A hard rock band who blend a rootsy sound with big guitars and plenty of strutting style,
Goodbye June was formed by lead guitarist
Tyler Baker, lead vocalist and guitarist
Landon Milbourn, and drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist
Brandon Qualkenbush in 2005. All three are first cousins, with
Milbourn hailing from West Tennessee, while
Baker and
Qualkenbush were raised in Indiana.
Baker,
Milbourn, and
Qualkenbush first started making music together in church (
Landon's dad led the choir at his church, and
Brandon's father was the preacher at a Pentecostal church), but they hadn't cohered into a band until
Baker's brother, while on leave from the military, died in an auto accident in June 2005. As
Baker struggled to deal with his grief, he bonded with
Milbourn and
Qualkenbush, and as they mourned they started writing songs. Calling their trio Goodbye June, the three moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2009 in search of their big break. The group's fiery live shows earned them a reputation in Music City, and in 2012 they brought out their debut album,
Nor the Wild Music Flow, which was released on the independent Cotton Valley Records. The group produced a music video for one of the tracks from the album, "Microscope," which featured a cameo from St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher. After extensive regional touring in the United States,
Goodbye June took their act abroad for the first time in the fall of 2013, playing shows in Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Holland, and Finland. 2014 saw the band taking home first prize in the Unsigned Music Competition, where a jury of musicians and journalists awarded them $10,000 in cash, as well as equipment and mentoring from music business executives.
Goodbye June's growing buzz led to the band signing a deal with Interscope Records. In the spring of 2016, they released a track online, "Oh No," that racked up an impressive 2.5 million plays, setting the stage for their major-label debut, the five-song EP
Danger in the Morning, which arrived in August 2016. In early 2017 the band issued a single, "Good Side," in anticipation of the release of their sophomore full-length outing,
Magic Valley, which arrived later that spring.
