We're happy to announce that we have a new album to be released April 24th 2026. The Solid and the Hollow is available for pre order from our Bandcamp page now.
Available on vinyl, CD and digital.
We started this project heading in a slightly different direction to where we ended up. As it progressed it became a kind of nostalgia trip — imagining how we would have approached music as teenagers, when so much of the 60s and indie music we now know and love was brand new to us. It made the whole process feel fresh and exciting to make.
We've actually included a song written in our teens called She Makes the Sun Shine — albeit updated and slightly different from the original — and it gave us a good springboard for the vibe we were on.
We were listening to a lot of 60s garage, 80s neo-psychedelia and early 90s shoegaze during its production, which pushed us toward a more guitar-led sound than our previous two albums. We felt we hadn't made a proper guitar album since Paint the Ground and decided it was time to get the amps out again.
We will be playing our first live gig in 10 years to support the release on 1st May in Birmingham. Tickets available HERE.
Fittingly for a late 60s inspired record, the new JUNIPERS album is an unplanned love child. Joe Wiltshire and Robyn Gibson tell Michael Björn how one thing led to another.
To the delight of sunny psychedelic pop lovers, after eight years The Junipers are back with Imaginary Friends. It started when Robyn was recording the Portable Radio’s sophomore album. “We managed to persuade Joe to play bass,” says Robyn. “So that got me and Joe kind of doing bits over in Leicester.”
Their first idea was to re-record the Junipers’ debut albumCut Your Keysince they did not have ownership of the original. However, when a reissue deal was struck with the original label, attention instead turned to new material.“We had about four new songs,” says Joe who is the songwriter of the pair.“I showed them to Portable Radio, thinking perhaps we could do it with them.”
But accidental momentum took over and the songs just kept on coming.“The sessions were just so easy,” says Robyn.“We’d pop over to the Juniper studio for two or three hours, once or twice a week, and come out with maybe one and a half songs recorded.”
Soon the two had taped almost an album’s worth - but decided to also include‘My Imaginary Friend’ — the last group recording made in late 2017 just before their guitarist Peter Gough got ill and the band activity petered out.“I wanted to do our own‘Martha My Dear’. There’s an Emitt Rhodes track,‘She's Such A Beauty’, and I wanted something like that,” explains Joe.“But we've not got a dog, so we made one up, like a Rutles thing!”
With some parts recorded by the full lineup, the music feels like a direct continuation from previous album,Red Bouquet Fair.“It's good that it doesn't stick out,” says Robyn.“Nobody seems to have noticed the change in line-up.”
And judging from the sheer quality on display, great tunes seem to have been piling up over the inactive years, all in their signature warm and friendly style.“It's like a summer haze that's shimmering in and out,” says Robyn. ”Its nice to make something that makes you smile,” adds Joe.“Some songs are probably a bit saccharine, but as you build them, you try and steer it away from that a bit.” But while the production indeed layers psychedelic sounds and playful overdubs here and there, such effects are used sparingly in order avoid sugar coating.
“We just did it for fun,” concludes Robyn.“But we ended up with the fourth Junipers album!”
Leicester has had a pretty good run of it of late. It had previously been a source of fun for Londoners being asked for directions by tourists trying to pronounce the famous London square of that name (“Can you tell me the way to Ly-sess-ter square?” we would be asked whilst stifling a smirk).
Aside from that, it was known for hosting the Walkers Crisps factory and being the birthplace of Thomas Cook holidays and the jug-eared England striker Gary Lineker. However, Britain’s tenth biggest city has had something of a renaissance. Not only is it now rather grandly the final resting place of Richard III, it also hosts football’s Premier League Champions, albeit they have just sacked their manager, which just goes to show some people are never happy.
Lineker himself is rising ever more to National Treasure status, as he provides as much opposition to the Government as he used to do to Brazil on the football field – more, some would say than the actual opposition party via his Twitter account.
From a musical perspective, until recently the most famous export from Leicester was the man who broke The Beatles’ record breaking string of number one hits by keeping Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane from the No. 1 spot.
Sounds good until you find out that person was Englebert Humperdinck.
But more recently Leicester has produced a slightly edgier and indie-fied version of Englebert in the form of Kasabian, a genuine international headliner and producer of indie-bangers.
And since 2000, another Leicester band has been quietly producing music, and it is this band that deserves your attention today.
The band is called The Junipers.
