo of California’s Shahana Jaffer and Joey LaRosa, who have recently released their new single “Weight Of The World,” which will be included on their eventual new EP.
The track captures a breezy and hopeful dream-pop sound with a sunny feeling in the air, like a blend of Beach House, Wye Oak, and Tennis. The track not only has a polished crunch to it but has a grand feeling and an incredibly subtle hooky feeling to it that will have no problem getting stuck in your head.
Junaco share the origin story and inspirations for their new song:
When we were writing the new tunes, we were listening to a lot of Amo Amo, Big Thief, Rodrigo Amarante, Sam Evian, Broncho & Hannah Cohen. The writing style of ‘Weight of the World’ was inspired a lot by Mike Viola’s record ‘The American Egypt.’ His songs are so visual and visceral, he really puts you there with him. It feels like all your senses are activated when listening. When writing this song, we felt like we had a strong message to convey – being overwhelmed with the constant change and forward motion & evolution towards what feels like being less human. We were heavily inspired by this podcast, ‘The Time Sensitive’ podcast episode with Jesse Kamm, where she talks about the quality of life and level of happiness when communities are full of creation & purpose, something we may have lost when big corporations began to seep into our everyday lives.
It was a lot of fun to work on this song with producer James McAlister (Sufjan Stevens, The National, Taylor Swift) and our great friend and collaborator Tejas Leier Heyden. It was actually written as a somber piano ballad and we had no idea what we wanted it to be when we went into the studio, so it was a lot of fun experimenting with the possibilities.
Enjoy a listen to “Weight Of The World” now below.
Join the conversation