June Jones releases a new single ‘Jenny (Breathe)‘ on her imprint Emotion Punk Records, via a freshly inked deal with Remote Control Records. As premiered on FBi Radio’s Up For It, ‘Jenny (Breathe)’ is her first new material since her debut solo album, 2019’s Diana, which received the prestigious title of Album Of The Week on 3RRR.
Jones says, “I wrote ‘Jenny (Breathe)’ in December 2018 while I was catsitting for my manager, Tom. It was really hot in the apartment and I was spending a lot of time in the bath listening to Ursula Le Guin audiobooks. The song is in part an ode to my lifelong love of science fiction, and it’s a song in which I am singing to myself as well as anyone who is hurting and needs a place to rest, recalibrate, and breathe. It’s a song about surviving inner trauma and outer dystopia, though I don’t think it’s easy to separate the two. ‘Jenny’ is my first self-produced release, with the bulk of its production taking place in the early stages of teaching myself to use Ableton. I recorded the vocals and bass guitar with Geoffrey O’Connor and did everything else on a tiny Lenovo ThinkPad. I wanted the song to combine elements of traditional, contemporary, and futuristic, while retaining a strong sense of human emotion, as most of my favourite sci-fi writing does.”
Long-time collaborator Geoffrey O’Connor directed the accompanying clip, about which Jones writes: “It started with clips that I shot at home, singing and speaking into my phone camera, doing my hair, doing my makeup, and smoking cigarettes. Adhering to social distancing measures, Geoffrey filmed a handful of different screens playing those clips in a variety of settings during the brief period of relaxed restrictions in Victoria a few months ago. Rather than making a video with a narrative, we tried to create a mood piece that fit with the song – something both warm and cold, alive and inanimate, populated and desolate. I’m so happy with the beautiful work that Geoff has done on the video. He has an amazing eye for framing, editing, and artificial rain. And I’m glad we found a use for my old phone with a broken screen, though sadly no container of rice was able to resuscitate it after we submerged it in water for five minutes.”
