Shanti Abbott is a Canadian musician and singer who now lives in Toronto. Her stage name is “Puma June.”
June has a dreamy, lush, experimental chamber-pop sound, laced with R&B, that evokes a hopeful sorrow via her contemplative songwriting. Puma June’s sound is hard to categorize because of her wide range of musical inspirations, which include Feist, Frank Ocean, and Stevie Wonder. She might be like if Lana Del Rey and Charlotte Day Wilson got together and had a child.
June spent her formative years in Barrie, Ontario, where she wrote songs and participated in musical initiatives in which she would later develop her skills on her own. June is a singer, pianist, guitarist, and violinist who was schooled in the Suzuki method.
June is best known for forming the folk duet “Shanti and Vale,” afterwards renamed “Concordia,” with her twin sister. Both a live album from 2012 and a 2019 single titled “Love Is Blind” were published on Bandcamp.
After releasing a single in 2019, the members of Concordia opted to concentrate on separate endeavours rather than pursuing a comeback with the band.
Throughout her formative years, June was a member of the Huronia Symphony Orchestra as well as other orchestras and indie-rock/folk bands, such as the House of Art in Barrie, the Hungry Lake in Toronto, and the Huronia Symphony Orchestra.
In 2020, June’s project “Puma June” was formed, a mashup of all the musical styles she had enjoyed as a young adult. This allowed June to finally establish her own, unique voice.
June wants to keep changing the topics of pop music by talking about the hard truths and traumatic experiences that help shape who we are. June writes songs and listens to music to help her deal with her own pain and the pain of others.
June has a strong political stance, with an emphasis on women’s rights and family trauma. She has experienced the pain and growth that result from these experiences. June has an alluring way of transforming sorrow into inspiring victories.