You may not have heard of them: they didn’t appear on The Brits alongside Ed Sheeran or at The Grammys alongside Bruno Mars, but The Junipers will appeal to fans of the quieter moments of Teenage Fanclub, modern day psychedelic rock bands such as Temples (who hail from nearby Kettering) and Tame Impala, and in particular such psychedelic ’60s pop as Love, The Byrds and The Beatles, and the sunshine pop of Sagittarius and The Beach Boys.
The Junipers’ third album in nine years (they aren’t the most prolific it seems), Red Bouquet Fair, came out late last year, and not only is it one of the best albums I have heard in ages, it’s also being released in a very limited run on coloured vinyl by Tunbridge Wells’ finest record label Sugarbush Records (about whom we’ll find out more another time).
Here are a few things we need to know about The Junipers:
Band members are Robyn Gibson (vocals), Joe Wiltshire (guitar), Pete Gough (guitar), Ash Selden (bass) and Ben Marshall (drums).
Their debut 2008 album “Cut Your Key” was recorded both at their own studios in Leicester and at Birmingham’s Magic Garden studios, and was a mild success, gaining radio play, favourable reviews and a support slot with the aforementioned Kasabian.
Follow up “Paint The Ground” was released in 2012, and improved upon the debut.
2016 album “Red Bouquet Fair”, their third album, is a further leap forward, containing songs that would improve Pet Sounds.
Yes, it’s that good.
It is a masterful work of pop precision, an album utterly accomplished. Like Southend’s Asylums’ “Killer Brain Waves”, Red Bouquet Fair is a great example of a terrific record being created with a DIY ethic outside of the mainstream music industry.
What makes this DIY movement different from previous movements is that bands like The Junipers are releasing the most beautiful home-produced albums that sound like they were created in a luxurious studio. There’s real craft in these mini-symphonies, in these perfect folk-pop moments of sunshine.
As winter draws to a close, perhaps it’s time to bring a bit of sunshine into your life? An instant injection of vitamin D…
Our latest single from our upcoming album "Imaginary Friends" is the title track
of sorts "My Imaginary Friend". Its available to buy on our Bandcamp page (all
proceeds help towards the vinyl pressing). OUR BANDCAMP PAGE!
The single is also available on Spotify, Apple Music etc. We also have a little lyric video on our Youtube Channel
Not really a single release. More of a last little promo teaser before the album comes out next month. Another song we've had for a while in demo form. We started recording it properly it as a band in 2017 but never finished it or released it, apart from a brief appearance in 2023 as a bonus track on our 3rd album "Red Bouquet Fair". It's now finished and will be included on our new album "Imaginary Friends". It was the first song we had for the album and inspired the idea for the albums theme and title. We liked the idea of someone who really wants a dog but can't have one because the rest of the family don't want one, so they have an imaginary dog instead that they take out for walks and roll around in fields with, pick up its imaginary shit etc.
Our new album is available for Pre order NOW! Pre orders will help us pay for the pressing of the vinyl and get it out sooner. Email us to pre-order at thejunipersband@gmail.com or from The Junipers Bandcamp page: PRE ORDER HERE!
Imaginary Friends is our fourth album. Currently only available as digital and physical CD. Vinyl coming very soon, October/November so please do pre-order. Still waiting on pressing. Sorry!
The Junipers are back with their new album "Imaginary Friends". In 2022 a couple of Junipers recorded with Manchester based outfit Portable Radio on their album "Counting To Three", providing the rhythm section recording at the Junipers studio in Leicester. With that project finished in 2023, they found the lure of their instruments and recording gear, still set up too tempting to not record some more.
They decided to have a go at re-recording their first album "Cut Your Key" from scratch. This was due to the record label owning those recordings and The Junipers not being able to release the original version on vinyl or sell it themselves. A new re-recorded version would mean a long awaited vinyl release of that album. That idea and those sessions petered out when a deal was struck with the record label, so decided to play around with some new songs instead.
With no initial intention of recording a new album, by early 2024 some accidental momentum was building and the idea to make an album gathered speed. A lot of care and love went into the recordings and "Imaginary Friends", the fourth Junipers album was born. The first single released from the album "Annie Almond" was given "track of the week" on BBC Radio, they followed that up with a second single "She Looked Up At the Stars". The album is due for digital and CD release on 5th Sept 2024. A vinyl release is due in October/November.
Our first single in a while is out now on our bandcamp page: BUY HERE!
It's called "Annie Almond" and is a little psychedelic pop song about people idea of other peoples perfection, and as we know perfection is an illusion. We made a little promo video too (Below).
Our new album "Imaginary Friends" will be out on 5th Sept and you can pre order now by emailing us at thejunipersband@gmail.com or by visiting The Junipers Bandcamp page: PRE ORDER ALBUM HERE!
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