Tuesday, 31 March 2026
ALBUM REVIEW - THE POP CORPS REVIEWS THE SOLID and the HOLLOW
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
WE PICK OUR MOST INFLUENTIAL PSYCHEDELIC TRACKS for STRANGE BREW POD..
We were asked by The Strange Brew Podcast to pick our most influential psychedelic tracks. We've not gone monster rare here or anything, and pretty obvious.. but you can't lie about what has had the biggest impact on you. See the full article HERE.
The Junipers’ Favorite Psychedelic Tracks
Twenty years in, Leicester’s The Junipers are still making psychedelic pop that sounds like a Saturday morning radio discovery and a dusty record find in a town centre shop. To follow up their brilliant 2024 album, Imaginary Friends, they release their fifth LP, The Solid and the Hollow, on 24 April.
By their own description it ended up as a nostalgia trip of sorts, imagining how they might have approached music as teenagers, when the 60s and indie records they love were still fresh discoveries. 60s garage, 80s neo-psychedelia and early 90s shoegaze all fed into it, pushing them toward a more guitar-led sound than recent albums. They even went back and reworked a song they wrote as teenagers, ‘She Makes the Sun Shine,’ which became a kind of anchor for the whole record. Having heard it, I can tell you it delivers on every one of those influences while sounding completely like itself, which is a harder trick to pull off than it sounds. If you want a way in, their current single ‘When She Turns’ is out now, with ‘In A Maze’ to follow on 4 April.
To mark the release, we asked the band to share the psychedelic tracks that mean the most to them. Mellotrons feature heavily.
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
Joe: It’s an obvious one but it is probably my favourite track of all time. It’s not like I listen to it all the time nowadays, but when I do it always has an impact. Nobody needs this track breaking down for them of course, but I love its mystery, how it starts out soft and mellow, and ends heavy with a crazy mellotron jam at the end. The whole production, how they spliced together 2 takes in slightly different keys, and actually went with it. The most ambitious single yet, by the biggest band in the world, and they released a mash up of 2 different takes that were in different keys and tempos to one another. But it works and actually makes the track sound weirder and more ethereal, like it wasn’t made by humans. And apparently it still wasn’t to Lennon’s liking because it wasn’t heavy enough. I’d love to hear the version he had in his mind. I’m also a sucker for anything from the 60s and 70s with a mellotron and this song is the reason.
July – My Clown
Joe: I remember the first time I heard this was at one of the Mousetrap nights in London in like 2001 or something. I didn’t know the track, but it was in my head for months afterwards, until me or Pete managed to track it down. To hear a track like this for the first time at full blast in a basement is the perfect introduction. At that time I didn’t know what I was listening to! I knew it would be from 1968 or 69 but it was just so far out, I couldn’t absorb it or work out how this sound had been made. I remember I ordered the CD of the album and it came through the post on a Saturday morning. No one home , and I was blaring this track out on the kitchen CD player, my Dad came home and was just going “what is this?? Far out man!!” all sarcastic. We actually got to support Tom Newman and July in about 2016 which was nice.
Marmalade – Man in a Shop
Tomorrow – Claramount Lake
Honeybus – Under the Silent Tree
LIVE DATE CONFIRMED - THE JUNIPERS GIG
We play our first gig in 10 years on Friday 1st May 2026. It will be as part of the psych event Freakout, held at The Night Owl in Birmingham. Our new album is out the week before an we will be playing new songs with some of the old ones. It should be a good night with support from psychedelic covers band The Mystery People and psychedelic DJ's.
Tickets available HERE
NEW ALBUM FOR 2026 - PRE-ORDER "THE SOLID AND THE HOLLOW" NOW...
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.
Pre-Order available now: The Solid and the Hollow | The Junipers

NEW JUNIPERS SINGLE FOR 2026 - WHEN SHE TURNS..
We had a bit of fun making a little video for it too, which you can find on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@TheJunipersUK
lyrics
When She Turrns (Lyrics)
That it would make a garden grow
She waters the flowers, now I find
That they are growing in my mind
When she turns it on
And she turns it on
I drop to the floor and forget about time
It feels like springtime in my mind
The world is in colour from black and white
My body is drowning in sunlight
When she turns it on
And she turns it on
When she turns it on
And she turns it on
Monday, 13 January 2025
NEW JUNIPERS SIDE PROJECT YELLOW PEGS CD
During 2020 and 2021 many of us had lots of time on our hands, to do the garden on a daily basis and start some new projects. Well between gardening, daytime naps and listening to lots of old folk albums like Vashti Bunyan "Just Another Diamond Day", Bill Fay "Grandfather's Clock", Donovan "Gift From a Flower", Tyrannosaurus Rex "Unicorn" and a load of self released rarer stuff like Midwinter, Courtyard Music Group, These Trails etc, we got the old tascam 4 track cassette recorder out and started to record an album of simple, wobbly folky songs. This came out under the moniker Yellow Pegs and released it on a home made CDR and cassette. We now have a limited amount of professional CD press' in a mini lp style card sleeve which includes bonus tracks. They are available now with a free download of the digital version on our bandcamp page HERE!
