Jaguar Jonze had done a lot in her career. However nothing could have prepared her for 2024. 

It’s been a tumultuous 2 years for Deena Lynch, far from the energetic antics of her artist persona, Jaguar Jonze. Lynch was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder, a condition that stole function and any sense of her autonomy she had over her body. The singer who’d commanded the Eurovision Australia Decides stage and performed along Hermitude was left battling seizures and debilitating chronic pain. However, having to battle is nothing new for Lynch. After an extensive rehabilitation process and continued foray into freediving, she’s back and ready to reintroduce Jaguar Jonze with a whole new direction and perspective. 

‘Naked’ is Jonze’s first release in a slew of new singles to come throughout the year. With the track, she replants her flag into Australia’s music scene, announcing her arrival with a club-ready banger. In just over 3 minutes, Jonzes sheds the figurative weight of the last few years, revealing her provocative, seductive side as part of her ever-evolving identity.

We caught up with Jonze while in Sydney for her performances at WINGS Independent Fashion Festival and Bootleggers, Newtown. 

So firstly, we actually never talked about this before, where did the name Jaguar Jonze come from?

It actually came from the fans.

Oh, really? 

It started off as them calling me Panther. It slowly evolved into like a superhero or pornstar name (laughs), where  the alliteration rolls off the tongue. It became Jaguar Jonze while I was working on music. I realise, “You know what? This is a great vibe” It suits the music and this persona I’ve been hiding. So I just went with it. 

We talked about it a little earlier, but you were born in Japan to Taiwanese and Australian parents. What role did music play in your childhood?

I did the typical Asian-parent-child thing of classical music when I was really small. I hit a point at 11 or 12 when it was just cut off completely. They wanted me to develop with classical music, but only to a point where I wouldn’t lose control and fully fall in love with it. I think that came from my mum’s own trauma of having been a classical pianist and opera singer. I’ve never heard her play or sing. I think it’s because, when she immigrated to Australia, being musical didn’t offer her any stability or opportunities. She didn’t want me to go through the same thing. As a kid, I obviously didn’t understand that or why I wasn’t even allowed to listen to music. Having an iPod was sacred to me. I’d listen to it in secret. 

At that point, I’d gone through enough in life; I needed to express myself freely. As Asians, we’re culturally encouraged to suppress ourselves. I hit a point where my best friend passed away. I walked past a garage sale, picked up a guitar, and started dealing with my grief through writing terrible music (laughs). It felt like, for the first time in my life, I fell in love with something. I’d always thought of myself as a passionate person, but I realised that I was living without passion. With music, I turned my life 180 degrees around, and everyone was disappointed (laughs). 

For years, I was disowned. I completely understand why, as I know where we’d come from and the fear and shame that comes with it. I’m really glad I stayed stubborn. I’m a bit of a steamroller. When I get an idea to do something, I do it. I’m really glad I made my choice. I’ve experienced so much richness in life. There’s nothing I would trade for what I’ve gained.  

When people read this interview, your latest single ‘Naked’ will have already been released. Also, you just performed last night (at the time of writing) as a surprise guest at ‘WINGS Independent Fashion Festival’. Do you ever wonder what your mum thinks of your career? 

All the time (laughs). I’m trying to continue undoing the layers of shame that continue to exist in me. My mum is my everything. I grew up with just her, and we definitely struggled living in Australia. We have been through a lot to be together. However, there are times when I catch her eyes in the crowd, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, there’s my mum”, and sometimes when my mum asks to come to things, I’m like, “Please don’t” (laughs). 

I think she still has to fully let go. Even if she can vicariously live through me, she’s realised she can’t control me. I’m my own person, and we’re quite different. I think she didn’t quite understand where my artistry came from. She always asks me, “How do you create things?” Since she’s a classical musician, she’s never been taught how to create. She approaches my career with curiosity and laughter. Recently, I’ve been competing in free diving. She calls me female Rambo, telling me, “Oh, you’re so muscly”. To be clear, I’m really not that muscly (laughs). She’s got her own cute ways of understanding me. She just thinks I’m a little crazy  and weird. 

Our mum’s the same. It’s funny though how it switches when you get older. She’s become proud of our craziness. 

You get this experience, too?

Yeah! I’m always surprised when she sees our work or reads one of our articles.

I don’t have much of a relationship with my dad, but it wigs me out sometimes when he messages, telling me how proud he is of me. He lets me know when he listens to my interviews on the radio. I’m like, “How are you listening to this from Japan?” (laughs).  

You just touched upon this, but I watched your short doco, ‘Resurfacing’. It’s so powerful.

Thank you.

In 2024, you were diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disease (FND). You took time off to recover, moving to Bali for a sabbatical, and took up free diving. How did this time make you reflect upon your sense of self and artistry?

