“Psychedelic Family Roadtrip”: Nick Ward Dives into Himself on Debut Album ‘House With the Blue Door’

Australian artist-to-watch Nick Ward takes us track-by-track through his cinematic debut album ‘House With the Blue Door,’ a time capsule of his youth and young adulthood that pushes the concept of ‘pop’ music forward while offering an intimate, exhilarating introduction to the Sydney-based 22-year-old.

for fans of Troye Sivan, Ruel, Dreamer Boy

Stream: “All Your Life” – Nick Ward

The experience of being six or seven and listening to Bruce Springsteen and ABBA on my iPod Nano in bed was as informative as anything else.

Nick Ward’s debut album is so much more than an ‘introduction’: It’s a time capsule of his youth and young adulthood.

The 22-year-old singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Sydney, Australia packed his DNA into House With the Blue Door, crafting a record so intimate – and intricate – that only he could have possibly made it. Six years into a burgeoning music career that has already earned nods from Troye Sivan, NME, and Rolling Stone, the up-and-coming pop artist spreads his wings and soars in a musical diary that is as sweet as it is stirring, and dynamic as it is dramatic, and as compelling as it is all-consuming.

Whether or not you knew him beforehand, prepare to ‘meet’ the many sides of Nick Ward all at once.

House With the Blue Door - Nick Ward — House With the Blue Door – Nick Ward

When I was born, I opened my eyes
I took a deep breath and I started to cry
And I was alone with my friends on a screen
Don’t take them for granted, man –
You know they could leave!

All your life, all your life, all your life
I really hope you’re happy all your life
All your life, all your life, all your life
(Please just try)
I really hope you’re happy all your life

When I was nine, I wrote to myself
Sent the email to open in 13 years
Says: “I hope you’re happy all your life”
Be kind to yourself, make sure you’re alright
I spent a whole year high,
but it’s gone and I’m fine

– “All Your Life,” Nick Ward

Released October 4 via Republic Records, House With the Blue Door is a definitive best-foot-forward from one of Australia’s most exciting artists. At just 22 years old, Nick Ward is pushing the concept of ‘pop’ music forward.

And by all accounts, he’s doing it rather effortlessly.

Inspired by classic rock’s greats – he cites the likes of The Beatles and Lou Reed as some of his all-time favorites – Ward’s songs are musical melting pots that incorporate elements of rock, indie pop, emo, hip-hop, and electronic music together into a world that is uniquely his, and his alone. His debut album tells his story through both its music and its lyrics, giving audiences a glimpse into where he came from and how he came to be the artist we hear today.

“I wanted to encapsulate my whole childhood and adolescence with this album – all the huge emotions of growing up, and the transition into being an adult,” Ward tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s also about family and the influence our family has over our identity. Maybe it’s corny, but I used to say it’s taken me my whole life to make this album. The experience of being six or seven and listening to Bruce Springsteen and ABBA on my iPod Nano in bed was as informative as anything else.”

“It’s about family, childhood, DNA, and the complex relationship we have with the past. I wanted to explore the way trauma and memory influence who I am today… Initially, the album began as an attempt to tap into the sunny, innocent feeling of being a kid, but I think all the turbulence of life and growing up made its way into the music too.”

For Ward, this record was also the product of considerable soul-searching – figuring out who he wanted to be, and what he wanted to put out into the world. Ultimately, he had let his own life story do the talking.

“After my last EP, I finally took time off for the first time since finishing high school, and really had to learn to just sit with myself,” he says. “I started therapy again and was finding out so much about myself and who I was through that process. I was also unlearning bad habits and the parts of my personality that I wanted to change. The turbulent personal journey really shaped the album into what it is and inspired it a lot more darkness than the sunny, childlike album I initially set out to make.”

“I love movies and pieces of art that try to evoke specific stages of life, so this is my shot at a farewell to childhood. I was also trying to emulate the feeling that I got listening to music in the back of my dad’s car with the windows open – The Beatles, Springsteen, Pink Floyd and lots of Australian pub rock.”

In Ward’s eyes, this record puts his life, his story, and his humanity front and center. “I wanted to make the most undeniably ‘me’ thing I could – I think that’s all you can hope to achieve with your first record.”

He candidly calls the album a psychedelic family roadtrip – nodding to both the sounds and the stories awaiting listeners within its eleven songs. In keeping with the theme, the title House With the Blue Door is itself a deeply personal reference. “It was the name my twin brother and I gave to our house when we were little kids,” Ward explains. “When we’d leave, we’d wave and say ‘Goodbye, house with the blue door.’”

Memorable moments abound on the journey from album opener “Lum Chum” and the bold, effervescent “Shooting Star” to the forward-looking, emotionally nuanced “I Wanna Be a Mother” and the cinematic, smile-inducing finale “All Your Life.” Between the achingly emphatic lyrics and stacked vocal performance on “Speak,” the infectious strut of “Gimme,” the familial reckoning of “Father Son Holy Mountain,” and the dreamy, glitchy grooves of “Go!,” House With the Blue Door is at once cathartic and catchy, dynamic and diaristic – an intimate peak below the hood that is Nick Ward.

“To be honest, I still can’t get over ‘Shooting Star,’” he smiles. “I think I love that song so much because it feels like the most confident thing I’ve made so far. Even though it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever made, it somehow feels like one of the most ‘me’ tracks. There might be ‘better’ songs on the album or tracks that I like more on certain days, but ‘Shooting Star’ feels like the song I wanted to make for five years.”

