[FEATURE] VIPER PRESENTS: JOONY

Introducing Joony: From Silver Spring, Maryland, where his mellow melodies were crafted to Billboard Hot 100 Stardom, alongside the likes of Brent Faiyaz, Jordan Ward, and Lancey Foux!

What five words define your sound?

Unique. Left field. Pretty. Real. Soulful.

Tell me something unique about your creative process

I start all my songs with a combination of melody & gibberish. After that, I put words here and there and make it make sense.

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

‘Not Going Back’ – (if I had to choose 1)

What inspired you to make that song?

I wanted to try something new and left field in terms of the sonics and mixing, while still being real and having that urban sound.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?

That is a good question. Probably in my song ‘Untold Stories’. I remember making that song and crying to it a few times that year. It got me emotional especially around the time I made it, because things were changing so fast in my life. In a good way, but still was very emotional.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?

The best experience was probably my two sold-out headlining shows back home. It was kinda crazy. Feeling the energy and love was cool as fuck.

I can’t remember a specific worst experience, but I definitely had one or two bad shows when I went on tour with Lancey Foux. Some of the shows just weren’t feeling me. I ain’t mad at it though. They were there for Lancey, and I don’t think our fan bases overlap too much. I think Lancey just liked my music. Although there were a few shows that were meh, that tour got me a lot more comfortable on stage and leveled up my live show by a lot. No regrets.

What is your favourite song to perform?

‘Drifting in Tokyo’, ‘Milan’, ‘Not Going Back’, and ‘Baby Joon’.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Good Kid Maad City’.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

So, I had two older sisters growing up and they were big fans of the movie Spy Kids. In the movie, the little brother’s name is Juni. My sisters thought it’d be cool to make that my nickname being that I was their little brother. Everyone in my family called me that and soon turned into a nickname that everyone knew me as. Friends, family, classmates, etc. So when I started rapping, picking a name was easy.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

Writing movies, screenplay, directing, and most likely acting.

What’s success to you?

Healthy body, healthy family, faith in god, and enough money to take care of everyone. Everything else doesn’t really matter.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

My father’s death made me want to make sure I achieve success by any means.

Where can people keep in touch with you? 

@joonyoftv on all platforms.