NICK WARD SHARES NEW SINGLE “JENNY” OUT NOW
Nick Ward returns with “Jenny,” the latest single from his forthcoming sophomore album Year Of The Snake, out November 13th via Republic Records.
A hazy, lovestruck song about the fantasy of meeting someone and throwing caution—and your old life—completely out the window, “Jenny” finds Ward leaning into the more romantic and playful side of his songwriting. Classic in its construction but unmistakably contemporary in its perspective, the track feels like a lost ’70s soft-rock hit filtered through the warped, intimate lens of modern indie pop. Like his recently released single “Piano” feat. Glenn Gould, it is completely new territory for Ward—much more tongue-in-cheek and playful than his previously more earnest pop songwriting.
Written with longtime collaborator Lucian Rice in New Zealand, “Jenny” was created on a writing trip to Auckland, where the pair spent their time driving around the Auckland suburbs, listening to yacht rock, and writing lyrics over cheap meals at a local Chinese restaurant. In contrast to their usual strict and focussed recording sessions, this new laidback process lent itself to “Jenny”’s carefree swagger and simplicity.
“It really changed my approach to songwriting. I’m usually so obsessed with being quite explicit or diaristic in my writing, which started to become boring and restrictive to me. Both ‘Piano’ and ‘Jenny’ were made on that same Auckland writing trip, and opened the doors to what the record could be. This song is really just a fantasy, a dream about something you can’t have. I think I was initially quite suspicious of how simple it was, thinking that I needed to obscure it a little more, but ultimately the boneheaded directness has become my favourite thing about it. It’s like a fucking Tom Petty song.” says Ward.
There’s a knowing simplicity to “Jenny”: a song about wanting to disappear with someone before you’ve even really figured out who they are. At once sincere and tongue-in-cheek, Ward describes the song as “so insincere, but also so sincere at the same time.” That tension is part of its charm—a queer-coded spin on “Jessie’s Girl” refracted through a post-Blonde lens, where fantasy, escapism and desire blur into one.
“The video was Charles (Buxton-Leslie) and my freaked-out take on the girl-next-door—we wanted to make something playful and raunchy, while still capturing the longing and obsession at the heart of the song. We built this strange, imaginary world with a tiny crew of friends, making miniature rooms and cardboard instruments along the way. We were inspired by late-60s surrealism, Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Gondry, and I’m really proud of how much we created with so little.” adds Ward.
“Jenny” arrives as another glimpse into Year Of The Snake, a record that sees Ward embracing a more focused, expansive and confident version of himself. Where his acclaimed 2024 debut House With The Blue Door was largely created in his bedroom, its follow-up was built collaboratively between Auckland and Sydney, with Ward working alongside Timon Martin, Kody Nielson, Lucian Rice, and Tony Buchen, among others.
The result is a maximalist coming-of-age record that moves between folk, pop, electronic music, soul, indie-rock and classical music, while remaining rooted in Ward’s instinct for melody, experimentation and emotional candour. Inspired by The Beach Boys, Bowie’s Berlin era and the psychedelic doo-wop of Animal Collective, Year Of The Snake is ultimately a record about growing up—about losing people, losing certainty, and discovering what remains when you are forced to start again.
For Ward, “Jenny” represents a different kind of escape. If much of Year Of The Snake was born from a period of profound upheaval, “Jenny” captures the seductive fantasy of simply leaving it all behind.
“We weren’t thinking about ourselves when we were making that song,” says Ward. “There was no self-consciousness. It was like writing a script. It came from a real place of play.”
“Jenny” is the latest chapter in Year Of The Snake—a record about shedding old skins, finding new ways forward, and learning to embrace the strange, beautiful mess in between.
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