Californian songwriter Jenny O. has made a name for herself with a singular blend of pop, folk and country ever since her debut Home EP in 2010. With two records and a number of other releases under her belt, the Los Angeles-based artist has signed with Mama Bird Recording Co. for a brand new album, New Truth, set to be released this June. “The songs are as personal as ever,” Jenny O. writes in introduction of the new record. “Continued misadventures of an introvert in Hollywood. I think it’s relatable—heartache and epiphany.”
Recorded with Kevin Ratterman (who also provides drums), New Truth sees Jenny O. play all guitars on the record, taking the creative freedom of early EPs and giving it the full studio treatment. Ratterman also set up a microphone at Jenny O’s home, leaving her to work on the vocals in her own time. The result is a more experimental and organic development of the sound, a way of working that minimised the miscommunications and gaps in understanding between artist and engineer, leaving as much control as possible with Jenny O.
This freedom is fitting, because New Truth is a personal album. If the creative process allowed Jenny O. the space to work toward the conclusion most fulfilling to her artistically, then the record itself could be said to serve a similar purpose in some higher, existential regard. Be it through considered effort, trial and error, or plain old happenstance, the songs work through a life until now and suggest a way forward within the current circumstances.
“I wrote [the opening track] ‘God Knows Why’ after going deaf in one ear and asking why perplexing things happen—fate, cause and effect,” she told Flood Magazine. “When I lost my hearing, a doctor said, ‘God took it.’ Something happened to me neurologically, but here we are. Why do people behave against their own interests? Why do some people survive and others don’t? New Truth has to do with coming to terms with a New Reality, what is and what will be now that things have changed or information has come to light. Feels accurate in this period of adjustment and great sadness.”
Asking similar questions, latest single ‘What About That Day’ turns to a failing relationship, a lament from within the ruins of something that might have been. Couple with a video filmed by Sam Gezari, the song takes on an ethereal quality, like some moment snatched from the progression of things, allowed to sit if only for a while free of the context which dooms it. If nostalgia is allowed to creep in before the titles have rolled, then perhaps we might remember the film more fondly, if only for a moment.
New Truth is out via Mama Bird Recording Co. on the 19th June and you can pre-order it from the Jenny O. Bandcamp page.
