NEW SINGLE: Ruby Jones 'Nightwalker' + Upcoming Album Souvenir

Naarm/Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Ruby Jones returns with her powerful new single ‘Nightwalker’, out Wednesday 18 March, alongside the opening of pre-orders for her forthcoming album Souvenir, due for release Wednesday 6 May 2026 via Bandcamp.

‘Nightwalker’ follows her previous singles ‘Not Mine’ and 'Bad Ideas', lush desert-country psychedelia that offered first glimpses of Souvenir’s expansive sonic palette and emotional depth. What began as a late-night demo that captured the quiet unease and isolation of the time, 'Nightwalker is inspired by the supernatural mythology of the cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

“I wrote Nightwalker during Melbourne’s lockdown, when everything felt chaotic and slightly haunted,” Ruby says. “I was rewatching Buffy, and the idea of a town built over a hellmouth really stayed with me. It felt like my own community was sitting on something volatile, too. The song uses horror imagery as a metaphor for collective grief and isolation, but at its core, it’s about calling your friends back into the light.”

'The track leans into that supernatural imagery and explores the fear of losing the people you love to something unseen. Yet despite its darkness, the song ultimately moves toward release and connection, “I hope it feels freeing and cathartic,” Ruby says. “It’s about darkness, but it’s not meant to sit in it; it’s meant to move through it. I want people to dance, shake it out, and let loose, and by the end feel like they’ve released something and walked away lighter.”

The upcoming record continues the poetic and emotionally raw songwriting that defined Ruby’s acclaimed 2021 debut, The Woman Who Loves You. That release earned high rotation on Double J, a sold-out launch at The Curtin, and runner-up honours in the Darebin FUSE Songwriters Award, cementing her reputation as one of Australia’s most compelling and respected voices. As a former member of Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Ruby has also been recognised with an Upstart Music Awards win and was shortlisted for the International Songwriting Competition in 2025, affirming her reputation as a songwriter of rare depth and vision.

Across Souvenir, Ruby explores themes of intergenerational trauma, climate grief and rebirth, weaving them through sweeping arrangements and vivid lyrical imagery. It's a deeply reflective body of work shaped by themes of climate change, environmental destruction, and collective resilience. The songs were influenced by Jones’ experience of the 2019 East Gippsland bushfires, which devastated the landscape where her family is based, and carry a quiet sense of grief, longing, and determination to hold onto what remains.

Souvenir signifies a bold creative leap, drawing its sonic palette from diverse influences: the ethereal sounds of Stevie Nicks and Florence Welch, the expansive instrumentation of Bruce Springsteen, the raw emotion of Angie McMahon, and The War on Drugs' atmospheric drive.

The album’s title track, ‘Souvenir’, was written in lockdown while watching aeroplanes; the song contrasts the inability to leave home with the memory of constant touring. The stillness softened the past's highs and lows. ‘Feeling of Falling’ reframes the pandemic as a toxic lover interested only in a fleeting romance. ‘Not Mine’ was recorded using vintage 1970s tape machines for its warm, cinematic sound. Beneath its cosmic-country texture, the song explores the quiet heartbreak of letting go of an "almost-love" that existed more in dreams than in reality. ‘On Fire’ was born after the 2019 Black Summer bushfires; the song reflects on creating music during a climate catastrophe. ‘Double Feature’, a love letter to St Kilda, is inspired by sorting through childhood photos. It's filled with local references and is meant to be a musical postcard from the past.

Moving into the second half of the album, ‘Falling Stars’ addresses the fragile nature of creative work and the moments of doubt that lead to questioning everything. ‘Bad Idea’ is the upbeat desert-country psychedelia anthem grappling with Catholic guilt, repression, and internal battles. ‘Breaking My Own Heart’ was inspired by watching friends remain in toxic relationships. The song reflects on the helplessness of witnessing loved ones repeatedly hurt themselves and the quiet hope that they will eventually choose themselves. ‘Loved By You’ is about the desire to distance oneself from a painful moment, allowing time for the memory to soften enough to look at again. The album’s closer, ‘Ghost Story’, is a fictional, one-sided conversation with an estranged person who lingers like a ghost. Writing the song was an attempt to exorcise that presence, or learn to live alongside it, a process connected to sobriety, therapy, and music. It ends the record by acknowledging the ghosts we carry and learning to "sing them to sleep."

A truly independent project, Souvenir was a collaborative effort, with production led by Jones’ long-time guitarist Jules Pascoe, engineered by drummer Selwyn Cozens, and arrangements developed collectively by Jones, Cozens, Joel Loukes, and Pascoe. The record's intricate yet organic sound is further enhanced by the beautiful backing vocals of Jess Deluca and Loretta Miller, and mastered by Matt Redlich.

Rapture, rebirth, and kaleidoscopic desert dreamscapes with Souvenir, Ruby Jones steps into a new creative era, ready to commune with the ghosts of her past.

'Night Walker' out Wednesday 18 March via Xelon: xelon.ffm.to/nightwalker 
Album: Souvenir out Wednesday 6 May 2026
 Pre-orders: Available now via Bandcamp