As far as lyrics are concerned, he says he’s proudest of the writing on “I Wanna Be a Mother” and “Father Son Holy Mountain.” “They feel like two points of view on the same idea. Those songs are companion tracks to me, and I think they make each other stronger.”

Ultimately, there is no better way to get to know Nick Ward than by listening to this album – letting his music and lyrics wash over you.

“I want people to feel hopeful and to feel like they have a companion in this album,” Ward shares. “Making it was a really healing experience for me, so I hope I’m not alone in that feeling.”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Nick Ward’s House With the Blue Door with Atwood Magazine as he goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his debut album!

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:: stream/purchase House With the Blue Door here ::

:: connect with Nick Ward here ::

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‘House With the Blue Door’ – Nick Ward

:: Inside House With the Blue Door ::

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Lum Chum

‘Lum Chum’ was the name I gave my colourful bolster pillow as a little kid, which is actually spelled ‘lam cham’ in Cantonese. I asked my uncle for advice on how to spell it in the tracklist, and he told me he liked the childlike spelling better. This short intro welcomes you into the world of the album, hence the knocking on the door at the end.

Shooting Star

A song about confidence, and my mum’s eternal support. I grew up not having much confidence because I wasn’t good at sport, which won’t help you much growing up in Australia. Mum really nurtured the creative side of me once she saw I wasn’t enjoying sport or fitting into school. She used to bring me to plays and take me out of school to go to the movies. I really owe so much of my confidence and love of art to her. This song makes me feel on top of the world, which is why I opened my first record this way.

Gimme

This song is about my experience being in high school, before I’d come out as queer to any of my friends. Because I hadn’t verbalised it yet or opened the conversation about my sexuality, I was just stuck in an echo-chamber. I needed an answer – whatever it was. I think I did more damage to myself than good, forcing myself into situations that just gave me more and more questions. I made this song in an afternoon with my friend Gab Strum, who I’ve been friends with for years. We always talk about gear and music we love, but it took us like three years of being friends to actually write a song together. A lot of the time you meet people and write with them immediately, while you’re still getting to know each other, so it was nice to already have that wall down and just feel immediately comfortable.

House With The Blue Door

I wanted to write a song about religious trauma, and the way it affects your own sense of identity and self-expression. I grew up going to bible study and service at school, so I’ve always been around that environment. I know so many people in my life who’ve had really awful experiences in the church, and it absolutely still affects how they interact with the world and with themselves.

Father Son Holy Mountain

This song is about not being able to escape your family’s influence on you, and feeling as if your destiny has already been set. When I started therapy, I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the patterns of behaviour I was noticing in myself and tracing throughout my family. It made me feel like I was next in that sequence, no matter what I did. The title is also a reference to the Jodorowsky movie, which I watched a lot while I was writing, with or without the sound on.

Control

This song was made during the worst month of my life. I was just super burnt-out, depressed and feeling really pessimistic about the world. Looking back with some hindsight, it felt like the rock bottom before a big positive change in my life. Anyway, I was in my room alone playing on a drum machine and I’d taken some shrooms. I slowly started to make what felt like this weird, mutated version of an Australian pub rock song, like the ones I listened to as a kid. The writing process was like a stream of consciousness – talking about everything on my mind at the time. The verse of a song is a place to confess things or have conversations with people that you can’t have in real life. There’s this Bruce Springsteen line that I think about when I make anything – “blues in the verse, gospel in the chorus.”

Go!

This song is kind of about social anxiety, kind of about getting lost in a market when I was 5 and kind of about being stuck at a party. This was the first track I made for the album, with my friend Maxwell Byrne (Golden Vessel, 1tbsp). The palette of this song – Beatles bass, chopped drum break, and swirling psychedelic synths – really informed a lot of other tracks on the album.

Nothing To You

This song is about that nagging paranoia that you don’t mean anything to someone you really care about. I didn’t want it to be necessarily romantic – I feel like I’ve felt this about so many different people in my life. Q: What’s even worse than being hated by someone? A: Meaning nothing to them at all.

Speak

I made this song on my Aunt’s living room floor in Perth, using my laptop plugged into an iPod speaker, with all the windows and doors wide open. I also played an FM radio into my little modular synth, and really loved how it chopped up all the spurts of noise and momentary hints of human voices. I’m never fussy about recording environments or background noise, and I’ll always prefer an interesting, rough demo to a perfect one. I felt really good about the demo – I thought it had a lot of heart but I was interested to see where I could take it. A couple weeks later, my computer died all of a sudden. I lost the files for the song and didn’t have the choice to continue work on it, so I started to try recreating it. I must have made three or four different versions but none of them had the same quality I loved in the demo. Eventually, I sent an email to Andrei Eremin who’s a really talented engineer I worked with on my second EP. He helped split the stems from a remaining mp3 file, and then we were able to mix and release the song.

I Wanna Be A Mother

This song was written with my future child in mind. I was thinking about all the habits and quirks about myself that I’ll inevitably pass down to them. It was written shortly after I got back from Perth, after making ‘Speak.’ This song feels like the climax of the record, and probably the most revealing in terms of the overall concept I had in mind.

All Your Life

The credits rolling, driving into the sunset, love wins.

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