Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Leslie Meek aka J U N O.
Hi Robert, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Music has always been a major part of my life. When I got my very first MP3 player back in like 2001 it had mostly movie scores and classic rock on it. I have so many memories of climbing around the rocky landscape of the Texas Hill Country while listening to “The Lord of The Rings” score and then “The Beatles” could come on afterwards, maybe some “Rolling Stones” as well, and I would create whole movies in my head to the music I was hearing. I was hooked. I spent the next few years trying to listen to as many different genres as possible. Then I picked up the violin in 6th grade and had my first taste of making music. The artistic expression that gave me was something I had never experienced before, I finally had a way to get the music I had in my head out into the world.
That being said I’ve never been satisfied with just one iron in the fire. So all the while I was listening to music I was also acting and growing a deep appreciation for theatre, which I actually went to college for at U of H and earned a BFA in acting. While I was at U of H for acting I also found great joy in directing and theatrical sound design as well, and in doing that I got my first taste of properly producing music.
In march of 2019 I put out my very first album called, “Ignition Sequence” that was almost entirely electronic dance style music. But I was a 90’s kid who grew up in Houston. I couldn’t escape Hip-Hop. So while I was making EDM I was also making beats. Eventually it got it a point where I wanted to hear people on my tracks but couldn’t get any of my friends to bite, so I was like, “f*** this waiting crap, I’m just going to do it on my own”. So I started writing more and more, learning to mix and master my own music, enrolled myself in classes and workshops to try and really throw myself into the deep end and learn as much as possible,
Since then I’ve released 2 more full albums, “Almost Never What It Seems” (Nov. 2020), which was a far more hip-hop based album and featured my own voice as well as the voices of some of my incredibly talented friends and, “The Golden Record” (August 2021) which was based on the Voyager Space Probes and was my sonic take on what it means to be human. I’ve also released 3 singles. The first, “The Swarm” (July 2020) is a protest track where all proceeds have gone towards local Houston organizations helping to combat systemic racism and inequality . The other two, “Allen Parkway” (Nov 2021) and “The Last Stand” (Dec. 2021) were my most recent tracks to come out, in association with independent German label, “Vinyl Digital”. In 2021 I broke 100,000 streams on Spotify and cannot wait to see where we go this year!
The name comes from many different sources, the Roman goddess Juno, the legendary synthesizer made by Roland, but maybe most importantly, the Juno satellite, which has captured some of the most gorgeous images of Jupiter, and those images were deeply inspiring to me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
OF COURSE NOT! And anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
It takes a lot of long nights, running from job to job, putting yourself out there, failing, experimenting, failing some more, and learning from all of those experiences.
Something all creatives face is rejection. People telling you no for a variety of different reasons. For every gig that works out it is standing on a pile of rejections, AND THAT’S OKAY!
I’ve often reflected on opportunities that I’ve felt I could have potentially handled differently, but the truth is that I wasn’t ready in those moments. If I had the opportunities 5 years ago that I’ve had over the last 2, I would have likely dropped the ball in a major way. All of those rejections and moments that I felt out of my depth fully and completely made me into the person I am today.
If I hadn’t learned to mix and master my own music I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to work with some incredibly talented artists, I wouldn’t have the tool kit I have to work through and address issues as they arrive in my own tracks, and I wouldn’t have the technical knowledge I do. All of these things have in turn made me a better artist, strengthened my resolve, and more than anything, confirmed that I’m doing the right thing.
A good sign you’re on the right path is even with all these obstacles and challenges, you can’t wait to try again. I honestly love getting into situations where my footing feels less stable. I thrive when I have the right pressures applied and I can feel the wall and my back beginning to meet. I can’t wait to fail at all the new things I’m going to try for the first time, because from those failures, I’ll learn more than I could anywhere else, and that’s where greatness is created.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a music producer, a rapper, a sound designer, an actor, and a director. A true MC at the definition of the term. I regularly think of an interview the rapper Logic was doing where he recalls a conversation he had with Donald Glover, where Logic was feeling frustrated with being, “put into a box”, and Donald Glover said to him, “well are you a rapper or are you an entertainer?” And that’s always resonated deeply within me.
In less the last 2 years I’ve produced, mixed, mastered, and released 2 full albums and 3 singles.
Earned over 100,000 streams on Spotify.
Created quality merch using local artists and clothing makers.
Directed/shot/edited 2 music videos.
Sound Designed pieces for Off-Broadway theatre, The American Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn Arts Council.
And collaborated with the incredible artists of Houston.
There are lots of people who do what I do. Nobody does it like me.
That’s not to say other people don’t make great or even better things than I do, but nobody does the way I do.
In the beat making world, there’s a big market for “type beats” where producers make beats that sound like the type of beat other producers make or artists use. I’ve never really been interested in making anything other than a “J U N O type beat”.
I always try to one-up my previous work, I’m my biggest competition. So when I’m only competing against myself I have the ability to tune out external influences. I’m not worried about how someone else popped off.
Being able to trust that the things I want to create and the stories I want to tell will come to me naturally is a beautiful thing.
I’ve always been able to associate images and colors with sounds. I love listening to anything, from music to the sound of a busy airport, and listening to those things, and taking in those images and colors makes it easier to recall and create similar shades and shapes with my own work.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
A younger brother who was a “theatre kid”. Meaning I was a handful, haha!
The biggest change to me over the years is just being willing to shut the hell up and listen to someone else.
I’ve always loved performing and being the center of attention. I have no problem with people looking to me for solutions or ideas.
I’ve always loved collaborating.
Growing up in theatre gave me a certain confidence in front of a group of people, so I think it makes sense that now professionally I regularly end up in similar positions of collaboration and artistic exploration.
I was definitely a nerd, lol.
I played almost as many video games as albums I listened to, and have consumed more hours of movies and television than I can count. That’s likely where my love of collecting and telling stories began.
Contact Info:
- Email: junomusichtx@gmail.com
- Website: www.junomusichtx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junomusichtx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JUNOmusicHTX
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JUNOmusichtx
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN1xLXdvsfD4sW9PiTcKdYg
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/junomuischtx
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@junomusichtx
Image Credits:
Hannah Warren (@_hcreates_)
Tasha Gorel (@tashagorel)
