Inspired by a past relationship, “November Nights” is about how you can love someone so deeply, even knowing you probably shouldn’t be with this person, and yet you are still somehow addicted to making it work, longing for their love and validation. Earning notoriety for a consistent string of certified bops, Jenny March creates pop music that’s as intimate as it is intoxicating while proudly upending and undoing expectations all-around. Her songs embody pure pop bliss with hashtaggable lyrics that make you feel like you’re talking to your best friend or reading someone else’s DMs. Simply put, the Ohio-born, Los Angeles-based songstress is a self-proclaimed “open book” and writes lyrics like she’s texting. Her music lets girls know that they can have fun too and do the same thing that the guys do like partying and going out, encouraging listeners not to worry about what anyone else thinks. “November Nights” follows Jenny’s 2019 power ballad “Rebound” about honoring her self-respect over the love of a man and refusing to be the rebound of a crush.
ECHO chatted with March about her empowering new song as well as filming her music video for “November Nights” and much more!
So let us talk your new song going away from earthquakes ‘November Nights’. Talk about a little bit about the creative process behind that song.
Yeah. Well this song is the first song off my EP, which will be coming out in the fall and I was going to release it earlier, but I decided to push it back just cause I didn’t think it was the right timing to be releasing music. I thought there was just a lot more important things going on in the world. So I pushed it back like a little over a month actually but I just wanted to, you know, start releasing my music for the EP so that’s pretty much why I released it then. I know it is called ‘November Nights’ and I released it in July. I don’t really know, you know, I think waiting to November would have been just way too long and I really loved the song and thought it was a good summer song even though it’s like called November nights. The creative process, I actually wrote the song with Jayden Gray. He’s a producer. He also produced the song and it was actually the first song we wrote together. I went in and we just kind of talked about what was going on in my life. Didn’t really have any expectations for what we were going to do. And we started talking about a past relationship of mine and a current relationship of mine and we kind of like blended the two together, which into like one story, which is kind of interesting. So basically it was like a really dark relationship. It had like a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but I was really like addicted to making it work and it just addicted to him. I guess I found out like later on like, wow, I was really, like addicted to this relationship and like not maybe in a good way, but at the time it was good. So it is kind of just about like embracing what you have with this person. And like in the course I like talk about like ‘you control my heart, so baby I will be what you need the angel to your demons, the tattoo of your soul’ and that is like my favourite lyric of the song. It is just kind of, I do not know it just like is cool. Like the tattoo of your soul. Like I am always going to be on you and I just thought it was kind of like a different way of doing like a relationship we saw.
I mean, making a song about a relationship is brave, but two relationships in the same song.
Yeah. So the beginning of the song, I mean they both relates to one, but the beginning like ‘don’t hold back the truth, remember when I stood up for you all the games that we be playing feel like we were chasing pavements’. I felt it in both of the relationships where I was like showing them that I care for them so much and yet they still were like not showing it back. And they still were like had trust issues where they weren’t really like, even though I was showing them how much I cared, they weren’t really understanding that I was. And I was like, how many more times I have to like keep showing you, you know and so that was like the part that was relatable to both the person I was talking to at the time and my ex.
Did you make the video during the pandemic or was it just when you were doing the selfie mode where you was at a part of the music video?
No. This is actually like a funny story. It was kind of like fate because we actually shot it like the day before quarantine happened and so we were able to edit it during quarantine. The director is actually from Canada, so she ended up going back to Canada because of quarantine or COVID. So yeah, we actually looked out and shot at the day before. We first went to a park and they had me on like one of the turntables and the camera guy felt so bad for the camera guy. He was running. So I am standing on this platform, you know, that turns in a 360 and this is like the park look. I have like a triangle, like bralette thing on and like a white skirt like a chain bra and he’s running around me and I’m holding onto this large, really nice camera and he’s running around me in circles for the entire length of the song and we did like a couple takes of that. We were like losing lighting constantly and, but like we had to get it and we had to give him like some time to breathe because he is literally getting so dizzy. I’m like about the fall of the turntable. So it was like really crazy experience, but it turned out really awesome. Then, from there, we went to this garage and we just shot inside this garage. There was an elevator that you could use there is nobody in the garage and we parked the car there. We shot the car scene, which took the longest because we had like a lot of crazy lights on the side of the car and so we put different gel colours on each side of the windows. I am sitting in like the front seat, the passenger seat, and then the two on the back on the side and I am in a different outfit for each of those.
