Jessie Ware

0:06Pushkin.

0:10Jessie Ware has always moved between worlds. She's a British soul singer who spent the early part of her career making intimate, understated records. Then in 2020, she released What's Your Pleasure and morphed into a full-blown disco goddess. The record received widespread critical acclaim, earned Jessie her first top three album on the UK charts, and was nominated for British Album of the Year at the Brits. Today, Jessie traces that sonic evolution back to an especially ripe creative period in her life, when she launched Table Manners, the podcast she hosts with her mom, Lenny. Table Manners has become one of the UK's most beloved shows, racking up over 60 million listens, and in turn gave Jessie a new kind of confidence.

0:51This month, Jessie is releasing Superbloom, her sixth album. As she has since What's Your Pleasure, Jessie A &R's the record herself, staying carefully in control of every creative decision. Her production team included core collaborator James Ford, the producer behind landmark records with Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Florence and the Machine, and Blur, as well as three-time Grammy winner Stuart Price, best known for producing Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor and The Killer's Day and Age. On today's episode, Leah Rose talks with Jessie Ware about how Superbloom was born after a particularly difficult year filled with illness and loss, and how that led to an album that sounds like pure joy.

1:30Jessie also talks about channeling Grace Jones to slip into a sexy persona, to record sultry new songs like Ride and Sana, and she explains how Minnie Riperton and Stevie Wonder inspired her to make her private life public like never before. This is Broken Record. Real musicians, real conversations.

2:14access online resources designed to help your business thrive. Learn more at chase.com slash business. Chase for business. Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, member FDIC. Copyright 2026, JPMorgan Chase and Company. Roll the window down. Do you hear that? It's the sound of spring. So bring on the spring at the Honda Spring Event. Honda's family of hybrids and EVs are ready for wherever spring takes you. Check out the all-electric Honda Prologue, CR-V Hybrid, Accord Hybrid, and Civic Hybrid, all from the 2025 Kelley Blue Book Best Value brand.

2:55For great deals, visit your local Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Honda dealer today. Based on 2025 Consumer Choice Awards from Kelley Blue Book, visit kbb.com for more information. 23-year-old Elizabeth Plunkett heads off for a night away with friends. It's the summer of 1976, the best summer we've had for years. Just hours later, she is kidnapped by two men in British Bay. These are two career criminals wanted for rape in Britain. They are Ireland's first serial killers. While both men confess to Elizabeth's murder, no one is ever convicted. How could this happen? We're being denied any sort of justice.

3:28Listen to Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister, wherever you get your podcasts. Here's Leah Rose with Jessie Ware. Head over to youtube.com slash brokenrecordpodcast to see the video. With the new album Super Bloom, I think it is so brilliant how you are approaching life. As a woman, you know, women in our 40s, it's like you're so often getting struck with these messages about sort of like withering and drying out. and here you are, you know, in this super bloom and you're creating this world that's relishing in pleasure and sensuality. Were you conscious when you were making the album that you were sort of flipping those tropes on their head?

4:16No, I don't think I was actually. I think I was just writing and writing and writing and then the songs that made the most sense together and I feel like then the theme becomes apparent. Do you know what I mean? It's kind of your writing, you know. And I think that the story you tell with how you sequence the record or how you position these songs, like what journey do you want to take them on? Like, how do you want to tell this story? I definitely feel like out of conversations and understanding of this record being the record and seeing the themes that were coming back at me, I now understand.

4:55I wasn't trying to be provocative or I wasn't trying, but I think I'm always trying to, whilst before there was like a fear of this idea that you, you have a shelf life in music, particularly as a woman in music, right? Particularly as a woman in pop music. I was thought of as a pop star, but I don't feel like I am necessarily the most kind of obvious pop star. So then that was a kind of confusion. I didn't want to make a big statement, but I just wanted to feel confident enough to do this. And I think the reaction to these songs and the kind of confidence has been like amazing. And the reaction to like the music video for Ride has been kind of resoundingly where whereas before I would have been like, oh, God, how am I going to go to the school gates?

