After spending a summer away from her friends while tramping with her family, Juno wrote TukTuk at 15.
"My friends told me about a really fun night they had and they ended up getting a TukTuk home.
"I basically had really bad FOMO and wrote a song about it."
Originally from Sydney, Australia, the now 17-year-old said she started to write her own music shortly after moving to New Zealand.
"We walked the Te Araroa Trail, I sang a lot because I had all this time."
Her first single TukTuk was performed at Rockquest in 2024 and local gigs, before being recorded earlier this year.
"I’m really happy with the reaction it’s gotten.
"They come along to most of my gigs and knew all the words before it came out, which is pretty cool."
After having the song written for almost three years Juno went to her school music teacher ready to record.
TukTuk was recorded at Southlink Studios in Dunedin and fully funded.
"Nick Rowan was the producer and he brought everything to life, it was really awesome.
"I felt pretty stoked with the sound," she said.
Juno said she had been singing her whole life, but before singing lessons was "not very good".
"I was pretty terrible, people who thought I was good were lying.
"I had always dreamed of becoming a pop star like most kids do."
She began to think music could become a career path after writing and performing TukTuk.
"I thought it was something I could take more seriously."
Tuktuk was streamed in 43 countries and received 10,000 streams in the first 11 days.
"We did no promotion for the song but it’s done better than I ever would have imagined."
Juno’s seven-track EP will be released early next month.
