Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Joe Levy Okay. Our guests on this
Speaker 1: week's home edition of the show is Jade Bird, the
Speaker 1: British singers, songwriter, rocker, pop singer. She's also kind of
Speaker 1: in America, you know what. She's a lot of different
Speaker 1: things at once, and one of them is terrifically talented.
Speaker 1: And we started the home edition of the show to
Speaker 1: let you know how the pandemic has impacted the lives
Speaker 1: of artists and Jade recorded her new single, head Start,
Speaker 1: as well as her upcoming album in Nashville this last summer,
Speaker 1: just a few months ago. As she told our Quarantine
Speaker 1: correspondent Jordan runt Hog, she had to go to Mexico
Speaker 1: City to isolate for two weeks before going to Nashville,
Speaker 1: except I think she was in Upstate New York before that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But when
Speaker 1: the music is this good, what else can you say?
Speaker 1: It's apt? Thank you. She also talked with Jordan about
Speaker 1: what it was like to be on stage at the
Speaker 1: Newport Folk Festival last year with Dolly Parton, Cheryl Crow,
Speaker 1: Marion Morris, Linda Perry, Brandy Carlyle, no big deal, just
Speaker 1: a bunch of icons and her as always. If you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts. It's called Rivals Music's
Speaker 1: Greatest Feuds, and it's available wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, my name is Jordan run Todd, but enough
Speaker 1: about me. My guest today is a singer songwriter from
Speaker 1: the UK who's so talented that it's really quite scary.
Speaker 1: She has one of my favorite voices on the scene today,
Speaker 1: perfect for conveying both full throated and sndiary rock and
Speaker 1: roll and delicate country tinged folk. Her songs brim with
Speaker 1: wit and maturity, not to mention irresistible melodies. In two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, she released her self titled debut, which boasted
Speaker 1: adult alternative hits like a Lot, Uh huh and I
Speaker 1: Get No Joy. Earlier this year, she went down to
Speaker 1: Nashville to record her second LP, which is on the
Speaker 1: way soon. Fairs were treated to a taste with her
Speaker 1: new single, head Start, which is out. Now. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk about new music, old favorites, and everything in between.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to welcome Jade Bird Na Absolutely anytime. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great to talk to you too. Your new single
Speaker 1: Headstart is incredible. I've been humming it all day. It's
Speaker 1: about when your crush just isn't picking up on your hands.
Speaker 1: Tell me more about that song. Where did that come from?
Speaker 1: So it's interesting. I'm actually I've kind of started writing
Speaker 1: again because the second record is finished, and I was
Speaker 1: just going through my old book that I was like
Speaker 1: writing the whole record in, and the first page it's like,
Speaker 1: got head start on it. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: in a way, there was two tracks that the first
Speaker 1: two singles were the two tracks that really opened the
Speaker 1: door for this next record, And I think head Start
Speaker 1: was kind of less about a specific event or context
Speaker 1: and probably more about the opening of the clouds in
Speaker 1: terms of like I was getting back into the you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I was sort of getting back
Speaker 1: out there and writing again for me. So I think
Speaker 1: Headstart is more of a mantra into the new year
Speaker 1: for me. But as you said, in more literal sense,
Speaker 1: it's like you don't love me and I love you
Speaker 1: so well. Then you mentioned your second single, Houdini, which
Speaker 1: is supposing it's the flip side in a sort of
Speaker 1: in a way, it's like kind of the end of
Speaker 1: a relationship at a time when love sort of disappears
Speaker 1: and vanishes, which I thought was an amazing metaphor what
Speaker 1: does that song mean for you? Houdini is far the
Speaker 1: more in depth one. That's kind of why I chose
Speaker 1: to do the one too, because you know you have that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to give a bit of energy and ject
Speaker 1: a bit of Catharsis into the first single, and then
Speaker 1: the second one is very personal. Um. So I started
Speaker 1: writing it. There was basically I was in a study
Speaker 1: and this airbnb study and upstate New York, and there
Speaker 1: was this a little framed picture of like a headless,
Speaker 1: upside down red figure, and it really cottoned onto like
Speaker 1: Hoodini for me. I just reading a book about him before,
Speaker 1: and I just really it was in the ether of
Speaker 1: my brain. Um and yeah, I started writing, and the
Speaker 1: first lyrics as a quarter to three, it's clear clear
Speaker 1: to me that you're leaving, and all the things in
Speaker 1: the first verse relate to this kind of It was
Speaker 1: a bit of a shouting match. When I was younger,
Speaker 1: I was a bit of a you know, part of
Speaker 1: in a way, uh, and the context of the course,
Speaker 1: and the Houdini element is representative of a lot of
Speaker 1: male figures in my life, leaving and coming back, and
Speaker 1: leaving and coming back and just having no control over
Speaker 1: that whatsoever. And I think I started, you know, the
Speaker 1: first writing trip writing that it was like a closure
Speaker 1: on the past. It was like, you know, here it is,
Speaker 1: here's what I want to say, and I and it
Speaker 1: was like, really cathartic to get that out. I was
Speaker 1: going to say one of my favorite songs of yours,
Speaker 1: as Love has All been Done Before, which which sounds
Speaker 1: so fierce musically but but lyrically has a sense of
Speaker 1: love is doomed, Everything is doomed. And I was wondering
Speaker 1: if you'd change your mind a bit, And I guess
Speaker 1: do Houdini kind of answers my question a little bit. No,
Speaker 1: You're actually spot on in the other way. I've really
Speaker 1: changed my mind this past couple of years in terms
Speaker 1: of I've been in a really stable relationship with with
Speaker 1: someone who I really admire and respect, and and I
Speaker 1: was really worried about it falling apart because of my family.