Tuesday, 31 December 2024
IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in LEFTLION MAGAZINE...
Album: The Junipers - Imaginary Friends
Featuring their crispest and most refined sound yet, The Junipers’ fourth record is an album that feels at once fresh and familiar. Though unapologetic in its 60s psychedelic roots, Imaginary Friends oozes confidence and originality. From the delicious distorted groove of album highlight While You Preside to the plaintive lilt of Red Song, the Leicester quartet show the full range of their musical and lyrical abilities. Whimsical storytelling, spotless production and layered harmonies Brian Wilson would be proud of - all these combine to make Imaginary Friends a joyful listen, start to finish. @thejunipersband (Sam Marshall)
Read the full article HERE
IMAGINARY FRIENDS NUMBER 3 in POPGRUPPEN BEST of 2024
Friday, 27 December 2024
JUNIPERS ALBUM IMAGINARY FRIENDS NAMED BEST ALBUM OF 2024 in POP CORPS..
Chuffed to bits to have our album Imaginary Friends names best album of 2024 on The Pop Corps. We put a lot of work and love into the album so this makes it all worth it. We had a decent response to the album in general. A few plays on BBC radio in the midlands and 6 music. Sold out of the first batch of CD's and all of the vinyl and seemed to pop up on a few peoples best of the year lists, we can't ask for more than that : )
ALBUM OF 2024: THE JUNIPERS
We reviewed The Junipers newest LP in full here, but for those who don’t want to click a link, in what ended up being a quite difficult decision thanks to the strength of the pack, we decided that Kendrick Lamar' album may have been influenced by some recency bias, it was a straight dogfight between Dina Ogon’s ‘Orion’, and Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled debut, and our eventual winner, The Junipers.
Pure sunshine and inventive playfulness throughout, The Junipers once again reminded everyone that there’s simply no-one else like them. Uplifting melodies, everything and the kitchen sink approach and more hooks than a fisherman’s shed. Absolute perfection, top to bottom.
https://youtu.be/6j_u_X8Ocag?si=c44R_Fw6aI0Bqj-1
IMAGINARY FRIENDS makes SHINDIG MAGAZINES TOP 20 ALBUMS of 2024...
We are absolutely delighted to have made Shindig Magazine' top 20 albums of 2024. Its our favorite magazine so we're over the moon with this.
1 The Lemon Twigs - A Dream is All We Know
2 The Soundcarriers - Through Other Reflections
3 Daniel Romanos Outfit - Too Hot to Sleep
4 Project Gemini - Colours & Light
5 Paul Weller - 66
6 Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
7 Goat - Goat
8 Beautify Junkyards - Nova
9 Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free
10 The Courettes - The Soul of the Fabulous Courettes
11 Moon - III
12 Kit Sebastian - New Internationale13 Bananagun - Why is Bananagun?
14 2nd Grade - Scheduled Explosions
15 MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
16 Susan James - Time is Now
17 The Junipers - Imaginary Friends
18 Shadow Show - Fantasy Now
19 Mystery Lights - Purgatory
20 The Prisoners - Morning Star
Saturday, 23 November 2024
2024 JUNIPERS INTERVIEW with MICHAEL BJORN in SHINDIG MAGAZINE..
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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 album Cut Your Key since 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!”
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| Joe and Robyn. Shed music. |
Thursday, 24 October 2024
JUNIPERS FEATURE in NME ARTICLE from 2006..
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
JUNIPERS FEATURED IN FRESH ON THE NET FAVORITES...
'Mary In the Rain' was featured as a weeks favorite on the Fresh On the Net blog as voted for by readers. Nice little write up by Poppy Bristow too:
THE JUNIPERS – Mary In The Rain
We bring our roundup to a close with something a little lighter – musically, that is. Psychedelic Leicester pop pickers The Junipers bring us 'Mary In The Rain', a melodious, multi-layered pocket symphony topped with Beach Boys harmonies.
The result sounds deliciously like if Kevin Ayers had put a bit more effort into producing his records. But don’t be fooled by such sonic sunshine. 'Mary In The Rain' is based on the true story of a circus elephant, Mary, who was hanged using a crane after she killed the man who was riding her. Plenty of pop music has put a colourful wrapper on tragedy, but rarely has the tragedy been so peculiar as it is here – nor the wrapper quite so dazzling.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp
Thursday, 17 October 2024
THE JUNIPERS on PURE POP RADIO with ALAN HABER...
