I don’t talk to my friends / Cause I hate how I’m feeling inside, sings Jenny March. The guitar-laden “boys think we’re crazy” anchors her debut EP, MADNESS, a genre-smashing six-piece spanning mental health, identity, and taking up space. This particular song captures the Cincinnati native’s journey to self-actualization. “I’ve finally come into who I am,” she says.
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“Before quarantine, I was about to start working on the EP. When COVID-19 hit, it threw me off. I needed to take a second to get back into things,” she tells American Songwriter over a recent phone call. “I learned more about myself through this period of time and had more time alone, which is rare for me. I’m such a Gemini and people person. It was really nice to have time to myself and sit alone with my thoughts and figure out the music.”
Through flaky guitar, “boys think we’re crazy” witnesses March reclaiming her mental state and plating her flag in the center of pop music. Minimalistic and airy, the guitar track is one she’s always wanted to write. “I’ve always thought of myself as a really strong, confident person. When I started to feel these insecurities, I felt weak,” she says, her emotional knots growing tighter and tighter. But then she had a realization: most people feel this way at some point.
“It actually makes you stronger if you talk about them,” she continues. “I always competed with the guys when I was younger. I was a huge tomboy. I didn’t want to be called ‘weak.’ I think as a kid, the boys would always say, ‘The girls are crazy.’ This is a song to my younger self. I wanted to keep this track super simple to let the lyrics speak for themselves. I don’t think this required too much other production.”
Across MADNESS, produced by Alex Harris, March fully owns her body and her mind. On the rhythmic-based “Scream,” she works through a particularly lonesome transition in her life. I’ve been looking for something / To help me break free, she chirps, gathering up all the strength she has left.
“I was feeling pretty down and I was trying to find reasons to believe in something better was coming along. I was missing going out with friends and seeing people. I feed off energies from other people,” she explains of the song. Harris and March were in the throes of writing “boys think we’re crazy” when the melody for “Scream” pounced from her soul. They quickly set about writing the propulsive song, containing the EP’s most electrifying production.
“Alex just knows me really well, probably more than my close friends since we write music so much together,” says March, laughing. “He’s an amazing producer. I really wanted to think outside the box and try something different with the production of this EP.”
The accompanying visual, directed by Colton Tran, out on a strip of highway in Tujunga, California, tips its hat to Tove Lo and Gwen Stefani, both in style and mood. After renting a “super sick” Mustang, March and a crew of two headed out to film a video. “It turned out to be a huge music video which we were not expecting. I wanted to add animation because I love animations in videos. It looks so cool.”
Later on the EP, March releases the monstrously addicting “95’,” a contrasting moment oozing confidence and swagger. “This is me being super confident and having my shit together. We all have high feelings and low feelings,” she says, dubbing it her “bad bish” anthem.
March has come a long way since her youth in Cincinnati. An only child, she began writing out her feelings through poetry, sometimes hiding “these little pieces of paper from my parents,” she recalls. In school, she always felt like an outsider, bullied for her precocious nature—“Not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at everything I did,” she laughs, noting her early work in theatre and dance. “I started going into my own world and writing about things.”
Her family were never creative, necessarily, although both her parents had artistic ties. “My mom danced a little, and my grandmother, her mom, owned a dance studio. Still to this day, it might be one of the oldest dance studios in the United States,” she says, referencing the Kehl School of Dance. “I remember going to the 100th year anniversary one year.”
Meanwhile, her father, who is adopted, possesses “one piece of paper from his biological parents,” revealing “his mom played guitar.” “He told me later on that he liked to dabble in drums a little bit, but he hasn’t touched that in years,” says March.
As you can see, the rising pop star has creativity coursing through her DNA. Following her freshman year of high school, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother to pursue her dreams. And it all came as a bit of a surprise. “I wasn’t expecting the move. It just kind of happened,” she says.
March had been going to a local Cincinnati talent agency called Heyman Talent. When an LA-based manager named Nick Roses came through town to hold a workshop and acting class, she participated in various improv, acting, and singing exercises, and Roses was instantly impressive. She signed a contract soon after, and her life changed forever.
“I was already going to switch schools because I was having trouble. I felt like I needed new people,” she says. “My parents were able to make it work. I moved pretty soon after that. They were out with me in LA until I was 18.”
While actively pursuing her acting career, she grew her circle of friends and influence —with music always in the back of her mind. “I didn’t really know how to break into the music industry, but after a few years, I had some friends who were on Disney,” she says. “My mom also just Googled and found a producer [Alex Cantrall, known for working with the likes of JoJo, Fantasia, and Dru Hill] who was also from Ohio.”
And the rest is history.
Jenny March’s MADNESS EP bottles up her insecurities and confidence, teetering between the two with acrobatic ease. With the release, a weight lifts from her shoulders; it’s both a relief and a celebration. As she continues to grow, so does her songwriting. “I know how to use my words better for expression,” she says.
“I like to start on piano with some chords. I’ll also come across melodies while driving. That’s something I’ve done since I got my license. I honestly get so inspired while driving. It’s not good because then I have to get on my phone and record a voice memo with the melody,” she laughs. “Now, I know how to be a better songwriter and really dive into my emotions.”
Photo by Naserin Bogado
