Jessie’s back in the groove
Ware returns to sensual subjects after singing about motherhood
Jessie Ware
The last time I spoke to the podcasting author, fashion designer and sometimes soul diva Jessie Ware, she was extolling the virtues of motherhood on her Glasshouse. 2017 album, Last year she gave birth to a son but, as she tells me while enjoying her daily walk: ‘You can only write one album about being a first-time mum!’
The title of the 34-year-old’s fourth album, What’s Your Pleasure? tells you much about what is in the grooves of the record. If it were a novel it might be called a bonkbuster. Jessie gets jiggy with it, channelling Donna Summer at her most seductive and Prince at his most purple.
‘Yeah… I’ll definitely take that. I mean come on, who doesn’t want to hear a comparison with Prince and Donna Summer?’ she says.
‘I think this record is a total reaction to the last record. I wanted to go into a kind of fantasy world. Myself and James Ford (who also collaborated with Arctic Monkeys, Florence & the Machine and Gorillaz) thought we could get a kind of deep groove going with a sensual and seductive vibe. It’s a provocative, kind of flirtatious record, maybe more about the anticipation of bonking someone rather than the nuts and bolts of the act itself.’
Jessie says she and Ford were careful not to lapse into pastiche but that she was definitely paying homage. Prince was a fan of Jessie’s music. When Nicole Scherzinger, of Pussycat Dolls, a close friend of the late musical legend, was a guest on the Table Manners podcast that Jessie hosts with her mother, she told her: ‘Prince loved your music and he used to be very selective over the music he’d listen to.’
‘To hear that was amazing,’ Jessie says in awe.
‘He used to do DJ sets and livestream them. Someone on the internet contacted me and said: “Oh my God, Prince is playing (Jessie’s 2012 hit) Wildest Moments” and I couldn’t quite believe it. I got invited to be a support act for one of his shows, but
I was getting married that day. Maybe I should have moved my bloody wedding,’ she says.
‘I’m so honoured that he even knew who I was. I will dine out on it forever. It was the greatest gift that anyone could give me. Thank you, Nicole!’
The podcast on which Scherzinger revealed Prince’s admiration for Jessie has become a hit. Table Manners features Jessie and her mum Lennie chatting to a guest over a meal prepared by Jessie and Lennie. The first eight series were recorded in Lennie’s home and are now done remotely due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
David Schwimmer, Ed Sheeran, London’s lord mayor Sadiq Khan and Dermot O’Leary are among the 92 guests they’ve had so far.
‘The kind of people we are meeting are fun and interesting and just go with whatever we are doing,’ she says.
‘I’m not going to lie. I was so glad I was able to edit the one we did with Emily Maitlis. She is so articulate and brilliant and I’m... not! I was so unworthy of her, but people really enjoyed that one. We did one with Sandi Toksvig. She is one of my idols, I adore her. Oh! and Anthony from Queer Eye. It was like a real prince charming had come to visit. I just said: “You are actually the most handsome man I have ever seen in my life.”
‘Then myself and my mum had to ask him questions but were just gobsmacked about how gorgeous he was’’ she recalls.
‘The thing is, I don’t ever want it to feel like an interview. I enjoyed the ones we did on lockdown but the ones where they came around to my mum’s were such fun. We would welcome them in and she would say: “Okay here is what we’ve got for dins! Would you like a drink?” I’m not an interviewer. We just chat and try to get them drunk…’
Table Manners: The Cookbook, with recipes from the show, was published in March and there is another on the way. She has also created a children’s clothing range called Anyware with award-winning designer George Reddings.
‘I have never felt as confident about trying new things as I do right now,’ she says.
‘That goes for everything from trying something different with my music, to pushing on with the podcast or the books or the kids fashion range.
‘I feel I’m getting better and better at all this and, as naff as this sounds, the only way is up for me.’
What’s Your Pleasure? is out now
‘I have never felt as confident about trying new things as I do right now