NICK WARD SHARES DEBUT EP ‘EVERYTHING I WISH I TOLD YOU’

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5 Feb

Today, rising Sydney songwriter/producer Nick Ward shares his triumphant debut EP Everything I Wish I Told Out, out via Hunnydew Records. One of Australia's most exciting talents, the EP marks a summation of Nick's life so far - both musically and emotionally - all written, produced and mixed by himself in lockdown 2020.

A coming of age story expressed affectingly across six tracks, the project allows the listener a gentle immersion into the young artist's inner monologue through bedroom pop that is both intimate and cinematic. With a strong lyrical focus on the concepts of breaking down traditional ideas of masculinity, sexuality and gender - as experienced by himself as a teenager navigating the current political landscape - Nick is excited to bring his fully realised debut EP out of his bedroom studio to share with the world.

Speaking on the EP, Nick shares; 'It was important to me that every song came from a different palette of sounds and emotions, but still felt cohesive. Acoustic guitar was the main thread pulling all of these songs together, as well as hip-hop influenced production and baroque flourishes. The project begins with the real audio of my birth, and poses the lyric "Do you know who you are?", which brings me to the main theme of the project: identity. I'm 19 years old, so it wasn't too long ago that I was attending an all-boys school that warped my sense of masculinity and sexuality, and made my 'coming out' pretty convoluted.'

Delving into the themes of the project, Nick continues: 'The emotional centrepiece of the project, 'I Wanna Be Myself or Nothing At All', goes into pretty explicit details about that experience. 'Holding The Man' is another track that wrestles with those same themes, but in a much more positive light. The refrain on this song "Everything I wish I told you all comes out / you've never known as much about me as you do right now" is the inspiration for the project's title, and also feels like its mission statement. The finale track, 'Aubrey Plaza' closes with the same question the project begins with – do I know who I am? The short answer is no, but I think that it's the interrogation of that question that will bring me closer. I really hope you love it.'

Nick Ward is a nineteen-year-old bedroom pop songwriter/producer from Sydney. Having learned various instruments including classical piano, guitar, double bass and drums since he was five years old, Nick began producing when he was 11, making haphazard GarageBand tracks on his Mum's computer. After graduating to lo-fi hip hop Soundcloud beats when he was 16, Nick began to further experiment with song structures and vocals, culminating in the release of his intimate and sparse debut 'Crush' in November 2018. Following a string of singles including last-year's Stevan collab 'Marmalade', the recent 'Aubrey Plaza', working with his musical hero Lontalius on 'I Wanna Be Myself Or Nothing At All', which was quickly added to rotation on Triple J upon release, and the emotive 'Holding The Man', where he worked with musical hero Golden Vessel. Across all his tracks Nick continues to hone his impeccable and emotive songwriting capabilities, crafting stunningly intimate stories exploring masculinity and identity.

Following a support slot on BENEE's first Australian tour and further shows with Tora and JOY, Nick was named a Triple J Unearthed High finalist alongside George Alice, Mali Jo$e, Tulliah and the Debbies. Outside of music, Nick's second passion is filmmaking, where he directs all of his music videos as well as a bi-monthly series on YouTube, 'Kill Your Darlings'. In 2017, Nick won Tropfest Junior, and the next year Nick and his friend's film 'Boys Don't Cry' was featured in the Tropfest adult competition.