Jessie Ware and her glittering new album, ‘Superbloom’

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco and today I speak with British singer Jessie Ware. She's back with another glittering album, Super Bloom, out on the 17th of April. I've stopped by at her house in London for a conversation about the album inspirations and her favorite tracks.

0:59Jessie Ware, what a pleasure I'm a big fan of talking to you and Superbloom is coming out now what can you say about the album? because when I was reading the release it says that it was the hardest album you ever made can you expand on that? Yeah, I think I was riding so high off the back of the last two records I had such momentum moving from What's Your Pleasure into That Feels Good I think, I presume that would happen again because I was feeling creative, I was feeling fulfilled, I was feeling excited. And I kind of went in with the intention of making a very different record that I thought was going to be kind of the trilogy, the finishing piece to the puzzle.

1:41And I was making the music and I was like, this isn't sitting right. And so I've written a lot of songs for this record that aren't being used. but when I made a song called Automatic I was like oh no this is the right blend of groove and soul and electronic and it sat with me in this soundscape where I was like okay no now I know which record I'm making and also I think I wanted to return to a previous record in the first record at devotion, which, you know, I felt had soulful elements and I'm really proud of. And it was my debut record where I was far less confident. I was terrified. I was younger.

2:33I was more naive. And so I wanted to kind of take the beauty of devotion, but with this maturity and confidence and be able to not rectify what devotion was because devotion was this kind of, you know, very celebrated record but I wanted to return to this world that I felt like maybe I jumped away from too quickly so that was super bloom in all its kind of decadence and glory but with this you know added experience and confidence that I'd gained from being an artist for a long time now I think this is a perfect explanation because in this album in particular I mean of course it is about desire.

3:12It is sexy, continuous, but there's a beauty, like a suave beauty of the 70s. You know, you think of Minnie Ripperton as well. You can be even a diva, you know, you show your voice even more, I would say. I love the kind of notion of a diva. In my head, it's this kind of celebrated woman that is unapologetic, that gives you everything in her vocal and her storytelling, and also glamour and regality, but with a kind of touch of humour. So all these kind of notions of the diva, I tried to take aspects of. Tell us about the song. So you told me that, you know, you wrote some songs and then you said, you know what, I might not use this for Super Bloom.

3:55I mean, to make an album, it feels very organic in that sense, right? Sometimes you have an idea in your mind, but then you're like, you know what, this is not working, my heart's not here yet. So tell us about that. Did you always feel that making an album is like that, an organic process? Absolutely. And actually, it's really funny. I went to the Tracy Eman exhibition last night and Harry Weller, who was her creative director, was, this will come back to my music. But like, it was interesting what he was talking about. He works with Tracy very, very closely. And he was talking about this one piece of work where they'd run out of canvases.

4:31And she wasn't happy with the first bit of work. So she drew a line down the middle. And so she didn't, she's not erasing the work that she didn't like, but she kind of goes over it with a wash and it's still there. the mistake I say in inverted commas because it's beautiful and it's and it all gets realized but this idea that you are constantly working and you're evolving and it is organic and from one mistake or what you think is a mistake you create another outcome and so I need all those songs that I created that weren't right to that informed the record that it is now it's a process and it's frustrating but also exciting and I mean it has to be creative so you're there you're chipping away at that idea of what is this and you know Super Bloom came quite late to the record but that's when I feel like I was in my flow I was galloping by that point so that's why Super Bloom has all the kind of all the references in it it has the groove it has the vocal it has the occasion.

5:36It has the kind of choral elements. It has the arrangements. It has it all because I think that's when I felt like I was totally free and buzzing. And let's talk about perhaps some songs in particular. I love Ride.

