Matty Healy sings on this fragile and poignant track about the death of his maternal grandma, Annie, reminiscing on their times together. He wishes she could just walk into the room again, so that he could tell his nana about all the events that have happened since she passed away.
Like the other songs on I Like It When You Sleep, this was mainly written by Healy and drummer George Daniel. Healy said: "The vocabulary that George and I share is unspoken, it's like shorthand. There is a bit in 'Nana' where it all stops, and I remember George saying, 'Let's just put a memory in there; let's just have it open up and your vocal can become distant and you can put a memory in there' and I was like: 'F---ing hell.'"
Matty Healy's mother is actress and TV presenter Denise Welch. She talked about the song during the Tracks Of My Years segment of Ken Bruce's BBC Radio 2 show. Welch explained that Matty was her mum's first grandchild and they had a very close bond. "He was devastated when she died," she said. "He has a tattoo - I don't like tattoos, but I'll allow that one - on his chest that says 'Annie'. He wrote this song called 'Nana' about losing her."
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