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Nothing feeds a community like music, a rich dish of ingredients, native and adopted that reflect everything endured by a place, poetic insights and onslaughts, a menu of emotions a la carte. In June Freedom's latest adventurous album, Casa Mira Mar, the multilingual artist pays tribute to both the musical roots of his native Cape Verde, and to a "House With The Ocean View" that has housed his grandparents and now mother, a grocery store which centered their community in São Filipe. Selfishly, after hearing this album, we invited the dynamic author of this record come in to speak with us and reveal his many talents: cooking, horseback riding and most importantly music. Read on for more: 

OnesToWatch: Tell me who you are.

June Freedom: I'm just a kid from a third-world country that had dreams and aspirations of doing music since I was a child. My mom had a restaurant, which she opened up in 2002, I believe. Every weekend, she would have live bands. It would be time to go to sleep, and I’d be like, “The band’s on!” I got into it. Every weekend, I’d be at the restaurant, watching the band, wanting to perform with them—until I did, until she let me. 

Would you say that was encouraged, or was it just sort of osmosis? 

It was just a part of the culture. Then, when I got into it, I started singing with the live band pretty often. We did some festivals—even our version of American Idol of the islands. I would perform in all these different types of events, representing Cape Verde at the age of 12. In Portugal, we played in a huge festival, and that's how we really kicked off.

I was about to ask you when you knew you were good at it, but it sounds like very early on music started to feel right. 

I still get the butterflies when I get on stage, and that’s how you know you still love it. But back then, it was only traditional Cape Verde music. I could barely speak English at the time, actually. I was mostly speaking Kriolu, which is the dialect from back home. And morna, which is something that I didn't think I would get into—but I did. The genre is really slow and sad. Singing that as a kid, it was melancholy, but that was the beginning of it.

Was anything else a thought in your mind as something else you wanted to do with your life, or was it always laser focused on music? 

I liked soccer. But music was always the only thing that moved me, man, really. I was terrible in high school; I couldn't focus on anything, but I wanted to make music. And so, it was the only thing I really cared about.

Was there anything local that inspired you, when you sort of emulated or, like, was a mentor? 

Actually, Ildo Lobo. He's passed away, but I got to perform with him in his last two gigs that he ever did. He’s a legend back home. I wanted to be him, wanted to perform like him. He would wear these French berets; I had them in a music video. He was my main inspiration at home. I got to see him perform once when I was randomly at this little festival, not so far from my mom’s restaurant. He had a strong voice. I was absolutely captivated and wanted to meet him, and when he came to my mom's restaurant, I was always at his feet. He took me in and brought me on stage. I was always learning and wanting to be like him.

That's super cool. How big is the island? 
How many people? 

Man, we're a small country. We have maybe 600,000 people, 10 islands. We're one of the smallest countries in Africa. We got our independence in 1975.

Musically, what inspires you? 


Signs of the times, what we're going through in the world. Music has always been a creative outlet for when things are stressful for me. It's been my thing that I always turn to when I need to express or feel something. That's true and honest to me. I think music saves lives. It's been saving lives for generations and decades, and it sure saved mine.

Do you have a process? 
Do you write songs similarly or different every time? 

Different every time. Melody, lyrics, ideas, motions—all the things. Everything's different every single time. There's not one way to do it. Sometimes the melody’s first, sometimes it’s a beat, sometimes it's a thought or a voice memo, or you write something on your notes. And it's never worked the same way twice. But usually, when I get beats, I tend to go for melodies to get the feeling. And then I go to co-writing or co-producing, which I often do.

Do you have an instrument you gravitate toward? 


I play guitar, but usually I’m just writing freestyle melodies. And then, I put words to it.

Teasing the album a bit, it’s a beautiful piece of work. As I understand it, is it named after your grandfather's store? 

Yes. My grandfather was one of the first merchants on the islands. He had the basic needs for the people, opening up one of the first little grocery stores in the center of the island. It was called Casa Mira Mar, which means “House with an Ocean View”. And from the top of his store, you could see another island, which was Brava, and you could see the ocean. The store and restaurant were in the center of the island, so to go to the countryside, you’d have to pass by my grandfather’s and mother’s business. They became staples for people on the island. The album title’s pretty much that—the nostalgic feeling of how calm and islandy the whole tape feels. It gave me flashbacks to what that felt like, and this album encompasses all of those feelings and vibes of that time.

That's amazing, to think about your grandfather being the center of a community and what that represents. In what way is this album meant to embody that? Is it honoring your ancestry? Is it a representation of culture? Is it pure nostalgia where you wish things would go back to that way? Or is it just good memories?

It's a little bit of all of that. Definitely paying homage. There's four different languages on this album: Spanish, Kriolu, English, and Portuguese. My team wants me to do more English, but to captivate the feeling of my home, I need all of them. The island has tranquility, but also politics.

Tell me about your mother. She’s had this restaurant for 25 years. Don't hate me for this question, but who's the better cook? 


My mother. If my mom’s listening, she’s still the best. I love her food. I always did. It’s simple cooking. We live off of what we kill, so we’d give her a bucket of fish, or goats from the farm, and the food is so fresh. The food is amazing there, man.

Tell me about the staples. What are the go-to’s?

Cachupa is a traditional dish. It’s a stew, and they call it the poor man’s food, but it’s actually pretty rich because of all the ingredients you’d need. It’s just a big stew. You could choose between meats or fish. There are cachupa competitions. There are so many different kinds, and it flows with how you’re feeling, because seasoning comes from the soul. It’s just amazing.