5:43Like people have been like, yeah, thanks. Yeah. Like, yes, you're allowed to be a sexy woman and want to feel sexy. Of course. And show that at 40. And I think other artists have done this forever, you know, but also been slated for it, too, which is not fair. And I think, wow, I'm in that I'm in that age where we're not allowed to we're apparently not allowed to do things. But I do think things are changing, maybe. Yeah, I just feel inundated. Like, you know, even on social media, like the algorithm is pushing like weighted vests, GLP ones. Yes, like all this stuff. And I love that you're just kind of like, you know, fuck all that.

6:24I'm in this world where I just feel good and I'm I do feel good I feel really good and I don't I feel fulfilled I feel confident I feel good I feel lucky to do a job that I'm excited by that changes every day I feel a bit tired but like that's okay yeah I feel excited I feel inspired I feel lucky to have a family I feel lucky that I can walk down the street and not get papped like I feel lucky that I then get to go and wear mad costumes and sing my heart out on stage. I don't take any of that for granted. And I think probably because for a moment I thought potentially it was going to end. Yes.

7:06I really do enjoy it. It's like a near-death experience. You saw the light. In showbiz. Yeah. And I don't want it to be like happy-clappy. Like it's hard. but it's also a gift that I get to do this job that so many people would want to do and I get to create these worlds and I get to invite people in and I get to have a conversation with an audience you know and I get to like be artistic it's like the greatest feeling in the world you know my daughter I've got like a couple of vinyls and my daughter's there looking at it and she's like this is cool and I was like thanks it is cool I've got it's so hard to get your kid to think you're cool I know she definitely doesn't think I'm cool but she looked at it and she was like studying it and kind of looking at the pictures and she knows the songs but she was like this is really cool and I was like you're right it is cool and it's been hard work and I love it and I love that my family like acknowledged that wow we have a good time and we can have a good time working yes so when you were recording a song like ride and you're in the studio is it hard to get into like a sexy place when it's just you and no tell me like what's the dynamic with who's in the room like how's it work i find it really easy and i don't think firstly i'm usually i'm pretending to be somebody else so if it was me oh my god i'd vomit you know what i mean so in songs like ride or sauna or even don't you know who I am or Mr.

8:43Valentine. I'm not Jessie, mum of three, doing the school drop-off, you know, making a sourdough. No, I'm a fucking bad bitch. And I am not me and I have a name, a different name and I have a different posture and stance. And in my head, I'm like Grace Jones, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Marilyn Monroe I'm all of those women I'm those people I love that so I don't know if that makes me authentic or not but I remember doing a piece on Donna Summer who I think was amazing I was doing a piece on Radio 4 for her and I read her memoir and I read about how she pretended to be a character for I love to love you baby So she's like there and apparently she was trying to be somewhere between Marilyn and Mickey Minnie Mouse.

9:43Oh, yes. So there was this character that she was trying to be. And so I'm sure when Donna was in the room, who was like a lovely church girl and she's going, oh, it's like she's not she's not being Donna. Do you know what I mean? She's being another person. And that's, I guess, acting. I don't know. It's just fun. Whatever works. It's role play, whatever works. I feel like looking at your career and sort of reading the story that's been written about you in the press, it seems like something happened. Some sort of change happened after your third album, Glass House, came out. Between Glass House and What's Your Pleasure, Table Manners started.

10:30But it seems like there was some sort of change in that period. Does that seem accurate? Yeah. I mean, I had a one-year-old when Glasshouse came out. I finished touring it quite quickly that kind of summer. So then I had a kind of nearly two-year-old. And I had had the idea to start a podcast from when I was pregnant with my kid. so that was like I remember we had this conversation with my best mate on New Year's Eve of 2015 he was like you should do a podcast and I was like oh yeah but I think I started the podcast as I was so kind of disillusioned by the music industry I think I was tired I was a new mum I was trying to do it all I was trying to prove that I could do it all and I just was struggling and I was like on the verge of burnout and the podcast was just it provided this outlet that was escape but also was distraction from my music career that didn't feel like it was flourishing and I think I was in kind of not survival mode because I never thought that the podcast was going to be this hit you know um I just it was just another avenue of just distraction but it then became this big success and I think with the success of it it gave me confidence and belief for myself that actually it was my idea and we'd managed to make it happen and I had enough love from people that were willing to come on and have some turkey meatballs with my mom or, you know, they were willing to take a punt on me and support me.

