Bootleg Rascal frontman Carlos Lara recently launched his solo project JUNIE with an honest exploration into the mind of an overthinking lover. 

On the track he says, “A lot of people straight up think the song is about sex or some sort of physical ‘exercising’, but the song to me is more about that mental exercising. I guess you could say the film clip is one of my fantasies of normality, when you start imagining life with someone or what that would be like, it can be a slippery slope.” Offering a sneak peek into his sometimes overactive mind, the smooth tune was written, produced and mixed by Lara himself, and mastered by long-time collaborator Ian Pritchett. 

Where Bootleg Rascal draw influence from a melting pot of hip-hop, reggae, indie-rock, electronica and pretty much any genre they’re feeling at a given moment in time, JUNIE pulls from a slightly more refined palate, citing hip-hop artists like Anderson .Paak, J. Cole and Andre 3000 as major personal influences. “I think there were always songs that I wrote that weren’t Bootleg, either too much on the hip-hop side of things or maybe a little too corny, and in that space, I found a bunch of songs that meant something to me. During this time of a lot of overthinking, I went to see Anderson .Paak and I walked out of that show and had this feeling of knowing I needed to do this. Since then I have been writing and working on getting this off the ground.” 

Off to a flyer and with more new music on the way, we’ve had JUNIE’s debut single ‘Exercise’ in heavy rotation over the last week and are stoked to share a first look at the accompanying music video today. Complementing his tender vocals, the laid-back film clip sees JUNIE effortlessly glide through his morning routine while a love interest/partner frantically fumbles through theirs. Check it out below and keep up with JUNIE via instagram here.