Junny Releases Debut EP Kumara Suite
Junny Releases Debut EP Kumara Suite
June 5th, 2026
Junny is the musical project of Jenn Tamati (she/they, Te Arawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāpuhi), a vocalist and songwriter based in Whangārei.
Since 2020 Junny has established herself through frequent collaborations with award winning electronic producer Amamelia, providing aching toplines for her tracks Sad & Lonely, Give Me Space and Love Is Useless. “I like condensing big thoughts and feelings down into simple phrases with lots of layered meanings,” notes Junny. “It helps me make sense of things.” Having recently joined the Sunreturn roster, Junny’s debut single Kumara Suite found favour in Sunday Magazine, Undertheradar.co.nz, 13th Floor and the charts (Aotearoa Hot Singles Chart, 95bFM Top 10 & SRN Top 10).
Today Junny releases ‘Line 19’ and ‘Line 19 (Acoustic Demo)’, the final tracks from debut EP Kumara Suite.
Junny’s previous single, ‘Kumara Suite’, saw her layer ethereal vocals over sparse, elemental electronic production, while ‘OOTD’ drew inspiration from the 90s and 2000s R&B music videos she watched after school on C4. Bringing the EP to a close, Junny now releases ‘Line 19’ and ‘Line 19 (Acoustic Demo)’, two distinct interpretations of the same song. Across both versions, she reconciles with her younger self, utilising either pop or folk influences into a reflective finale.
“I wrote the first verse and part of the second verse in 2009, when I was 19 years old and a bit of a saddo,” jokes Junny. “I didn’t know what I wanted and often felt insecure. This was one of the songs I’d written over the years that I always recalled. I liked the idea of adult-me taking something from 19-year-old-me and fully forming it so, this one’s for her. It’s for the saddos who feel like losers sometimes and get defensive about it, let us cry together.”
The four songs on the Kumara Suite EP were produced by Amelia Berry (Amamelia) as a part of the NZoA New Music Development Fund and mastered by Thomas Healy.
“For Line 19 Amelia and I built on the foundations of OOTD (nostalgic 2000s r&b and pop sounds) and went deep, pushing it to the point of almost silly. OOTD sits more lo-fi and down beat and for Line 19 we analysed those more distinctly commercial musical tropes/motifs of the era. Bubble popping sounds, extra hard harpsichord and stiff electronic Spanish guitar. Amelia really understood what I was trying to reference and then she was incredible at naming and sourcing these production sounds. We share a sense of humour with art and a love for working creatively with things that are often considered ‘bad’ – in this case outdated sounds that had saturated commercial music of that era. Amelia really helped play with these ideas creatively and push them without tipping over into full pastiche.”
“Line 19 (Acoustic Demo) is how I’ve written songs since I was a teenager. While we worked the song into this cool and fun new thing I could never let the acoustic version go. By including it I’m giving it, and younger me, a bit of recognition. I also like the contrast of it against the other tracks and how they’re produced. It feels the same as the contrast of me at 35, singing the feelings of 19-year-old-me.”
With the EP released Junny concludes “I’m excited and relieved to have Kumara Suite out in the world. It needed to be released. I found myself every now and then wanting to change something or execute something differently but that’s just me developing and changing and it’s better actually if I apply that to new projects. Let this one be what it is and say what it says.”