Jack Panther titled his 2022 EP with the lyrical query ‘why won’t you come over?’, and his just-released 2025 follow up EP follows suit with the even more curious title, ‘when i’m feeling better we could dream together’. These days based in London, the self-described queer alt-pop artist talked with Ella Glannaz about the songwriting and inspiration behind this four-track EP, carefully crafted over the past three years. 

‘when i’m feeling better we could dream together’ is the new anthemic, honest, and hook-filled EP from alt-pop Kiwi artist Jack Anderson, aka Jack Panther. After a year-long period of focusing on making new music 2024 saw Jack sell out his first UK headline show in London. With plans this year for a debut international tour including shows in Auckland and Melbourne, he definitely does look to be feeling better.

“When I first started making the project in New Zealand I really tried to give an uplifting feel to the first three songs I made, because I just couldn’t take it writing something sad. We had just came out of the Covid lockdown, I didn’t want to listen to sad music and I couldn’t write sad music!” 

This new take gives Jack’s latest EP a whole new perspective, with a feeling of hope and optimism emerging amongst his typically lovelorn lyrical poetry.

“The songs and their lyrics in this project definitely came from a deeper place, and referenced what I was actually going through. I tried to make it feel current, uplifting and empowering, but still really honest.

“When I wrote each track I kind of said it in real time. I didn’t write it in a diary or anything, it was often things that just came out as we were recording and writing in the studio.”

The title of the EP came from a moment of vulnerability, as he explains.

“When I was in lockdown I was seeing someone and I didn’t know if our relationship was going to survive it. As a lot of people did, I got really unwell mentally during this time, I wanted to have faith and hope in the future but I just didn’t. I had a dream about him and I was really shitty at him in the dream and he hadn’t done anything!”

From this situation ‘when i’m feeling better we could dream together’ was born, referring to finding yourself in a good place and being able to dream with somebody instead of against them. Released in September 2024 Changes is the first track on the EP, Jack describing it as euphoric.

“We wrote it in the studio on the day. It was with Tarn (PK), who I’ve worked closely with for a very long time, and Will (McGillivray), who I worked with on Breathe. I brought them together in a session at Big Fan to see what would happen, and we made Changes. I loved making that!

“I’m definitely an artist that knows what they want in the studio and it just came off the top of my head. They were like, ‘What are you going through?’ And I was about to move countries to the other side of the world. Leave it all behind and start fresh. And I didn’t know how to be excited about that because at the same time, it’s so hard. But we found a great in-between. It feels so good. There’s a sort of euphoric feeling and realising that actually, if I were to stay in New Zealand, everything will change anyway because nothing stays the same.

“It was the same with Why Won’t We. It was a session, just Tarn and I, and we made the chorus together, we just had this chord progression on loop, which became the chorus. He sang something which was part A and I sang something which is part B. We came up with both at completely different times in our own heads and when we meshed it together it just felt so right.”

For the artist each song on his EP has its own world. It’s something Jack was able to harness even with Just a Dog featuring as a part 2 / continued story to Why Won’t We.

“The reason why the EP has four songs and three singles is because I wanted to let them all have their own time, they each have their own direction and meaning. Even down to the lyrics, they are so different and I wanted to create a world within that.”

The EP cover was shot by Connor Lambert, a long time collaborator.

“He’s been with me for years and he’s just so great to work with. I think he’s one of the best. It just felt right for me to use the same photo across the singles, the same era. I really wanted to double down, quadruple down on the honest, raw world it lives in.”

The music video for Changes was filmed by upcoming director Shyam Patel and features the dramatic Seven Sisters Cliffs in Eastbourne, UK. Selected for NZ On Air funding, Why Won’t We is accompanied by a cinematic video shot in Paris by award-winning director David J East, best known for his work with Foals (NME’s Best Video 2022), that captures the song’s moody intensity. Some other differences between the music scene in Aotearoa and his new home in London haven’t been quite as rewarding, as Jack notes.

“When you’re moving to a new market you’ve got to be willing to understand that you are in a sense starting from scratch. I think something I found quite jarring was the lack of support for independent artists here. I underestimated that I would have to start fresh! But I’m still figuring it out I think, day by day.

“Something I am really grateful for in NZ is that people have a lot of time for independent artists, and a lot of time for just developing artists and people new to the scene, everyone is always keen to help out.”

Jack Panther is taking his new EP on the road over March and April, celebrating its release with a headlining tour with shows in London, Melbourne, and Auckland, his first time home in two years. 

“I’m really excited for the shows. The practices have been going great. I want to create more of a cinematic experience within the show. I want it to feel like things go into each other instead of song by song. I’m really excited about that.”