For so long, dealing with the diagnosis was really hard. It took a lot of grieving. It felt like my entire forest had been burnt down. Every aspect of my life was destroyed. At the time, I thought I was already at rock bottom. I was advocating within the justice system. However, after losing my body, I realised I had fallen lower than rock bottom. 

I’m not a complete victim of my diagnosis. I was quite abusive to my body as well. I lived life so passionately, but by disrespecting my body. The music and arts industries shape us to be this way. It’s all about how much you can produce by being demanding on your body. When you’re on tour,  you don’t sleep, eat, or pace yourself. It’s just like go, go, go, then bang, bang. It’s no surprise I was beyond burnt out. I developed an autoimmune disease and a neurological disorder. It changed everything regarding my relationship with my body. I think burning down and growing my new forest was the only option I had. It was definitely far more sustainable. Since then my relationship with my friends, family, work, career, self-worth, and my identity has been reworked. 

I realised I had really beautiful and supportive people around me. I had made many of my relationships dependent on me. As a result, people didn’t know how to be there for me because I didn’t know how to be there for myself. 

A big part of the rewiring process was learning how to take care of myself. I didn’t know what that meant in either the new or the old context. I still think I can fall back into the same trap. For instance, I slept pretty late last night (after the show). I’ve become pretty good at catching myself and saying, “Okay, I’m done now. I’m going to go home from this show and rest up”. However, I might’ve exerted myself a little too much, and there is a consequence to that. I see this diagnosis as a blessing because it’s given me really sensitive alarm bells. It’s really forced me to take care of myself. Without it, I’d probably continue to abuse my body. 

We’ve got this culture in society, which is all about hustling until you die, no pain, no gain, grind, grind, grind, and FOMO. I just stepped back and realised that even though I’ve always been genuine and authentic to myself. I think it’s very easy to get distracted by external validation and having that reflect your self-worth. I had to let go of that and tell myself that other people don’t define what my worth is. The industry doesn’t decide my value, I do. 

When did you get into freediving?

Freediving for me is so random (laughs). It came from my rehabilitation, when I lost the ability to move my body from the neck down, and had chronic seizures. My neural pathways were completely fried from my mind to my body.

Water was a safe place for me to reprogram all of that. I was dealing with so much chronic pain. But when I was placed in the water, the kind of anti-gravity in there really hoisted me up and eased my pain. I was able to find safety and movement again.

That was empowering for me because the doctors were giving me a bleak forecast for my future. However, the water showed me that none of that had to be true, and that I could flip the script if I wanted. I became obsessed with rehabilitation. I found purpose, hope, and power in the water, which led me to freediving. I just went a little bit crazy from there (laughs).

In ‘Resurfacing’ and on social media, you’ve been quite candid about showing the effects and toll FND has had on you. What is the biggest difference between being vulnerable as an artist and as Deena Lynch?  

I mean, even the show last night was scary for me because there was a lot of uncertainty hanging in the air. I was worried like, “Oh, what would my body be like?” Am I well enough to do this? What if this or that happens?” Freediving has been really good for training me to visualise an alternative to what I actually desire as the outcome. 

I realised that if I hid myself, it would create a bubble around me that could easily hamper my healing process. When you’re as sick as I was and your life is on the line, it’s very easy for everyone to want to bubble wrap you. They want to keep you in a place where it’s better to have scraps of you than lose you completely. For me, that wasn’t enough. I’m a really passionate person. I’d lost my physical health, but if I didn’t look after my mental health, I was going to be lost completely. I needed to have hope and purpose. I needed to step out of the bubble. The only way to do that was to be vulnerable. 

The vulnerable me and my artistry are one and the same. At my own shows, I know it’s going to be a bit easier on me because the crowd is there for me. They understand what I’m going through and follow my story. They accept and embrace me. They’ve literally paid for a ticket to come to the show. It’s a lot more difficult doing something like WINGS, where no one really knew who I was. They don’t know my story. There was an insecurity that I could’ be judged. However, it comes back to external validation.  

I think when I was still trying to do shows, I didn’t want to lose my music and art because they feed my mental health. Without purpose, it’s hard to find motivation to fight every day. Music and art give me that. Still in the state I’m in, I’m going to have to show parts of myself I wish I could hide. But there’s a strength in just turning up.  

You were so great last night. Before you performed,  Charlotte (Deena’s publicist) pointed you out. You were kneeling on a small stage above the crowd. I swear you looked like Batman about to pounce on a room of villains (laughs). 