Speaker 1: It's bad luck with the relationships, you know, two generations
Speaker 1: of divorce you know, it's not it's not looking good. Um,
Speaker 1: so love has all been done before. Was kind of
Speaker 1: like a way of being like, this is never gonna work.
Speaker 1: I need to live my own life. It was quite
Speaker 1: self driven. And you know, since the pandemic especially, I
Speaker 1: feel like I've learned well. I certainly seem to care
Speaker 1: about others a bit more. I can see other's a
Speaker 1: bit more. You know, it's not so self focused. It's
Speaker 1: not so self driven this journey. So I'm really happy
Speaker 1: about that. I'm really happy I got to do that
Speaker 1: so early on. Now this new album, you went down
Speaker 1: to Nashville, home of so much music that I know
Speaker 1: is so important to you, Dolly Parton Lorella ly in
Speaker 1: the Civil Wars. What was it like to be there
Speaker 1: and be surrounded by this energy and what sort of
Speaker 1: walk in those footsteps? Had you been there before? Yes,
Speaker 1: I've spent a lot of time in Nashville, but never
Speaker 1: with Dave Cobbs. So he was the guy who produced
Speaker 1: this whole record. Um, and just a little guy knows
Speaker 1: he you know, did the Brandy Carlisle by the way,
Speaker 1: I give you Chris s Tableton, I mean, he's he's
Speaker 1: done it in that world. Ah, he's just a hero. Um.
Speaker 1: So I went up there and like, literally, you get
Speaker 1: into our CEO studios where we were recorded. I know,
Speaker 1: I know, it's ridiculous, and you're sort of it's I mean,
Speaker 1: just on parallel the history I've never you know, Dolly Elvis,
Speaker 1: you're talking the big guys, the big hits. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we we we get in and we record everything live
Speaker 1: sort of in one room. Basically, I'm in a vocal
Speaker 1: booth and all the musicians room one room, and I
Speaker 1: played them the song and the many songs, and we
Speaker 1: went through sixteen songs. I just played it out on
Speaker 1: the acoustic and I swear to god, like they pick
Speaker 1: it up so quick. They're just like yeah, cool, great, awesome,
Speaker 1: and then and they do it, and then you do
Speaker 1: it literally no more than three times, and then you've
Speaker 1: got the pretty much the take of everybody. It's wild.
Speaker 1: Those those national sess and folks are are insane or
Speaker 1: quickly get there and you recorded all those tracks live,
Speaker 1: I mean pretty much. Yeah, I mean live live in
Speaker 1: the sense that, yeah, the takes that we got, especially
Speaker 1: Houdini Judini was pretty much everything you hear was played simultaneously,
Speaker 1: which you know is live. I guess in a in
Speaker 1: a kind of nerdy way of breaking it down. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was all done. You know, there was
Speaker 1: some overdubs, but the core of every song was done
Speaker 1: done live with each other. What was it like working
Speaker 1: with Dave car What did he bring to the bring
Speaker 1: to the table. He brought a lot of surprises. He's
Speaker 1: got quite even though it's from Georgia, he's got quite
Speaker 1: a British grounded way of working. You know, it's very
Speaker 1: much like get to work kind of we're all we're
Speaker 1: all in listen to do our jobs, which is very
Speaker 1: very British um. But for me specifically, he brought like respect.