I also was able to style myself for this shoot. So I spent a lot of time doing that and fashion is something like I am really, passionate about. So that was really exciting for me to be able to do. I’m not the type of girl that wants to do her own makeup and hair, not good at that, but so that was really fun. The car scene just took a long time, but it was, it was really, cool, because I’m like sitting in each spot kind of singing the song to my other self which I thought was a cool aspect. We actually fit the camera in through my, the rooftop or the sunroof. We fit the camera through there somehow and the camera it was so big. It was like barely fit in between the seats and so it would rotate. So like, we’d have to like, remember what part I was in each seat so they could edit it at the end. So it definitely took a lot of work, but it turned out super awesome. The car scenes, like my favourite shot when it just rotates 360 and you just see I am like in a new seat. And then then we shot the elevator scene, which I have like the angel wings on and I’m like dancing kind of weird. I love to just kind of like do like weird stuff, honestly like performing. We actually were going to do a pool shot and because we started shooting at like 6:00 PM and we finished at like five in the morning. So it was a long day and we are going to do a pool scene at the end and I was really, excited for that, but you know, I did not want to wake up my friend at like two in the morning to use their pool. So I was like, we’ll just, let’s just come up with something else. So on the fly, we came up with my checkered pants look and we just kind of had me rocking out, which I really liked how it turned out was actually one of my favourite shots and one of my favourite things to do in the video. I think it just showed a lot of personality and like the craziness of like who I was.
Talk about, you know, getting to be a social media ambassador for Rihanna’s line and how did you like kind of get the opportunity?
So they, this is the funny story. I actually was shopping online. Right. I bought something from Savage Fenty, which I have bought from there in the past and then like two days later, they did not know I bought anything. They DM’d me on Instagram and I was like, oh my gosh. They were like, do you want to be, we would love to have you, we love your page. We love your music. Do you want to be an ambassador? I was like, oh my gosh. Yes. And so I like emailed them, you know, I was like, make sure to not give me this because I already bought that. I literally buy from you all the time so this is like the best, my favourite opportunity ever. I actually just received the clothes in the mail, so I will be posting soon-ish, hopefully for it but I mean, I love Rihanna, everything about her. I love Fenty. I remember I went to their first popup shop in L.A. when it opened her actual like Fenty store. So I mean, yeah, anything Rihanna, Fenty I just love like the urban style. I love like the lingerie. I love everything about her and like the Savage Fenty line. So it was really awesome just to get that opportunity to be a social ambassador. So I’m excited to see like where it goes.
How does fashion inspire your music and vice versa?
Oh, well, okay. So I’m a Gemini, right? So I feel like I have a lot of different personalities and fashion definitely and so does my music. So I feel like I love so many different genres, so my music is inspired by so many different things. So like, I like to do different songs, like songs that sound different which I think will be shown a lot in my EP and fashion is the same way. I feel like I have so many different styles and it just like helps represent who I am and like, you know, just like expressing myself and my creativity and just, yeah, who I am. Every day is different. Honestly. Like I could be like super hip hop girl with like sneakers and like baggy shorts and like a crop top or a big baggy t-shirt with like thigh high boots, or I could be more rocker with like, you know, platform Doc Martens and like Jean jackets and like plaid skirts. It really just depends on my mood that day.
Talk about your upcoming EP. What kind of sounds, what kind of themes can we expect is ‘November Nights’ kind of like foreshadowing, what can we kind of expect? What types of vibes can we go?
Yeah. I think in a way it’s foreshadowing like I was saying earlier the songs are kind of just different styles, which I think I was always like scared. I was like, oh, I can’t just do songs that are so different from each other, but I was like, you know what, that’s what I want to do so, and I want to have different styles of songs, so that’s, what’s going to happen pretty much. And they’re all like songs that I really love and like think, define who I am. So in different just parts of myself. So it’ll be coming out in the fall. I definitely have a couple of other songs that I know are going to be on it. I’m still writing. I am still recording doing zoom sessions, all of that. So there’ll probably be about like five or six songs. I definitely have three that I know for sure will be on it. I’m working on this new song right now. It is not done, but it is definitely has like a Post Malone, like his latest Hollywood Bleeding’s album type vibe to it. I really love like the anthemic just like intros and stuff. I really think about like the live performance, like when I am going to perform it live, how it is going to be unlike summer, ones like really, urban, like hip-hop, like Ariana Grande’s kind of vibes. I definitely have like a range on there, but I love it. You know.
If you could set up a fan in a setting for them to listen to ‘November Nights’ or any song off of your EP that you like, what setting would that be?
So for me, I would be in the car probably at night-time. If they are in L.A., you know, like Mulholland sitting up like a lookout or something. For me, I love listening to music in the car and I think this album is also, will be really, great, especially ‘November Nights’, listening in the car with a friend or just alone, honestly. And just like, yeah, looking over at the city lights, like high up driving through the mountains or like a road that you like, that’s like pretty open. I think I would choose that.
What is one quote you have heard in life that you want to echo out to listeners of your music?
Oh. My favourite quote actually it’s me and my dad’s probably the first quote my dad ever taught me or showed me and it’s called, I forget who it was by, ‘thing it’s called success is where preparation meets opportunity’. So I really love it because I think it’s very true. Like you have to be prepared, you have to work hard, but you also have to have the opportunity. So where success is where preparation meets opportunity.
Watch the music video for “November Nights” now!