12:22And I felt that love. And, you know, and then with that, I was definitely always going to make another record. Okay. That's what I was going to ask you. Yeah. I already knew at the end of touring in the States, I knew who was going to produce it. I knew it was James Ford. I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I wanted to make this kind of dance disco record I wanted to work with very few people I wanted to um A &R it I wanted to do all of that and um and so that was always going to happen but I think with the success of the podcast it just made me slightly more confident totally I just love the fact that you had this time where you found yourself and I'm sure it didn't happen overnight but the podcast started the podcast took off then you a and r what's your pleasure which is you sort of like setting the entire scene and designing the whole thing right yeah like you finding the sound and making it happen listen like James Ford cannot be ignored in that process and Shin Goodzo and Danny Parker we were the core group and it was the most magical time I think I've ever had in the studio where I felt so free I felt the opportunities and like the possibilities of creation felt endless and so there was no having to hang on to something just in case it was like it was just this beautiful creative space and I think we all adored it and we still check in with each other and and remember that time and it was up in James's attic.

14:02And I think the balance of life felt really beautiful too. I walked to work. I walked over like a park. I said goodbye to my daughter. I, you know, I was at home. I was able to be a parent. I went to work. I had very strict times, which really worked for James too, because he was a parent of a kid the same age as my kid. And we would work, we would work, but we would have fun and we would escape but we would also talk about real life and engage in family and and I think I felt not bruised yeah I think bruised but I think I felt like I had to do it on my own terms yeah because if this was the final time then I had to really really believe in every single beat and melody and word on that record and that like worked out for me and then and then you know and then you just carry on doing that and then like your confidence grows and then I'm always aware that it's I never want it to be arrogant and I'm also really want people's opinion still I just know whose opinion I need yes somebody with no agenda do you feel like there could possibly be another sort of like sound or theme shift at this point in your career like could you possibly go into like after it seems like what's your pleasure that feels good and even the new album super bloom could sort of be thought of as a trilogy maybe part of the same world do you ever could you ever go into an entirely new world i mean an entirely new world would be me like doing a folk album i think yes or like a rock album and never say never but I don't I don't think I'm doing any of them anytime soon I may pull in moments of that but I think I found I found I found my genre and I found my place in music and I found my sound and whilst I want to evolve that always and I don't ever want to feel like I'm totally repeating myself I do think that there is strength in an artist understanding themselves you know you look at somebody like and this is not me comparing myself to tracy emin but tracy emin the most incredible artist she is remember i went to her she doesn't like to call it retrospective but she's got a um uh an exhibition on at the tate modern and you see her work from the 90s and she has remained true to her art and her openness and her form and and that's really I love that because I love everything about what she does but I I don't need Tracy Emin to go and I want her to feel fulfilled and excited inspired and push things but also there's something really beautiful about how she has this strength and autonomy and identity and I feel like the artists that I look to have that similar strength and they have a sound and that can change I mean it can move around but I don't think I'm ever going to go and do something particularly drastically different.

17:21Yeah I read that before you started working in music so I guess before you were a backup singer before that all started you worked in journalism you're a reporter you worked at the Jewish Chronicle and did some sports journalism is that true? Barely but like sure yeah yeah what was the sports journalism I mean I wanted to be a football journalist I was football mad and it's so funny like I was obsessed with Manchester United and you know football and so when I was 16 I got work experience on the Daily Mirror and I went and followed with this great journalist called Darren Williams and he just really let me get involved and we had a really great time and I was like this is the best job ever you get to go to football matches and like just write about football and talk about football all the time and it's so strange because like my love for football is just like really weirdly gone away and I was obsessed with it from like nine to about my 30s and then I don't know whether it's like I don't have enough capacity to be able to have it but it's like I know it could be a great form of escapism um and I just I I want to fall back in love with it.