Speaker 1: So me and my partner went really close to other
Speaker 1: and he's my guitarist and he treated us as equals, which,
Speaker 1: as you know, if you know you have a partner,
Speaker 1: it's really important someone sees you like that. And creatively
Speaker 1: it's even more important because you're trying it. This is
Speaker 1: a combined vision that you're trying to get through. So
Speaker 1: I think because David worked with you know, Jason Isabel
Speaker 1: and a Man of Shots or Chris Stapleton and Organ Stapleton,
Speaker 1: I think he really saw us as one unit and
Speaker 1: got the best out of us in that way. So yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's really really, really really special. Did you get
Speaker 1: to explore much in in Nashville or Tennessee when you
Speaker 1: were down there city operator stuff or was it still
Speaker 1: in heavy lockdown mode, really heavy lockdown, like really heavy lockdown.
Speaker 1: So when I when it was what mid summer kind
Speaker 1: of time, Um, so things were really in the thick
Speaker 1: of it. And before I went to Nashville, actually I
Speaker 1: was in Mexico City because I had to quarantine for
Speaker 1: two weeks. I don't know how this works, by the way,
Speaker 1: the American government just casually like yeah, yeah, go to
Speaker 1: a new city and quarantine and it will be you
Speaker 1: were way safer. So we did that and I ended
Speaker 1: up writing a lot of tracks for the album there
Speaker 1: as well. Oh wow, that's I mean, it's it's so fastating.
Speaker 1: What is it about music from from this part of
Speaker 1: the world, the American stuff that that speaks to you
Speaker 1: so deeply? Why it's really interesting. I was listening to
Speaker 1: a podcast I think it's Dolly Partner's American This America
Speaker 1: or This American. Do you know Dolly Partners America. It's
Speaker 1: an incredible podcast. It's literally just phenomenal. And I think
Speaker 1: what's phenomenal is the universal feeling from American artists or
Speaker 1: Southern artists in terms of I think when you come
Speaker 1: from quite humble beginnings, either with your family or your situation,
Speaker 1: I think there's some sort of sense of community in
Speaker 1: songwriting for that. You know, I think it's very rare
Speaker 1: you'll meet an artist or you know, real true artist
Speaker 1: who hasn't probably been through something I find to give
Speaker 1: their music that depth. But maybe that's a cliche. Just
Speaker 1: certainly who I have noticed ice around myself with or
Speaker 1: you know, who I'm d of who I love, artists
Speaker 1: I love so Loretta Len is a great example that
Speaker 1: coal miner's daughter and her background. It definitely adds a
Speaker 1: death to her music that you just feel, even if
Speaker 1: it's not in the lyrics, you can just sense it
Speaker 1: from it. Oh my god. Absolutely, And I think you
Speaker 1: know what was so interesting for me was knowing that,
Speaker 1: you know, they have that incredible musician. The name escapes
Speaker 1: me right now. Literally just listened to it last night,
Speaker 1: but she talks about the banjo and its history in
Speaker 1: you know, Africa and how you know slavery. Basically what
Speaker 1: brought bluegrass music to America, and it's now so like
Speaker 1: focused as like you know, country music. You know, it's
Speaker 1: sort of like quite conservative white music, and it just
Speaker 1: wasn't the start at all of that music. I found
Speaker 1: that so fascinating, um, you know, because I think music
Speaker 1: community is just it kind of overshadows any sort of
Speaker 1: you know, anti diverse kind of behavioral mentality. You know,
Speaker 1: it's the joy of it. We all go through the
Speaker 1: same things, the same emotions were all literally human being,
Speaker 1: so and a cross pollination just musically is so strong
Speaker 1: throughout the world. As you said, yeah, absolutely, I was
Speaker 1: good slack about that. It's funny, my, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've experienced this. My my father growing up, he
Speaker 1: never stopped listening to new music. So I grew up
Speaker 1: with him playing Jagged Little Pill or Tory Amos or
Speaker 1: Liz Fair and Nirvana and stuff, which was, you know,
Speaker 1: looking back on it was great. But I discovered the
Speaker 1: music that I really love, which I guess a lot
Speaker 1: of people call oldies like Little Richard and Chuck Berry
Speaker 1: and people like that. I had to discover that on
Speaker 1: my own. And I feel like because I found it
Speaker 1: on my own, I had this sense of ownership over it.
