Jawny breaks down his explosive debut album It's Never Fair, Always True

After releasing his 2019 breakthrough hit “Honeypie,” Jawny has been carving out a space for himself in the alt-pop world. The artist, born Jacob Lee-Nicholas Sullenger, has been cutting his teeth in Los Angeles ever since — signing to Interscope Records and releasing two lively projects, For Abby and The Story of Hugo. All of it has led to his debut album It’s Never Fair, Always True (out March 3), which further showcased his sonic experimentation, hopeless romantic-tinged songwriting and indie pop ethos.

Ahead of his headlining tour with Wallice on March 10, Jawny broke down every track from his new LP.

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From ill-fated love to deep seated anxiety, Jawny breaks down what inspired and influenced his debut album.

“Intro”
Self-explanatory I know, but this is what opens the record. A mantra repeating itself over and over again, almost like it’s a dream state and the person dreaming it is trying to say something enough times that it becomes true.

“Strawberry Chainsaw”
I thought “Strawberry Chainsaw” would be the perfect way to open this record. It’s upbeat, it kicks off the story being told for this record and sets the tone lyrically. The listener who hears this album for the first time will have a picture painted of somebody who is deeply in love with somebody and loves them through their good qualities and the bad. It’s all downhill from here. Love doesn’t last forever in this case.

“Lalala”
This was actually the first song I wrote for this record in 2021 (long time ago, wow). It was my first time back writing in a long time because I had taken off to clear my head and find inspiration again. This song came so fast to me, like a whirlwind. After it was done I knew that this was the beginning of something. I didn’t know what just yet but I know right then and there that I had begun writing my next record and that this wasn’t just making music for the sake of making it. It had a purpose and I had a drive again.

“Wide Eyed”
This was the last song I finished for this record. I knew story-wise by this point what the through-line of this record was and where it was going and then I made a version of this song that is nothing like the one that’s out today. There was a whole different post-chorus section, the chorus was entirely different and I actually left the studio very happy and pleased with it but that didn’t stop me from coming in the next day and changing everything and it became the song you hear today.

“Adios”
“Adios” is the beginning of the end in a way; at least storyline-wise. I think it might be my favorite song on the record. Something about the chorus resonates with me so strongly and the second half of the chorus is actually lyrics from a completely different song that I had written a year prior that just wasn’t working for me. I’m very happy it all worked out though because now this is one of my favorite songs to perform live.

“Take It Back,” featuring Beck
It’s Jawny, and it’s Beck. What else is there to say? This deserves to go No. 1 on alt radio.

“Death Is a DJ”
My entire idea for this song was to turn my anxiety about dying and getting older into an upbeat song that I would be forced to sing and play every night on tour. Exposure therapy, if you will. Well, I did it, and I guess I have to go put my money where my mouth is.

“Giving Up on You”
I made this song the same week in the same studio that I made wide eyed. If you notice the drums in both songs sound somewhat similar because it was the same mic setup in the same room. I wrote the line “Flowers grow in cobblestone” thinking about The Mamas & the Papas like “There’s a rose in Spanish Harlem”.

“True”
I wrote “True” on my guitar with my voice memo app open on the top of an abandoned zoo animal exhibit in Los Angeles California. There is an old zoo that has been turned into a park/trail area and I climbed all the way up to the top of what one of these old rock structures exhibits was, pulled out my guitar and started messing around with the words and progression that eventually became “True.”

“Everything”
I wrote “Everything” talking about some of the anxieties I had spoken about earlier but this time in a more serious way. This wasn’t an upbeat song. This didn’t have any of the tongue in cheek lines. This was more real, and I had no intention of ever putting this song out. After the day I wrote it, I kept it close for a couple of months before showing it to someone who I trust a lot and was comfortable enough around to let him hear. He made me play it for him three times in a row before convincing me to let people hear this song and put it out into the world.

“Fall in Love”
I wrote “Fall in Love” three and a half years ago. Well, I tried to. I wrote a beautiful song but kept trying to turn it into something that it wasn’t. I would try to make it an indie song. I would try to make it a pop-leaning song. None of those versions were bad but they all just felt like a parody of what the song was really about. I kept finding myself going back to my piano and playing it for about two years until finally a friend of mine looked at me and said, “If you like the song like that, why not just record the piano ballad?”

“I Look Better When I’m in Love”
I had the line “Ashtray glitter on my tongue” for a couple of months but no song I had written spoke to me enough to use it as a jumping-off point. That was until the day this song came about. Something about it spoke to me that day so strongly that I felt like I wasn’t even writing a song, the song was already written and I was just uncovering it piece by piece. It is also part of a 10-minute cohesive song piece that’s broken up into two songs. The last being “Selfish Hate.”

“Selfish Hate”
The day that I wrote this I knew it was the finale for this album. There is a story for this one but I think I would like to have one thing from this album that I keep for me.