ICYMI, our queer emo besties gloomy june released their debut album last week! Danceable, vulnerable, and ever-so-catchy, this nonstop party has been a journey three years in the making. Built on the strong bonds of the band, created on the iconic roads of California, and defined by San Francisco itself, gloomy june (the album) has a summer anthem for everyone.

In celebration of gloomy june’s debut, I asked vocalist (and former BFF.fm DJ!) Alexi Belchere about how the album came to be.

Explain gloomy june in 3 words.

Ash: glittery

Devin: hooky

Jack: prismatic

When did you decide to start working on your debut album? What inspired it?

We started working on the debut album while on tour in 2022. Devin had a skeleton of the song “On My Side” and Jack was messing around with synths while we were in a motel in Denver. I started coming up with lyrics while we were soundchecking at Che Cafe in San Diego. That’s such a long time ago, and we were writing all the way up to October of last year with “Kill You”.

Who inspires you and your music?

The poet Mary Oliver comes to mind with this question. She once said: “Athletes take care of their bodies. Writers must similarly take care of the sensibility that houses the possibility of poems. There is nourishment in books, other art, history, philosophies- in holiness and in mirth. It is in honest hand-on labor also.. It is in the green world- among people, and animals.. A mind that is lively and inquiring, compassionate, curious, angry, full of music, full of feeling, is a mind full of possible poetry.” I try to live by this philosophy of enriching my life in the name of creativity, never putting pressure on myself to harvest that creativity into existence.

What was the writing process like? Was it different compared to your previous songs?

Our process is usually Devin coming up with a rough verse and chorus and us all jamming on it. I’ll have lyrics either before we jam or sometime after. The album writing process was basically the same, except we were writing more songs while we were recording, so there’s a freshness of those songs because they weren’t tested in front of concert crowds before they came into existence. That’s sort of a “preproduction” that we skipped in some of the songs.

How has San Francisco shaped gloomy june?

gloomy june is very much a San Francisco band. Our name is based on the crummy weather that we get every June in SF – that bitter cold canceling out the California ideal of summer vacation, which matches our upbeat songs about sad things.

Who are your Bay Area Besties (what other bands should we know)?

chokecherry, Like Roses, Vitamin Girl, swiss., Lucky Break, Grimmer, Polkadot, Cardboard People, Maggie Gently, Badvril, Treasvre, Dinner Date, Mild Universe, Outer Sunset, Grooblen, Buzzer Lightbeer, Career Woman.. I could go on for a while.

Can’t get enough gloomy june? Listen to Baydream and Casually Crying on BFF.fm!