Speaker 1: To me, it felt like it was mine. Was that
Speaker 1: the case for you, because I know growing up your
Speaker 1: parents played a lot of like Chemical Brothers and Prodigy
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Do you feel that way with
Speaker 1: this type of music, like because you sought it out,
Speaker 1: it belongs more to you as opposed to the parents
Speaker 1: who kind of like would show it to their kids more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're so right there, you know. Although I
Speaker 1: love the fact that your dad in Trustori a most
Speaker 1: that's so that's amazing, way better taste of music than
Speaker 1: I do, so amazing. But yeah, I think I think
Speaker 1: when you're young, you want to know what cool is.
Speaker 1: And I think I always had this suspicion that sort
Speaker 1: of what my friends thought was cool. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not cool. I don't think that's true,
Speaker 1: you know. I think I think because when you're thirteen
Speaker 1: years old, that's all you're basically looking for. You want
Speaker 1: to know, like what's really cool. It's kind of as
Speaker 1: simple as that. And I think that means like what
Speaker 1: feels good to you. And I remember listening to actually
Speaker 1: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Massie Star through a family
Speaker 1: friend and going like, oh, this is really I felt
Speaker 1: it was really cool, and I think, well I felt
Speaker 1: with that was like I had a connection with it.
Speaker 1: And then I started to sort of look into blues
Speaker 1: a lot more because of a motorcycle club and a
Speaker 1: lot of them rockier bands. I mean they literally rip
Speaker 1: a lot of blues kind of structures off, and then
Speaker 1: I sort of ended up finding like sun House and
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. And You're so right, it became
Speaker 1: my music. It became Michael and my identity, um and
Speaker 1: followed me, you know, gigging in blues bars right the
Speaker 1: way up until I was probably eighteen and started to
Speaker 1: change taste a little bit again. Well, speaking of core,
Speaker 1: you performed with Dolly herself along with Brandy Carlisle. How
Speaker 1: was that for you? Yeah? It was absolutely like it
Speaker 1: was like a different other worldly experience them situation as
Speaker 1: you sit there and you just go wow, because I
Speaker 1: remember Dolly like comes up in a yellow canary suit,
Speaker 1: like literally canary yellow suits sorry, sequented up to the
Speaker 1: nine so a big wagon wheel on the back, and
Speaker 1: I'm just going like what you know what She's like, Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? You know? And I like go
Speaker 1: and like try and shake her hand, and she shakes
Speaker 1: everyone's hand on the stage and I sort of mess
Speaker 1: up and then we're sort of like, you know, doing
Speaker 1: a bit hand tickle and it's so awkward and I
Speaker 1: want to die and I'm just yeah, it was She's
Speaker 1: full Dolly. She's going full Dolly right from the ste
Speaker 1: She didn't even blink like I missed her hand and
Speaker 1: I was like, she was just like, oh, great, you
Speaker 1: know lovely to me. Yeah, if you do. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I've just ruined everything. But I know
Speaker 1: I knew Dolly because Linda Perry or so I got
Speaker 1: to sing with that weekend and we've we've been since
Speaker 1: worked together and so I sort of knew the connection
Speaker 1: there as well. I remember seeing like Brandy sing I
Speaker 1: Will Always Love You with Dolly and I think Linda
Speaker 1: was playing piano. I think I'm trying to ditch into
Speaker 1: my mind, but yes, lineup. Yeah, Brandy is just like
Speaker 1: my biggest inspiration at the minute. The way she got
Speaker 1: kind of she really hit her stride. Six albums in
Speaker 1: almost you know, or at least got successful, got such
Speaker 1: a masterpiece of a record, six albums in like that
Speaker 1: work ethic, I can't. I don't know anyone who competes
Speaker 1: with that nowadays. Well, your work ethic is just absolutely incredible,
Speaker 1: to mean, you make the rest of us look bad.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, I think you've said that you tried to
Speaker 1: write a song a day for a time. Do you
Speaker 1: still try to keep that clip? A lot has changed
Speaker 1: in that respect, so I used to. I think it's
Speaker 1: that ten thousand hours theory by you know, Malcolm Glad
Speaker 1: is that kind of thing. That's what I was doing
Speaker 1: when I was young, whether I knew it or not,
Speaker 1: I was getting them ten thousand hours in. I feel
Speaker 1: the difference with this. Now. I feel like I am
Speaker 1: a writer and I feel like I can say I
Speaker 1: am an artist. And on my first record, I never
Speaker 1: felt I could really earned I felt like I hadn't
Speaker 1: earned that um and so that's why I was doing
Speaker 1: all the graft. But now I do take a minute sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, Like when I was writing in January for
Speaker 1: this record, I hadn't written in like two months properly.