18:38I think I resent it now because my husband watches so much of it. But is it something where like the game has changed? Have the role? Because I know in basketball. Yeah, maybe. And like my husband would say it's because I'm a glory hunter and it's not bad because United are doing so crap. But I mean, they're not doing as badly as Spurs. But I just think I also we were in this like beautiful time of Manchester United. It was the class of 92 and it was like, you know, Ryan Giggs, Nikki Buck, like David Beckham, Paul Scholes. It was like these amazing players. Gary Neville was like this amazing time for the youth team.

19:13And so I kind of was young and they were young and I watched them grow up and was obsessed with them. But yeah, I kind of want to fall back in love with it. But it feels like so much effort. That's the thing. It's such a schedule. And I don't know if I've got the time for it at the moment. Did you play? No, I was crap. I wasn't very sporty. No, yeah. So how did it switch? So if you were working, it sounds so cool, like at age 16, working with the Daily Mirror, like that's young. Work experience is like for two weeks in the summer. Two weeks. OK. Yeah. It wasn't even a job. Like I went and did my dad was a journalist.

19:53And then I went and did like a diploma in journalism where you have to kind of get this diploma. And then I kind of, you know, it was very short lived. I really kind of, I worked in a television company and I wanted to kind of make documentaries and stuff like that. And it's just kind of, yeah, people work very, very hard in those industries. And there's like not as many jobs anymore. You can see it's hard. So how did music start to come into it? Was it just like messing around with friends or how did you make the jump? So I'd like sung at school and I'd always kind of been in the musicals. and I'd sung in like a funk band at university, like as a backing singer, like, and you got paid 50 quid per like Friday night.

20:37And my friends would always come down and it was very much like, I wasn't really doing anything with my voice, but my best friend, Sarah, was just like, you're really silly. What are you doing? You've got this really good voice. And I was like, well, why don't, I haven't written a song and I can't play. And I think I was just kind of too scared to give it a go. And it was my friend, Jack Pignatte, who, you know, quit uni and was just gigging and got signed by XL. And I was so like, wow, this is amazing. Like, he's just really worked hard. And like, he's such a star on stage. And then, you know, our friends who, my childhood friends, a band called The Maccabees, they got signed too.

21:19So I was like, surrounded by these friends that, you know, hadn't been in school musicals well jack had a bit but like they were just doing it and they were part of like an indie scene in london and they were absolutely killing it and um i was just there to like support and i was so proud and jack yeah asked me to do some backing vocals for him for um a zane low radio one made of l session so i took a day off work and i sung and i was not a backing singer I was I could sing and he needed someone and it was very sweet of him and he kind of really and through that I then was supposed to go and do a law like law conversion degree and Jack said oh do you want to come on tour with me in the states for six weeks with Mike Snow we're doing a tour together I was like that sounds really fun and I was single and my mum was like oh the law degree can just wait like just go and do it like defer go and be a backing singer for a year how cool is that she said that to you I mean it was like the best advice she could yeah yeah yeah she was I think she knew that I was quite sensible so I would always just got a job I would have found a way to get a job it wouldn't have been like you know but I um I really appreciate that because I think that you know if she'd been like I think you should you know this sliding doors so then from that I did a session with an amazing artist called to subtract.

22:45But that was because my friend who was playing bass and guitar in Jack's band was like, you should go and do it. So like Tick, he's an incredible A &R. And he was just a friend, but he kind of A &R'd me, you know, put me in the right rooms because he believed in me. So it was very much other people's belief in me that like led me to this job. We'll be back with more from Jessie Ware after the break.

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23:42See how your business can go farther with Chase for Business. Learn more at chase.com slash business. Chase for Business. Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Copyright 2026. JPMorgan Chase & Company. 23-year-old Elizabeth Plunkett heads off for a night away with friends. It's the summer of 1976. The best summer we've had for years. Just hours later, she is kidnapped by two men in British Bay. These are two career criminals wanted for rape in Britain. They are Ireland's first serial killers.

