JENNY X | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

There’s something refreshing about Jenny X’s approach to rock music. In a time where so much feels polished, curated and carefully calculated, The Right Side embraces the rough edges instead, emotionally, lyrically and sonically. Built around angular guitars, raw performances and deeply human songwriting, the Gloucester, Massachusetts band manage to capture something increasingly rare: honesty without pretension. The track wrestles with change, self-reflection and the uncomfortable reality that growth rarely arrives in some clean cinematic moment. Instead, Jenny X lean into the messiness of becoming something better while still carrying the weight of what came before. In this conversation with Lucid News, the band opens up about imperfection, internal rebellion, live energy, the influence of coastal Massachusetts, and why genuine human connection matters now more than ever. This is a paid collaboration with Jenny X.

TRACK REVIEW - THE RIGHT SIDE

it’s honestly refreshing to hear some genuinely good old-fashioned rock music again. The Right Side wastes no time pulling you in either, opening with a riff that immediately hits with this uplifting rush of energy and nostalgia without ever feeling dated. Jenny X have managed to capture that rare balance between warmth and tension, where the track feels emotionally reflective while still carrying enough momentum to make you want to turn it louder. The harmonies in the chorus are one of the real standout moments too, landing naturally and giving the song this huge sense of emotional release without overdoing it.

What really elevates the track though is the honesty in the performance. The slightly tremolo-soaked guitar textures give the song a modern shimmer while still keeping its roots planted firmly in classic rock songwriting. And then there’s the vocal performance, upfront, human and refreshingly unprocessed. Nothing feels hidden behind layers of studio perfection here. You can hear the imperfections, the conviction and the personality in every line, which is exactly what gives The Right Side its emotional weight. In an era where so much rock music feels overly polished or algorithmically safe, Jenny X sound like a band more interested in connection than perfection, and that authenticity is what makes this track resonate long after it ends.

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“The Right Side” feels like a song about transformation without pretending the past never happened. Was it important for the track to acknowledge the messiness of change rather than present redemption as something clean?

Hey, if you can get that clean-cut, white light redemption to land on you, that's wicked cool. But for the rest of us, this type of change is messy and not without a fair amount of hard work and introspection. So yeah, this song is about the latter type of experience – the messy one, for sure.

There’s a tension in your music between punk energy and emotional reflection. Do you think honesty hits harder when it’s delivered through something loud and imperfect?

For us, yes. I've always valued an earnest connection between performer and audience. Like, I want our listeners to feel something genuine and meaningful – even transcendent if we can pull it off. For us, volume and rough edges support the kind of songs we write, so in our case it's appropriate, and hopefully effective. It seems like this is becoming even more important with the advent of AI. I like to think that we can provide a live experience that computers can't deliver – that real human connection where imperfection is valued, even cherished.

A lot of rock music talks about rebellion, but The Right Side feels more like internal rebellion than external chaos. What were you pushing against within yourself while writing it?

Yeah, for sure. This song is touching on how we experience life mostly as an "inside job." Writing it, I was thinking about pushing against those things that just don't work for me anymore. Things I need to protect, things I need to avoid and the like. I guess most of our songs are like that – somewhat internally focused, rather than trying to project some kind of pursuasive message outward. As a band, we don't have any axes to grind, at least not at the moment (laughs).

The guitars on this track feel angular and restless, almost like they’re refusing to settle. How important is tension and discomfort in shaping the emotional tone of your music?

We're lucky to have two very talented guitarists in the band – Ken Desmarais and Dan Grant. They have very different styles, so some of that "good" tension is built in – but they don't compete per se. We're certainly more into the energy and feel of the track than worrying about guitars lining up neatly in some kind of linear fashion. I think that helps to create moments of tension where the instrumentation is expressive and supporting the lyrical content.

Coming from Gloucester, Massachusetts, do you think the environment around you naturally influences the way Jenny X sounds or writes?

Most definitely. We have a new song coming out called "Small Craft Advisory" that comes directly from our experience with coastal living. Living near the ocean is an inspiration for us and many artists who live and work here. It's hard to explain, but Gloucester is a special place. Come visit!

Your songs seem grounded in real human experiences rather than abstract storytelling. Has writing reflective lyrics become easier or harder in an era where vulnerability is constantly curated online?

Much of the lyrical content is based on my real-life experiences, but there' a certain amount of abstraction applied for effect and context within the song, so it's a bit of a mix. I also try to let the chord progressions and melody guide me in terms of topical material. I strive to be true to the material and not get into contrived territory – less crafted, more expressed from the heart. I'm also a big proponent of letting people take their own meaning from the song, without me getting in the way too much.

There’s something timeless about the way Jenny X approaches rock music, but it never feels nostalgic for the sake of it. How do you balance honoring older influences while still sounding emotionally current?

It starts from where we all come from, coming of age in the 80's in Boston – The Modern Lovers, Aerosmith, The Cars, Boston. In that sense, we can't help it, it's ingrained in us. But we continue to try to carve out our own sound within the rock genre, which we admittedly love.

A song like The Right Side suggests movement toward clarity, but clarity can sometimes feel uncomfortable too. Do you think becoming a better version of yourself also means confronting parts you’d rather ignore?

The shadow work? Yeah, I think that goes with the territory if you want to make progress. It's the newness that can be scary: new feeling or experiences that weren't accessible beforehand. It's a continuing internal dialogue for me.

The Blackburn Sessions sound very performance-driven rather than over-produced. Was preserving the human imperfections of the recordings important to the identity of the project?

Absolutely. We had discussions early and often about this with our producer Jack Younger. Jack really wanted to capture the energy of the band live and we think he did a great job with that. And yes, we kept some mistakes in there on purpose. The tracks were recorded with the band set up live, and the vocals were really the only over-dubs. It's also important to us that our songs translate to the stage in a way thats faithful to the recordings.

If someone discovers Jenny X through The Right Side, what do you hope they understand first, the energy of the band, the honesty in the writing, or the people behind the songs themselves?

For us, it's all about the song and getting the feel right. Hopefully, this is what grabs folks up front. To the extent that people want to delve into the lyrical meaning, that's cool too. One of the things that makes this band work internally is the lack of any overbearing egos, so it's more about the collective output of songs rather than the individuals.