Speaker 1: So I just I want to be careful, you know,
Speaker 1: not to make people feel like because you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, hyper production guilt kind of that all bleeds
Speaker 1: into one so yeah, I am taking more of a
Speaker 1: minute now. I feel like I've got my voice and
Speaker 1: my tone, if that makes sense, to live a little
Speaker 1: bit and see do the best songs come quickly? You feel? Always? Yeah, yeah, always.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think if there's an exception, because oh,
Speaker 1: there was one song I did about I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe six versions of um that ended up not making
Speaker 1: cut the cut for the record, but I really want
Speaker 1: to give to someone. It's a piano record, So there
Speaker 1: are exceptions to that. But you know, Headstart didn't take me.
Speaker 1: I wrote versions of that as well, but I just
Speaker 1: seemed to be disproving my theory instead of actually instead
Speaker 1: of actually giving my answer any backup. So who knows?
Speaker 1: Are you superstitious at all when you're writing? Is it
Speaker 1: like a special place you always want to sit, or
Speaker 1: an instrument you always want to use, or even just
Speaker 1: like a time of day, or is it just whenever wherever? Now,
Speaker 1: My my old producer was like, dude, she's just a
Speaker 1: superstitious freak. She can write anywhere. I was like, that's hilarious,
Speaker 1: because I space see there was one studio I wrote
Speaker 1: Lottery in our her and there was one place and
Speaker 1: I was like, if it's not available, I can't, I
Speaker 1: can't write, you know, and he was like, dude, you know,
Speaker 1: get a grip. And then I literally went to a
Speaker 1: shed down the road, literally walk down the road and
Speaker 1: ended up wearing everything for this record. And then Mexico.
Speaker 1: You know, it's still like I've ever been to Mexico
Speaker 1: see and written anything in an apartment before. So again,
Speaker 1: this was the album of disproving a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of superstitions, but in general, oh my goodness, I'm
Speaker 1: just so superstitious. Well yeah, maybe I mean just getting
Speaker 1: fresh perspective, fresh places, fresh experiences. Maybe that that primes
Speaker 1: the pomp Yea especially. I think I think there was
Speaker 1: something about the air there. There was kind of in
Speaker 1: the vicinity. It was really triggering a lot of my
Speaker 1: British kind of nineties rock influences in Mexico. I can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, who knows why. Um, sometimes it just happens.
Speaker 1: But like the Smith's was coming out a lot of p. J.
Speaker 1: Harvey and and kind of Cocktau Twins and all of
Speaker 1: that was truly channeling and even if it Bruce Brinstein, well,
Speaker 1: there's like street musicians outside the balcony every day. They'd
Speaker 1: be like playing trumpet or like you know, the sacks,
Speaker 1: and you'd hear them and it would be so weird
Speaker 1: and wacky and wonderful. Talking to people who are are
Speaker 1: blessed with the ability to write music, I'm always so
Speaker 1: curious how much does the audience factor into your urge
Speaker 1: to write. Do you write as a way to communicate
Speaker 1: with other people, or do you right to get that
Speaker 1: feeling out of you, Like if you're on a desert island,
Speaker 1: would you still right every day or as often? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's That's That's why you are who you are. That's
Speaker 1: why your occupation is your occupation, I think because it's
Speaker 1: not like you just do it for because you have to.