24:14While both men confessed to Elizabeth's murder, no one is ever convicted. How could this happen? We're being denied any sort of justice. Listen to Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister, wherever you get your podcasts. I want to ask you too about the evolution of your voice, how you see it. Because on the new album, after the intro, the little prelude, the song I Could Get Used to This your voice is now like completely pushed to the front of the mix and it's big and it's confident and you sound incredible so tell me about the journey of your voice and how it evolved and again like how that confidence came and the work that you've done because I'm sure it takes a lot of work I really wanted people to hear me on this record I wanted them to hear every kind of aspect of my voice I wanted to hear them up close and personal, like you hear at the beginning of I Could Get Used To This.

25:13And that's kind of why I thought it was a great scene setter. And I'm inviting people to step into my secret garden. And so it's like come along for the ride. And yeah, ushering them in, seducing them. But I, you know, there's a key change in that. And I feel like that's the kind of thing that Shaka would have done. And so I was like, well, let's try a key change on this set. because I think I wanted to take some liberties like musically because I felt like I'd kind of earned my right to do that and have a bit more fun with it um I worked with a singing coach who's my singing coach who's been working on my voice for a couple of years because I was really struggling with my tours because I'd written these big big songs on what's your pleasure and and that feels good and my voice wasn't strong enough to kind of handle that night after night and with the traveling so I kind of was humbled and had to relearn how to really um sing so I yeah relearn technique really and then I wanted to apply that to like how I approached the vocals in this um on this record so yeah I like worked really I mean I wrote the songs and you do them and then I was like how do I improve these I'm gonna work yeah like every day on how to nail them.

26:30And like, no doubt after a year of touring, I'll be able to sing these songs better than I did on, you know, in the studio. But I wanted to give the best possible vocal performance because that's the thing with, you know, writing a record, like you write a demo and something clicks and then you go and vocal it. So really like the muscle memory, you know, when I sing something like Say You Love Me, which I've had in my catalogue for since album two, So what was that in 2014? So like 12 years. I don't even have to think about how to sing that song. I can just do it. Whereas you have these new ones and you have to work out how you're going to present it.

27:12So I wanted to give my voice the best possible chance. So I did loads of training and I wanted to show more of myself. I was ready to show more of myself and to be confident and kind of be the star that my fans make me feel I am. Yeah, you sound so good. Thank you. Do you have a performance that you think, like, you just nailed it, like it's what you set out to do on this new album? I don't know. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. So I kind of feel like I definitely would still want to change a line, how I've vocaled it. But I think Don't You Know Who I Am has this kind of madness with it that I wanted to put across and drama.

27:58Yeah. And I really enjoy that one. I think that one's going to be really fun to perform. And something like Even Ride, you know, like having the confidence to make a synth melody that's Ennio Morricone to be the hook. I wanted to do, I wanted to be like, hang on, I don't need to. Yeah, I'm going to join in and I'll do some big vocals. But I wanted to have that confidence to be able to play with the music and the experience of listening to me. What do you think you are best at as an artist? Do you think it's the writing bit? Do you think it's the A &Ring, production, thinking about tracks, thinking about sequencing?

28:41What do you excel at? Where is your gift in the mix? The performance, of course. I think I've got better at songwriting I don't think I'm the best in the room usually but I have got so much better but I think I can steer the ship really well and I think I can that's cool A &R it yeah and I think I have really improved as a songwriter because I've allowed myself to be more open and take more risks and listen to my gut and my taste and not apologize for that. Do you know what I mean? But I do think my performance has come on. I still think I've got a way to go when I watch somebody like Gaga, who is just amazing.

29:26I feel like everything has improved and I still think I'm going to become better. And that's the thing that really excites me. And I think that's why it's called Super Bloom as well. It's like ever evolving and growing and learning and hopefully blossoming. without sounding too naff, you know? Like, I see how far I've come, but I'm not complacent. Like, I've still got to put the work in. Like, getting the vocal lessons. Like, you know, taking my time with this one. It's just, yeah, it's constantly kind of, I'm constantly learning. When you do the podcast and you sit down with other artists or even like someone like a Hilary Duff, who's like very much a pop star and obviously she does a lot more than just sing, but do you ever is there ever part of you that's sort of like comparing notes or do you ever get sort of like jealous or competitive does that happen in the room I don't think jealous or competitive I definitely somebody like Shaka Khan I'm just like I want to know everything or like Tracy Thorne from everything but the girl I remember just like really doing a very different, less fun interview because I just wanted to know how she did this and how she did that.

