Sometimes the smallest details–like packing tape or a familiar street–carry the heaviest emotional weight
We caught up with disarmingly down-to-earth Ewan Jackson on a rainy morning, and it quickly became clear his new EP, The World From Here, is all about perspective–of places, relationships, and the little moments that stick with you.
Between chats about home, nostalgia, and the everyday stuff that sparks a song, Jackson offered a glimpse into how these six tracks came together, capturing both personal highs and quiet reckonings.
It’s reflective without being heavy-handed, intimate but still wide enough for anyone who’s ever felt caught between where they are and where they’ve been.
HAPPY: What’d you get up to today?
EWAN: It’s been raining a lot so I had a lazy morning with my partner before sitting down to do some writing.
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
EWAN: I was born in Auckland, New Zealand and lived there until I was about 12 when my family moved to the UK, but Auckland’s always felt like my home, even though I’ve spent half my life somewhere else.
Because I left quite young, I think I associate NZ with all the family I have there, which means it feels so safe. There’s always that feeling of wanting to go home and I feel so at peace whenever I get the chance to go back.
HAPPY: ‘The World From Here’ serves as the EP’s title. What about this song felt like it encapsulated the entire project’s essence?
EWAN: In the song, ‘The World From Here’ is repeated a few times and each time, it’s talking about a different way to see the world. The first time, I’m referring physically to my old room in London. It was on the 3rd floor and I could see so much everyday life through the window that it made me think about different perspectives on life.
Sometimes you can be physically high up and see a lot of the world, other times you can be emotionally high or low and it can change how everything appears. There’s a lot of shifting perspectives throughout the EP and using ‘The World From Here” felt like a short way of telling the listener that this is how things looked to me from the angles I could see, at the time.
HAPPY: The title ‘Give Up?’ ends with a question mark. Is the song more about the temptation to surrender, or the resolve to push through a difficult feeling?
EWAN: To me, it’s about questioning where and when to fight for something. Sometimes endings are a good thing, but in the moment, I felt like I was losing and I think I wrote this when I started to appreciate that you can give up on what’s not good for you without feeling like you’ve failed.
HAPPY: ‘Camperdown’ is a place in Sydney. Does this song use a specific location as a way to anchor a memory, and how important is a sense of place in your writing?
EWAN: Yeah ‘Camperdown’ is a song I wrote about an experience attached to that suburb and I was writing it from London when I hadn’t been there in years so I was coming at it from a very nostalgic point of view.
I think a lot of what I write is about nostalgia in some way or another so I always look back to where I was physically when I’m writing about how I was feeling.
It also helps to set the scene, especially in that song. I’m talking about some pretty big ideas of love, loss and existence in this song so I wanted it to start somewhere grounded to give the listener something to relate to before getting existential.
HAPPY: ‘Packing Tape’ is such an evocative, mundane image. Does the song use the act of packing, or unpacking, as a metaphor for processing the end of a relationship?
EWAN: Yeah, again, a lot of what I write starts from a physical, kind of boring place because otherwise I feel like all the other more intense emotions will kind of seem ridiculous if there’s nothing to build up from.
I was going through a break up at the time and I had to pack up our room that we had shared, on my own, which sent me into a whole big process of mentally packing up that phase of my life while physically having to go through and separate our belongings.
HAPPY: The phrase ‘Watering The Feeling”’suggests nurturing an emotion, perhaps even a painful one. Is this song about the choice to sit with and understand a feeling rather than trying to move on from it immediately?
EWAN: I think lyrics can mean such different things when taken out of context of the song. The full line in the song is “If I’m watering the feeling down, I hope that trying kinda makes you proud” which was me kind of addressing all the relationships that the song is about.
Saying to people I love and have loved, that I’d never be able to describe missing them as eloquently as I’d like, but I hope that knowing I think about it enough to try and write it down would mean something to them.
But when you take “Watering The Feeling” on its own, it does sound like I’m talking about caring for an emotion, which I suppose I am! I just didn’t quite know it at the time.
HAPPY: The final track, ‘The Mess That We Made,’ has a sense of shared responsibility. Does the song point towards a sense of acceptance, and maybe even a fondness, for the chaos that a relationship can create?
EWAN: Relationships always have a shared responsibility for the good and the bad. I was thinking about isolation from people and the world during one of the lockdowns in London and I wrote about both things in this song.
I’m talking about missing someone specifically, and then also worrying about the world at large. Both things can feel so overwhelming and isolating and I think a common reaction to that is to feel like you’re the only person that feels that way. That’s why the last half of the song is me asking “Will I see you there?” over and over again.
I’m asking if someone specific felt the same pain I did at the time, and also appreciating that everyone was feeling that in one way or another. Everyone was kind of stuck alone and together.
HAPPY: Looking back at the entire journey of this EP, from writing in your flat to holding the physical vinyl, what is the most resonant “shift in perspective” you’ve experienced yourself through creating it?
EWAN: Some of these songs were written when I was barely 22 and I’m 27 now. It’s only 6 songs but they were written across 3 years and recorded and released in different countries so it feels like I’ve been working on this in one way or another, since I left Uni until now and now I’m approaching 30.
The EP’s ended up being a snapshot of my life experience during my 20s and it just feels like I’ve grown up a lot during that time. Holding the physical vinyl feels like a real accomplishment.
Sometimes releasing music digitally has felt like there’s not much to show for the amount of hours spent writing and recording but getting to hold something I’ve made has given me a real sense of pride in what I’ve done.
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happy?
EWAN: Going home! I’m a quiet person and I love to be comfortable. My partner always says that I love everything from my childhood like food or places I used to go so I think I have a real fondness for familiarity and routine.
Spending time with my family in New Zealand is probably where I’m happiest.