Speaker 1: It's like if you sit in lockdown for two months,
Speaker 1: you'll write a song, you know you will get out
Speaker 1: of that, or six months or eight months, you'll get
Speaker 1: out of that and you'll write again. That's because you're
Speaker 1: a writer and you'll always be there. And that's the
Speaker 1: one thing I've learned in this experience is like I
Speaker 1: feel like you can own that title now and and
Speaker 1: and feel a bit more confident in the sense if
Speaker 1: I don't write every day, I'm still a writer, you know,
Speaker 1: although I believe that work is important. Have you been
Speaker 1: coping with with lockdown? I know the last couple of
Speaker 1: months and it has been been tough on everybody. Have
Speaker 1: you been feeling Yeah, I mean, as you probably know,
Speaker 1: we're all we're all in the same boat together. I
Speaker 1: at the beginning is really up and down. I'm quite
Speaker 1: a binary person in the sense about either on on
Speaker 1: on on on or like off, you know, so, and
Speaker 1: that's in everything I do. My partner just loses his
Speaker 1: mind at it. Um So, I like, this is so
Speaker 1: obsessive of me. But I wrote like a list so
Speaker 1: I'd be like exercise and I put a little spider
Speaker 1: diagram and every time I exercised I had not gone
Speaker 1: off or put a little tally chart and then songs
Speaker 1: and then have one for books read. And I just
Speaker 1: started being like really hyper productive at the beginning. And
Speaker 1: then as you know, you complete, everything goes and then
Speaker 1: you do nothing, um but keep in track of it
Speaker 1: really helped me because you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: I saw this sad thing that was someone who the
Speaker 1: sister really struggled with depression, and they wrote every day
Speaker 1: how we're feeling if it was like up down, not
Speaker 1: so good medium, and they trapped it every day. And
Speaker 1: I think sometimes knowing that you were productive at certain
Speaker 1: point or happier or you know, every life and ups
Speaker 1: and ups and downs in waves, so to speak, seeing
Speaker 1: that sometimes helps you feel a bit better. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: let you know that you'll you'll get there again if
Speaker 1: even if today's not the day, you'll get back there
Speaker 1: at some point you have that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. When
Speaker 1: you were promoting your debut album, which was so personal,
Speaker 1: you said you wanted your next album to look more
Speaker 1: outward and reflect more of of sort of what's going
Speaker 1: on around us in the political climate. Uh, did current
Speaker 1: events impact your writing for this latest batch of songs.
Speaker 1: I think, in a way, a lot of our existence
Speaker 1: right now and this generation is political. Um. I think
Speaker 1: I succeeded in doing what I wanted to do in
Speaker 1: terms of writing of others. I think when you fall
Speaker 1: in love, it automatically allows you to do that because
Speaker 1: it's the maximum extent of empathy. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: really in love with someone, to see them heart would
Speaker 1: just it would be like your child hurting, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's the same kind of like maternal like oh God,
Speaker 1: you know breaks your heart. Um, and so I think
Speaker 1: a lot of this record, you know, seeing someone go
Speaker 1: through anything I was I was trying to. I was
Speaker 1: writing a lot more about that person than than being like,
Speaker 1: you know, what am I going to do with my life?
Speaker 1: You know, I felt like I had enough of that
Speaker 1: by the first record. Also, just characters. There's this one
Speaker 1: song called Punchline on the record and it starts off
Speaker 1: he's walking out, head in his hands and he's too
Speaker 1: drunk to drive. He says out loud, I've been asleep
Speaker 1: at the wheel of my whole damn life, and like
Speaker 1: little vignettes of characters. I was like, oh, I'm really
Speaker 1: on you know, I'm onto a better way of writing here.
Speaker 1: For sure. That's such a great line. It almost sounds
Speaker 1: like an Elvis Costello song to me or something. I
Speaker 1: love that line. Yeah, it's quite Bruce Springsteen inspired as well.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the idea of you know, I
Speaker 1: really had this idea of like a waitress and and
Speaker 1: a and a bloke who's and a relationship and him
Speaker 1: just sort of another lyric is like you know, throwing
Speaker 1: his wed and band out the back of a black Sudan,
Speaker 1: you know, because I was like, I just had it all.