Thank you (laughs). I can’t say I’ve ever performed in a glass box hanging over a crowd before. Dan, from my label, was like, “They can’t contain you. They’ve put you in a glass box, and you’re still wanting to hang over the glass” (laughs). I was really trusting in that balcony to catch me. 

Speaking of yesterday, we were talking about how your music builds worlds in terms of developing new concepts, especially with your latest single, ‘Naked’. What was the jumping-off point for your new musical direction?  

Even though choosing music and art was a selfish choice, I had this self-imposed burden to speak on behalf of everyone else. I tried to amplify voices suppressed in society, taking on the responsibilities of social justice and writing through that lens. When I lost my body and everything that was attached to it, I had nothing left. 

I started writing without asking, “What is this fighting for?” or questioning the inclusion of social messaging. I wanted the freedom to have fun with music and play. I haven’t been creating with a sense of play for a long time. I’ve never really considered trends, the vibe of what other people want, or what’s good for business. But I was definitely more conscious of having free rein over my music. 

It’s hard when you become synonymous with a narrative or message. People make quick associations about you.  

Artists go through that a lot when they try to go in a new direction and receive backlash. I feel like they can say, “I want to go back to my heavy-metal-prog to bedroom funk era!” (laughs), but instead have to slowly submerge their audience into a new genre over three albums, hoping they won’t notice. 

There’s also a lot of expectations put on artists to represent a part of someone’s identity. While I think that’s great, we don’t live to create for other people or society. I realised I had to let that go. People are going to resonate with my art and music in whatever way they can connect with it. I just gotta do me. 

It’s hard to challenge people that an artist is more than one thing. 

I mean, interviewing Chris now (Turning the figurative mic to YB Chris). Do you feel that way sometimes? 

Chris: I guess, like right now I’m taking photos which is a little random (laughs). But it’s all part of the same thing. I love it all. 

I’m fully interviewing Chris now (laughs). You have such a strong artistic identity. Do you ever feel like you’re being pressured to stay in one lane because of the money or what corporate brands want? 

C: It’s weird. At the start, it used to be the same old same. As I’m getting older, they’re beginning to trust me more, asking, “What do you think?” It’s changing, but can still be shit. It’s a battle. 

That makes sense. I think that’s part of building worlds. People start to understand your artistry, “In Chris we trust” (laughs). 

This question may require some editing in terms of what we can and can’t share. But ‘Naked’ will be out when this goes live. I know you also have a couple of other singles waiting to be released later in the year. What can you share about the rest of Jaguar Jonze’s 2026?

I’m coming back into music on my terms. The plan would be to continue releasing music as an art form and not feel pressure to fulfil timelines and industry expectations. I’m just letting go of that. I want to be active and find a sustainable career, prioritising my health. 

I’ve been playing some of the new songs with the band and at gigs like WINGS. That’s been so much fun. It is really nice to be able to move these songs out of my bedroom or studio and bring them to a live audience. My favourite part of music has always been performing. I’m playing a more intimate show tomorrow night. People kept telling me, “Oh, it’s so weird to see jaguar Jonze in such a small venue format, ” but to me, that’s so special. There’s a reason I only planned to have one show while I’m here. It’s a test to see how my body copes. 

I can’t go on a longer tour yet. Even though I fully trust my body. It’s definitely way more capable than before. However, I think the pressure of scheduling and planning out an entire tour would freak me out. I’ll see what I need to tweak. I consider everything to be a massive science experiment. 

Even coming back from Bali to Australia within the last week. I’m eating the same diet and doing the exact same things, but it’s not working. I’m having to tailor things for different environments and continually capture data to keep my body well-oiled, allowing me to stay in this realm of health.

One last question. Life rarely gives you second chances like how I’m about to present it. Yesterday when I asked you for a food reccie. Your answer was stinky tofu. Do you want to take that back or double down? 

Oh, double down (laughs). Continuing on from our conversation we had today (before starting), I want to add Hojicha. I don’t want it to trend and be destroyed with strawberry liqueur or lavender essence. But I do love a good hojicha latte, hot or iced. I love a hojicha gelato. It’s my favourite tea flavour.  

It’s a double down and even more.

Yeah! Start your meal with stinky fried tofu and then finish it off with an iced hojicha. To be honest, that might be awful, like a cesspool in the belly (laughs).

Thanks to Deena for taking the time to chat with us. Her latest single, ‘Naked’, is now available on all streaming platforms, along with an MV. Make sure to follow @jaguarjonze to see what she has planned for the rest of 2026.

Thanks to the team at WINGS and Emel Alba (@emel.alba) for all photos taken at WINGS Independent Fashion Festival . ‘Naked’ BTS comes courtesy of Vika Lefirenko. All freediving photos comes courtesy of Michal Frydych (@mics_pix_), Alina Liu, and Deena.