Jake’s mixing it up to keep his sounds fresh
Chart-topping singer-songwriter Jake Bugg will be co-headlining a Birmingham festival with one of his heroes next week. DAVE FREAK reports
HE’S best known for penning guitar-based songs, but Jake Bugg’s last release saw him straying in the dance market with the surprising Be Someone – a collaboration with duo Campelphat.
It’s not the first time the East Midlands singer-songwriter has moved onto the dancefloor, having previously guested on Tinie Tempah’s Find Me back in 2017.
“Working with those guys, Tinie and Camelphat, it’s great to step into a different genre, a different world, and it pushes you,” says Jake. “I know what I’m best at [but] if you just sit there, doing the same thing, not pushing yourself, I feel like you’re not learning.
“[In] modern music the sound is changing all the time – the sounds of instruments, what they use – so it’s important to work with people who are more contemporary. It helps keep my stuff a little bit more fresher, I think. You just pick things up on the way. I think that’s important because I could just as easily go to default position, play a load of Sixties songs all day, you know? It’s nice to be able to do both!”
Having picked up a guitar at the age of 12, Nottingham-raised Jake matured quickly as a musician, signing to a major label aged 17 and releasing his self-titled album a year later, in 2012. The remarkable debut recalled such artists as the Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly, as well as touching on Britpop’s fondness for a strong hook, yet it felt new and exciting. Hitting number one, the record spent 103 weeks on the UK album chart.
A year later came Shangri La, which hit number three, while his two subsequent long-players – 2016’s On My One and 2017’s
Hearts That Strain – have also crashed into the Top 10. He’s now working on his fifth yet-to-be-titled album, his first for new label RCA. Over two dozen songs have already been written, with more in the works, among them several collaborations with leading pop writers that combine his traditional take to music-making with a more contemporary sound.
“I’ve always been intrigued to hear what would happen when you take country and folk music, rootsy blues music, and blend it with more of a pop sound,” he says. “It’s been a lot of fun, trying different things, and hopefully I’ll get to try a few more collaborations along the way with different people, see what happens.”
Of the experience of penning with established hit-creating pop writers, he says: “I think they enjoy it because the instruments get to come out. It’s fun for those guys, and I get to learn these little tricks in return, it works brilliantly, it’s a lot of fun.”
It’s too soon for Jake to discuss exactly how it’ll sound, although he does say it will be different to Hearts That Strain (co-produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach), and that his Camelphat cut shouldn’t be seen as a pointer.
“It’s more for their record,” he says of Be Someone.
Before the new music arrives Jake co-headlines Moseley Folk and Arts Festival, whose line-up also includes Richard Thompson, The Zutons, Public Service Broadcasting, Edwyn Collins, Lucy Rose and, closing Sunday night, American Pie songwriter Don McLean.
Jake, who takes to the stage on Saturday, can barely believe he’s playing the same festival as Don. He cites hearing Don’s Vincent during an episode of The Simpsons as a revelation. Having never heard anything like it before, it was the Vincent van Gogh-inspired acoustic ballad that fired his imagination, and led him to eventually start writing his own songs.
“It’s crazy! We’re playing the same slots but different days,” Jake says, shocked. “It’s very bizarre I have to say. It’s a nice feeling really, to have someone you used to look up to sharing the same slot… it’s good, pretty mind-blowing!”
Moseley Folk and Arts Festival runs from Friday, August 30 to Sunday, September 1 at Moseley Park, Birmingham. For tickets and more details see moseleyfolk.co.uk