Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Cheryl Waters, host of The Midday Show on KEXP, is "On My Way" by June McDoom, from the 2022 June McDoom EP on Temporary Residence Ltd.
Singer/songwriter June McDoom taps into her family history for her music: her parents relocated from Jamaica to New York City in the 1970s. As an adult, she began listening to folk artists from that era, like Joan Baez and Judee Sill, vintage soul from The Delfonics and The Supremes, and reggae artists her family listened to, like Alton Ellis and Phyllis Dillo. On her self-titled debut EP, she infuses these influences through a mix of analog and digital recording techniques.
“‘On My Way’ is about making my way through life while sharing it with another person," she told Beats Per Minute. "About how grounding and scary it can be to share a life with someone, while both working to fulfill life’s passions and dreams. Living in NYC always feels like a journey just getting from one place to another and life can feel just the same.”
"I recorded several versions of this song, with earlier versions at a slower tempo. Then one day I had an idea to try recording it one more time from scratch a little faster, after continually feeling like it needed something more/dragged a bit and it ended up fitting a lot better so we followed through with that final arrangement. With the tempo change of the final version, I wanted to also texturally mirror the message of traveling and working towards a destination with low and high moments."