30:46But it's complete curiosity. With Hilary, you know, I didn't know much of her music and I didn't know her story really. So kind of learning about that when I was researching and then listening to that album, which I thought was really accomplished, that was really fascinating. And thinking about this, you know, this pop star that kind of paved the way for so many other girls to kind of do a similar thing. So I'm kind of always just, greedily, I take things from what I selfishly, usually also as well, it's a conversation about, how do you do it with kids? And like, what's your system of the tour bus?

31:25And like, how many days can you be away from them? But it's nothing to judge. It's more to just compare notes and see if they've got a good idea. Yeah. Hilary, Hilary, so sweetly. Like, we really got on. And I was like. Yes. No, really. We had a rapport. And I'm sure she can flirt with anyone. I'm sure Duff is good at this. But she sent me. I feel like, but I feel like me and Hilary Duff are kind of dating at the moment. Because she sent me a present. Which was so sweet. She sent me these gorgeous salt and pepper, like, mills. Grinders. Wow. Oh, that's so nice. Saw these. Thanks for having me.

32:03sent in a book had the best time, felt so at home could have been there all day, thought these would look good in your kitchen I thought, okay Duff, I like this I like this style of courting me and maybe I'll send you back a good Chardonnay so you have to drink that because she doesn't like Chardonnay so good, yeah you have a great thing going and it feels so authentic and I love it I couldn't stop watching Maya Rudolph, I was like I can't turn this off she's amazing and I loved seeing you ask about her mom because I know Minnie Riperton is such a big influence on you it's like is she gonna ask you know what I kind of didn't want to because you know she lost her mom when she was quite young I think and I'm sure it's quite taxing having to kind of relive that grief yes and so I was literally gonna just say I just want to say like your mom's a big influence on me and leave it at that I didn't want to kind of ask her anything.

33:00And then she expanded on it. And it was like, I felt so lucky to be privy to this conversation. And she was so generous with her words and she didn't need to. And I didn't expect that from her. She was an amazing, amazing guest. You know, we've got like somebody like Coleman Domingo's on my new single. But that came from us getting on so well and clicking in the podcast. Yes. Yeah, I do feel like I acquire these really new fabulous friends from like having a date with them over my food or my mom's food. How has just interviewing people like doing the podcast, doing table manners, how has it changed how or has it changed how you view being the person who's being interviewed?

33:44Like when you're doing this promo cycle, like has it changed how you are in interviews? I think it's made me understand the job that the interviewer has to do more. Yeah. But it definitely doesn't make me feel like I'm so bored of myself talking. That's the thing. I'm even talking on the podcast or I'm talking in the... But then also I know it's a very short lived time that you promote a record. But I have lots of understanding for the people that come in the room. Yes. They are definitely coming from 10 ,000 other things. And we've been like slotted in. And I appreciate their time. And I acknowledge that because, you know, I think the promo is relentless.

34:29And it's a good thing if people want to chat to you. So it's this weird thing where you want the promo because you, if you didn't have the promo, then nobody's interested in the record, right? It's such a necessary part of it, unfortunately. But I think the requirements of artists these days, it changes every time you do a record. And I do feel like we have to be everything. It's not so straightforward. And that sounds like I'm feeling sorry for myself. No, it's true because, you know, once you're in something for any career over 10 years, you see sort of like the goalpost move. And when you started out, promo, I imagine was more going to radio stations or going to markets where maybe you were performing live.

35:21Now I see you doing these, you know, like Instagram things where you're walking down the street and you're talking about your outfit or you're talking about your confidence or whatever it is. And that's cool, but it's just, it's different. And you have to show up differently for it. Yeah. And I think you also have to have like an answer for every scenario. So it doesn't become just about an album that you made. Do you know what I mean? They're not talking about the music. They're talking about more lifestyle. No, but sometimes that's fun when they don't talk about the album. Like, you know, Seth Meyers, me doing Seth Meyers, I've never chatted on Seth Meyers.