Red Bouquet Fair.
Summer's all the sweeter with this charming collection from the Leicester, UK band in the mix. Recalling the sweet sunshine pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s in such lovely songs as 'Summer Queen' and 'Like a Merry Go Round'. Red Bouquet Fair is no less than the audio equivalent of smiling at your good fortune on a warm day in the park while sipping cool lemonade.
The vocals are enchanting and the instrumentation is perfectly played. By Alan Haber.
IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW on MONOLITH COCKTAIL..
What we have here is the fourth album from the group, and what a cracking little pop gem it is. An album of pure pop, the kind Macca and Gilbert O Sullivan used to make in the early seventies, with a touch of pure 60s pop harmony magic that The Zombies would no doubt write home to their mothers about, and playful psych undertones that yearns for the day when London used to swing and Russ Sainty used to loiter outside the Bag O Nails with that bunch of dandies The First Impression. Imaginary Friends is a wonderful album filled with quite wonderful songs. And is really made for your record collection.
Sunday, 6 October 2024
5 STAR RATING and IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in SHINDIG! MAGAZINE..
Saturday, 5 October 2024
IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in MAKING TIME FANZINE..
Translated from Spanish. Original Text HERE!
THEY COME IN COLORS: THE JUNIPERS' NEW ALBUM, IMAGINARY FRIENDS
The Junipers are a secret to the general public but well known by a select group of tasters of the best sounds who rejoice in the release of the group's new album, the fourth and entitled IMAGINARY FRIENDS, eleven songs encapsulated on vinyl, CD or digital download availableon their bandcamp that make up a small treasure of crystalline and super-perfect pop, and that benefits from a compact, homogeneous production, which gives coherence to the album and that, unfortunately, is not usually as usual and desirable in the production of today's 60s influence groups.

IMAGINARY FRIENDS, a self-released album by The Junipers, began its journey before the summer with the releases of new songs that foreshadowed the arrival of great things. The first was Annie Almond, a small and infectious pop capsule that takes us back to 1968, full of vocal melodies and adorned with Mellotron sound and that was elevated to BBC song of the week, something that unfortunately we will never hear on Spanish public radio. It was followed by She Looked Up At The Stars, a great popsike with organ that highlights the melody and My Imaginary Friend, a delight that reminds us of the Beatles' Martha My Dear seasoned with the genius and captivating extravagances of Brian Wilson, bright, luminous and with lyrics about puppies... what more could you ask for?

Those three advances were followed by eight more songs to make up the album, which is already a reality (although the vinyl edition will still have to wait a few weeks) and presented in a playful and psychedelic folder that plays with the concept of imaginary friends, the first of them being The Swarthy Smith introduced with piano, elegant pop with a soft pop Californian air from the 70s followed without interruption by the softly bouncy bubblegum full of vocal harmonies of You're My Sugar And Spice.
While You Preside brings to mind the powerpop a la Crabby Appleton but in its flow it drifts and enters psychedelic terrain, magnificent. Mary In The Rain returns to circulate in Beatlesque ways circa 1967, melodies always supported by the gentle voices of The Junipers, while for Monkey On My Back they also look at sounds from 1967 but in this case more typical of the Beach Boys; its instrumentation and melody, and the very light and progressive elevation of the intensity of the composition makes us think of Brian Wilson, as well as I've Been In Your Shoes that also reminds us of the Beach Boys but those of 1964-1965.
The album comes to an end with Red Song, beautiful acoustic airs and again the Mellotron, and Hollow Sky that closes with a livelier spirit, pop made from piano, organ and sophisticated but endearing melodies.
A marvel of an album that should have been double, at least, to give us more of the pop brand Junipers, but with this duration it is presented to us as a perfect musical pill.
IMAGINARY FRIENDS can be enjoyed on The Junipers bandcamp, where physical copies can also be purchased. Don't miss it!
David
The Solid and the Hollow album review on Jittery White Guy Music..
We received a lovely album review for our 2026 album The Solid and the Hollow on the Jittery White Guy Music blog : Been spending the past ...
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During 2020 and 2021 many of us had lots of time on our hands, to do the garden on a daily basis and start some new projects. Well between g...
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Album: The Junipers - Imaginary Friends Featuring their crispest and most refined sound yet, The Junipers ’ fourth record is an album that...
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We were interviewed by Michael Bjorn for the May edition of Shindig Magazine . We chat about our album The Solid and the Hollow: What’s re...





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