Speaker 1: I had it in my head and it's random because
Speaker 1: I never met met that guy, but now I have
Speaker 1: through my song. You know, it's very cinematic. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: many profiles of you and reviews I've read include the
Speaker 1: Americana tag. What is your relationship to that word? Is
Speaker 1: it accurate? Does it frustrate you? I mean labeling and
Speaker 1: identifying oneself must be infuriating. I'm sure in a lot
Speaker 1: of levels too, But but how do you feel about
Speaker 1: about that? Um? It's only frustrating when it's restrictive. So
Speaker 1: for me being a brit you know, the country thing
Speaker 1: wound me up a little bit because I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know people are going to hear that, and I
Speaker 1: know what they're going to assume. And modern country is
Speaker 1: pretty sheeny and pretty pop. You know, it's basically just
Speaker 1: pop modern country. Like no, I'm not talking old country,
Speaker 1: but I'm talking like, you know that this stuff that
Speaker 1: you is on the radio. Um, And so it's a
Speaker 1: bit I used to get a bit annoyed by that
Speaker 1: because I just felt so derivative. It wasn't it wasn't
Speaker 1: making you. It wasn't didn't have any sort of connection
Speaker 1: with who I actually i'm. When you listen to my music,
Speaker 1: it crosses so many borders genres like it is what
Speaker 1: it is. So that wasny, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So I was a bit it was a bit like
Speaker 1: us lazy journalism. And when you're at the start, sometimes
Speaker 1: pieces matter, you know, because it's the first time people
Speaker 1: are seeing you. But I feel like I've definitely got
Speaker 1: away from that now and and probably you know, the
Speaker 1: company I'm keeping with, people who I love and seem
Speaker 1: to want to support me, I think has helped me
Speaker 1: be myself and be known as myself, you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's strange. I really feel like people are
Speaker 1: much more quick to categorize or label female artists, which
Speaker 1: I've never I've never understood that. And I think of
Speaker 1: people like Bowie or Prince who got all this freedom
Speaker 1: to be and above and just not be constrained and
Speaker 1: be who they are. It's it's very strange. You're so
Speaker 1: correct there. I mean, it's really it's really annoying. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at the Tory Amos media when she
Speaker 1: was out, horrendous, it was horrendous, the things journalists said
Speaker 1: about her, male journalists said about her, And there's this
Speaker 1: really it was so great. I read this book by
Speaker 1: Kim Gordon. She it was her like and she describes
Speaker 1: it in the UK nineties scene as the Queen complex.
Speaker 1: So these guys are so insecure about having a female
Speaker 1: kind of lead ahead of state that they have to just,
Speaker 1: you know, really down every female they're writing about in life.
Speaker 1: And I just absolutely if I got a tattoo, I
Speaker 1: think I just get that because it's just amazing. I
Speaker 1: love all have to say. I love you do a
Speaker 1: Leap A cover of New Rules, by the way, that
Speaker 1: was really wonderful. Yeah, that was definitely a like oh,
Speaker 1: because you know, you've got to do popular covers sometimes too,
Speaker 1: when you're beginning to introduce to new audience. And so
Speaker 1: me and my father are like, right, you on the trumpet,
Speaker 1: I'll play Spanish guitar. You know, we'll get a big
Speaker 1: double bass and we'll we'll do a Julie for tuna,
Speaker 1: if you know what I mean. But I love that.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun right at the beginning. Oh.
Speaker 1: In Atlantis too, I mean, write through You is incredible,
Speaker 1: a damn lyrics. I mean, you look you took a long,
Speaker 1: hard look at my ass and then you played golf
Speaker 1: for a while. I mean, it's just uncanny. I love
Speaker 1: her so much. Have you ever played with her? I
Speaker 1: met her never. But sometimes real heroes like I get
Speaker 1: a bit nervous to like people who like I don't know,
Speaker 1: have directly affected you, like that album did Drug a
Speaker 1: Little Pill. I like to keep them as as deities
Speaker 1: or myths. You know, you know what it's like, Patti Smith,
Speaker 1: I am terrified, a mean patsman. I'm terrified. I mean,
Speaker 1: because she's so amazing. Um, it would actually lose my
Speaker 1: mind some day. Though someday we'll see, we'll see. I
Speaker 1: ran away from her, you know what, when well we
Speaker 1: were there was a there was a festival, I think
Speaker 1: it was All Points Ceased in the UK, and she
Speaker 1: was on maybe After or something like that, and they
Speaker 1: were like, oh wait, you hang out backstage and try
Speaker 1: and no, no way, no run away. What do you
Speaker 1: love to do when when you're not making music? Um?
Speaker 1: I used to read a lot this pandemic, I've not
Speaker 1: been reading as much. Who knows why I listened to
Speaker 1: podcast now, especially when I'm running. You know, I had
Speaker 1: to because you know, when I et a lot of biscuits,
Speaker 1: so like I had to get a few of them.
Speaker 1: Why I was putting on the pounds a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, and you just sort of turned around look
Speaker 1: in the mirror, and you're like, oh, hello, you know,
Speaker 1: there we go. So that I started running and doing
Speaker 1: yoga and all the things you're supposed to do. Recently, um,
Speaker 1: mainly computer games. I really like computer games is something
Speaker 1: that allows my really controlling behavior to switch into something
Speaker 1: you know, or simulation. I basically control little groups of
Speaker 1: people on life. My manager is really concerned about me
Speaker 1: when I do that. But yeah, all the SIMS and
Speaker 1: stuff like SIMS City and the Sims and all of
Speaker 1: oh you name it, like I'm on it. So it's
Speaker 1: my nerdy side of my character. But it's the only
Speaker 1: thing I don't think what I'm doing. So we've all
Speaker 1: got to have something. Has there been a silver lining
Speaker 1: of this time for you? I mean, if you have
Speaker 1: any new hobbies you've picked up or shows you've watched.
