Ahead of her debut album Bloom Gloom, Lily Juniper talks embracing our inner light and dark, learning to speak up and returning to the stage after a decade away.

Lily Juniper is fascinated by the contradictions we carry around with us. On her forthcoming debut album, Bloom Gloom, the North West London-born, South London-based artist explores the joy, anxiety and existential unease that come with growing into yourself, pairing intimate songwriting with textured indie-electronic pop. Written alongside her longtime collaborator and partner yours.truly, the record finds Juniper giving space to the parts of ourselves we might otherwise prefer to keep hidden. With Bloom Gloom arriving next month, we caught up with her to talk conflict, vulnerability, perfectionism, boxing and the strange emotional terrain of your twenties.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Hello! I’m Lily Juniper, I grew up in North West London but I’m a South London convert now. I make indie-electronic-pop music inspired by our unique internal worlds, exploring the light and dark in us all.

Your debut album Bloom Gloom is finally arriving next month. How does it feel to be this close to putting your first full-length record out into the world?

It’s so exciting and surreal, it’s been a lifelong dream to release a full-length project and I can’t really believe we’re here now. I started writing it at the beginning of 2025 so I’ve had a lot of time to sit with these songs and it feels nice to be able to listen back to them all now and appreciate how far they’ve all come - it’s emotional!

Bloom Gloom is a great title. Where did it come from, and when did you realise it summed up the record?

For me, ‘Bloom Gloom’ is something that happens to us all at some point in our 20’s… like, are you suffering from bloom gloom? Similar to ennui or an existential angst that comes with realising that time really does keep passing and there’s both joy and sadness in knowing that. The direction of the record was always going to explore the balancing act of our inner light and dark and trying to grow through all of life’s inevitable obstacles - ‘Bloom Gloom’ really encapsulated all of those ideas for me.

‘Quiet Tired’ explores the instinct to stay small or disappear to avoid conflict. Was that something you knew you wanted to write about, or did the meaning reveal itself as you were making the song?

This track actually started with a completely different lyrical and melodic concept, but it just wasn’t connecting and I loved the instrumental so much that I didn’t want to scrap the song entirely. I left it alone for a few weeks but eventually sat down with my partner and producer (yours.truly) and we wrote ‘Quiet Tired’ together, after a shared experience of conflict that had really stayed with us - we both really needed the emotional release of writing it and I’m so glad it turned out the way it did.

There’s an interesting contrast in ‘Quiet Tired’ between emotional exhaustion and this huge, uplifting chorus. What drew you towards giving such a vulnerable subject that sense of release?

I think there is a sense of catharsis to admitting that you’re angry or disappointed in something or someone and although it can feel like a lot, there’s also this idea of it being a weight off of your shoulders at the same time. I also wanted to explore the freedom that can be found in expressing your own truth and perspective rather than keeping it all in only to contribute to your own inner turmoil.

You’ve described the song as cathartic to write. Has making Bloom Gloom changed the way you think about conflict, vulnerability or speaking up for yourself?

I really struggle with this! I’m all about emotional vulnerability but conflict doesn’t come naturally to me and I think I can be a bit of a pushover, but I’m trying to practice confidence in speaking up for my own needs until it (hopefully) becomes habitual. I’ve also recently taken up boxing so we’ll see how that goes…

‘Quiet Tired’, ‘Way To Love’ and ‘One Night Blues’ each seem to occupy quite different emotional spaces. How representative are those three songs of the wider world of Bloom Gloom?

Something I really wanted for the record was for each track to have its own unique presence, with them all linked together in exploring the deepest depth of a thought or feeling. I think each track represents a different snapshot or story, but definitely live in the same textural soundscape and come from the same world - they’re siblings ;)

You made the album with your longtime collaborator and partner yours.truly. How does knowing somebody that closely affect the way you work together creatively, particularly when the songs are personal?

As we’ve been together for 7 years and friends for longer, there’s definitely a comfort in working with someone that so deeply understands your perspective, inspirations and references. We share a lot of the same musical taste and that compatibility means it’s very rare that we’ll create something that one of us likes and the other doesn’t, but there is no conversation that is off limits in the writing room or within our relationship, so it’s really fun to share the journey together and celebrate the excitement and wins for both of us.

As your debut album, did you feel any pressure for Bloom Gloom to establish exactly who Lily Juniper is as an artist, or were you able to shut that out while making it?

I’m pretty much always feeling pressure to establish who ‘Lily Juniper’ is in every aspect of my life haha! That being said, I think this record really allowed space for me to get over my perfectionistic tendencies, appreciate the process and feel excited that this is just the beginning. I also am very lucky to be doing this with my label Friends of Friends, who are just the most supportive team - I wish more labels had as much care for their artists’ wellbeing!

You’re celebrating the record with a launch show at Coldharbour Blue in South London in October. How are you translating an album with so many intricate electronic and organic elements into a live setting?

YES! This will be my first show in about a decade, so I’m half nervous-half buzzing. yours.truly and I will be playing together and we’ve just started the process of translating it all into a live set up. It will be a lot of live synths, samplers and drum pads - I also just got a new vocal pedal so I can play with some live effects as well. The venue is usually an independent cinema so the space is perfect for some beautiful sounds.

What do you love right now?

Toffifee, can’t believe I’ve only just tried it.

What do you hate right now?

Unpopular opinion but summer? These heatwaves make me sad for our planet and London feels gross.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Sylvan Esso’s self-titled debut album means so much to me. It came out when I was 18 and figuring out my own relationship with music, hearing Amelia Meath’s perfect voice on top of such cool electronic production opened up a new world to me and really shaped the music I’ve made ever since. ‘Coffee’ might be my favourite track of all time.

Once people have had time to live with Bloom Gloom, what do you hope they understand about you, or perhaps about themselves, that they didn't before hearing it?

I hope that people hear the record and allow themselves to connect to how multi-faceted we all are and give some love to the parts of ourselves that we like to hide from others.

Start Listening To: Lily Juniper