That's awesome. You said during COVID, you couldn’t really travel to do music, right?

That's when I made my first album, actually, out of my apartment. This current album is fresh songs, but the first album we cooked up in North Hollywood, while we were actually doing a food pop-up, too, called Cape Green. We got a lot of great reviews. Then we tried to do a brick and mortar… that was a little tougher. It was on Santa Monica, right here in Brentwood. It was really great, but my music took off and I had to choose one or the other. I was the one sweating on top of the cachupa.

Now, you're sweating over laptops and mixing boards. 

My back’s messed up. I want to cook again, though. I think it’s going to be important to incorporate that into my brand moving on in the future.

If you were to nourish someone, would you give them food or music first?

Definitely food. When I’m agitated, food is the first thing. I don’t think anyone will appreciate music if they’re hungry. I love food.

What inspires and motivates you outside of music?

Man, just a goal, just focusing on the goal, not people and things. People and things are way too easy to disappoint sometimes, but I feel like focusing on the goal and the streamlining of things that you really want to accomplish and do… that’s the move. This industry is tough, so just focusing on the goal and being honest with your craft—that’s what keeps me going.

What do you do to relax? How do you give yourself flowers? 


I love listening to music. Not my music, but waking up and putting a playlist on and decompressing. Starting my day with traditional Cape Verdean music changes the trajectory of my whole day. It’s just calming to my spirit.

What’s something you think the world needs more of that it doesn't have right now? 

Love, man. We need more love, more community, more happy times. All kinds of things are happening, and it just needs to be more open. When we're kids, when we're children, everything is one. Everything is all right, everything is love. It’s just when we grow up that the conditioning of cultures and religions makes it a mess. We need more love, more community, more passion and understanding.

You mentioned you had a great music mentor as you were growing up. If you could go back in time and put yourself on a bill – any place with anyone – where would it be and who would it be with? 

Bob Marley. Cesária Évora. Ildo Lobo. Mayra Andrade, she’s still alive. She's amazing. 70s and 80s was a legend. James Brown, the way he would sweat on stage, I'm like, that guy was really giving it. That energy is electric and I like to perform, so my songs might seem really calm, but when you come to my shows, there's a lot of energy. I like to see what they did in the 70s and 80s because a lot of that was really raw and real. 


Any place you haven't performed that you’d like to?

Glastonbury, Coachella. Funnily enough, Drake gave me tickets to go to my first Coachella experience ever. He came in to do some 3D VFX work, and I didn’t even know about Coachella at the time. The first week of that year was when Madonna tongued Drake down on stage or something like that. When he came in, we brought it up and he was talking about the experience, and I got a feel for the energy through him. Then I went the second week, and I saw Jack White and the White Stripes perform… they changed my life that night. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen.

That’s so cool. If you could sort of imagine yourself doing anything else with your life, what would it be? 

I’d touch the moon. No—growing crops, farming. Growing up on the island, I wouldn’t have expected that, but I’m growing into being on a farm somewhere with horses and animals, relaxing, tending crops, and making food.

You grew up riding horses, right? 

Mmhmm. My grandfather's brother had a few horses in the north side of the countryside, which is called Pico do Fogo, the highest peak of the island. And we also have black beaches and volcanoes there, so we'd take the horses down to the beaches for ceremonies, and that's how I started riding. Specifically, when I lived on the island my mom's from. I also lived on another island called Praia (Santiago), which is the capital. My father and my mom worked with the government. My dad was a financial advisor for the prime minister, so we were moving back and forth. And then when I moved back to São Filipe (Fogo), which is my mom's island, that's where I started riding the horses at the age of 11 or 12.

What's the style of horseback riding? 


There was an emphasis on speed and control. We did these trick races, and in the middle of the track, you would see a string, and it would connect to a box of candy or birds, and you have to hit it. It would either be a box of candy, a box of birds, or you just have to hit it, and it's just a part of the ceremony.

What's some advice you would give to your artist self when you were just starting out? 

Stay locked in. Time goes fast. I'm in my 30s. My 20s were just living life for the most part.

Would you go back and be more focused back then?

No, because, you know, I had to live an experience to be in the space to articulate or even feel the way I feel. I'd say, stay locked in, though. Stay locked in. There's a lot of distractions, especially now with social media—it's just doom-scrolling TikTok. Focus on the goal, not people or things.

Love that. Last couple of questions. What does success look like for your artist project? 

I’d be enabled to perform and do festivals. I enjoy doing big bands. I want to grow my four-piece little band I have now. I’d want 15 or 20 people on stage. That's the goal. Just being able to express and fully grow the way I always dreamed. Even since being at my mom’s restaurant, seeing the bands play, being where I’m at now, I just want to see how far I can take it.

What would the 15-piece entail? 

Drummer, percussion section, two guitarists—one acoustic, one electric—synth, keys, horn section. String section, I don't know. Some dancers. You got to really be doing well to afford all them.

I see it coming for you, though. Last question. At OnesToWatch, we love when artists shout out other artists. Who have you been listening to that deserves some more flowers? 

Mayra Andrade. She's amazing. Friend of mine. I grew up listening to her too, and now that we're friends, it’s so cool. I just love her music, and her live shows are amazing. One of the best I've seen. Dino D'Santiago. Elida Almeida is amazing as well. These are all my indigenous folk from back home. Nami, young producer from Cape Verde, he’s an artist that lives in LA as well.

Amazing, thank you so much for your time.