Speaker 1: A lot of her family was really silver lining because
Speaker 1: I was away from them constantly for three years basically
Speaker 1: and my mom. I lived with my mom primarily by
Speaker 1: ourselves since I was what like eight months old, so
Speaker 1: I think, and also my grandma. She we moved back
Speaker 1: in with my grandma at seven when my parents divorced,
Speaker 1: and we lived like as a trio of pretty badass women,
Speaker 1: you know, for like, I mean five, five to six years.
Speaker 1: So I think what I was really losing was was
Speaker 1: the relationship with them there because I was growing up
Speaker 1: at the same time as leaving a lot, and I
Speaker 1: got to spend a lot more time appreciating that and
Speaker 1: knowing why my mama is my mom, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and knowing where I came from and etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I read that your mom recently shared a
Speaker 1: note that you had written to yourself as a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old. What was that like? What did you learn
Speaker 1: from your fourteen year old self reading that back? How
Speaker 1: did you find that out? I don't know how you
Speaker 1: found that out? Okay, all right. It was meant to
Speaker 1: be really profound, and I was hoping it would be like,
Speaker 1: I want to record label, I want to be you know,
Speaker 1: doing what I'm doing now, and instead I totally chickened
Speaker 1: out of my aspirations writing on the list. And I
Speaker 1: think I said, like I wanted like a you know,
Speaker 1: my grandma said, put you put a car you on?
Speaker 1: I put like a red Mini. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: live in New York and study in New York or
Speaker 1: become a waitress or something. It was very like, practically,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was doing. Oh so stupid. Though.
Speaker 1: I was like, Jay, do you want to be You
Speaker 1: wanted to be a right? You always wanted to be
Speaker 1: right what you're playing at? So yeah, it was it
Speaker 1: was a waste of time that I think we did
Speaker 1: another one as well. Be my grandma and my mom,
Speaker 1: we all did another one last year. Well you are
Speaker 1: a writer, and I don't everyone who can't see you
Speaker 1: right now, which is everybody but me. You're currently holding
Speaker 1: a guitar pick I believe, and you have been the
Speaker 1: entire interview too, which I think is the sign of
Speaker 1: a true composer. Oh my lord, it's so stage that
Speaker 1: And how did you even see that? I was flicking
Speaker 1: my hands so much. Wow, Yeah that's me. I have
Speaker 1: been trying to write this weekend, so yeah, you got
Speaker 1: me there. Wow. Oh he's got one in my pocket too,
Speaker 1: so you know, takes one to know exactly. Incredible scenes,
Speaker 1: amazing well, my last question to you, it's been my
Speaker 1: last one we've done throughout this this whole uh sort
Speaker 1: of quarantine series. If you could snap your fingers and
Speaker 1: have everything go back to whatever your definition of normal is,
Speaker 1: I suppose like this time last year, what would be
Speaker 1: the first thing you would do? So great question. Well,
Speaker 1: if it was this time last year, you may change
Speaker 1: something or or just have it be exactly what like,
Speaker 1: what would you do? Just if you could have everything
Speaker 1: go back to normal? You can go travel anywhere you want,
Speaker 1: not have to quarantine in Mexico for two weeks, or
Speaker 1: or hug anyone you want not have to worry, or
Speaker 1: what would you do? That's such a great question. Um,
Speaker 1: when I do, I mean a lot of us for her,
Speaker 1: it's aunt so we like kind of almost like being inside.
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of us are like, oh,
Speaker 1: thank goodness, we don't have to cancel on friends for
Speaker 1: any other made up reason. What would I do? Such
Speaker 1: a great question. I mean, obviously play lives that would
Speaker 1: be That would be really good. I think you know
Speaker 1: what I actually want to do. I really want to
Speaker 1: go to a bloody observatory. We really wanted to see
Speaker 1: the stars and they're all closed right now, so that
Speaker 1: bugs me. That's what I did. That is a beautiful
Speaker 1: answer and one we have not had yet. That is wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thinking about it, you see, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your music in your time today. It's been such a
Speaker 1: pleasure now, Thank you, Joe. And that's me so much fun.
Speaker 1: I'veout a good laugh. You see, you're the best. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio Home Edition,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio and other shows from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.