6:07I think it's such a sexy electro. And there's the Ennio Morricone kind of sample. Can you tell us a bit more? I love it. Yeah, we were writing. I was writing with my friend Jack Pignate and Karma Kid. And I wanted to make something for the club. And particularly for this club in Glastonbury called NYC Down Low. And, you know, this was me kind of imagining, manifesting this idea of what I would have loved to have been able to, you know. I mean, I love what they do there. it's amazing but this was me trying to knock at the door and be like hey and I think cowboy Carter had just come out so I think maybe that's why I was consumed by cowboys and I thought cowboys and disco hmm I mean everyone's done a version of a cowboy something but I hadn't and I was like fuck it you know there's a reason everyone wants to do it there's kind of archetypal kind of hero in there it's sexy it's costume it's all of it and so we were just messing around and we had that great bass line that and you know that's the great thing about dance music you need a great beat and a bass line and you're over halfway there right we were just messing around and and and i kind of were doing the spoken thing and wanting to kind of beckon somebody in which you know i've done before with songs like what's your pleasure or shake the bottle in ways um so i wanted to have this commanding character and i feel like i feel the most kind of obnoxious and confident and And not powerful, but there's like, I go into this character and she was there.

7:40And the whistling, well, the... The Ennio Morricone from Good, Bad, the Ugly. I wanted to play with the idea that I wasn't necessarily the vocal. The vocal hook wasn't the hook. It was this iconic piece of music, which I didn't think that we were actually going to be allowed to use. It was us messing around. I was like, right, we're doing a song about a cowboy. Well, let's go to the most obvious theme tune. and it just felt so good. Like too good. It was kind of a joke. And, you know, we then had the fear that the estate wouldn't allow us to have it. And they did. So we went through all the right motions.

8:16You know, we did it right. And it's a joy and I love it. And I think it will be one of those songs that hopefully like lives on in the club. There's so many songs on the album that I loved. I mean, for example, So and I just literally put a heart on my notes. I think it's going to become a fan favorite, that one. I think so too. from the people that have listened to the record that definitely is the one that they're like sauna and you're like yeah fine yeah I love it and we're all loving saunas these days yeah Danish culture I mean that's kind of why I wrote this song because I said to my friend James Ford who I've collaborated on the last two records with and previously I said mate I don't know how many more song titles I've got in me I think sauna actually was my last song that I wrote on the record I said I don't know how many more song titles I've got I said, I'm going to have to write about going to the sauna every day.

9:02And he was like, yeah, write that song. And so I'd been to this fabulous party in New York with these beautiful people dancing. And I thought it was very much a celebration of like new friends and being free and beauty and sex and all of it. Jesse, I have to say your performance at the BAFTAs was my favorite thing. At the BAFTAs, it was fantastic, it was emotional. What's too painful to remember We simply choose to forget

9:41So it's the laughter We will remember

9:55We remember We now fall, we remember

10:03Probably it's a hard thing to do in immemorial, right? So how was it for you? It felt like a real honour, and I think I took that very seriously when I was asked to sing the song. You know, you're remembering people's legacies. You know, you're singing to an audience that have worked with these people on screen. and you don't know these people. You know them through the movies. So there's this weird, you have to do it respectfully and I feel like we did that. I was very moved by it in the sense that, you know, you have beautiful footage of Catherine O 'Hara or Val Kilmer or Diane Keaton and Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand at the end and it was just, it was a very new world for me to be in.

10:49You know, this is the movies and I'm a singer and I do my thing, but I took it very seriously and I think that hopefully paid off. It was just, yeah, an honor, I think. And so I needed to sing well, but also it wasn't about me. As much as I was terrified, and it was for all the people that have lost somebody, so that's really what I was thinking about. I have a request to you, maybe to Barbara Broccoli as well, but after listening to Don't You Know Who I Am, so glamorous and lush. I mean, you need to sing a Bond song. Don't you think you should? I think that would be fab. I don't know if I'm going to be the first on the list, but I definitely could give it a go.

11:29I'd love to. I mean, that would be amazing, wouldn't it? It would be a bucket list. Just you're an unusual pop star in the sense that you bring joy to your fans, not only with your music, but I think your podcast, I mean, it's a massive hit. Like in the office, people bearing love with your mom. So how does it feel as well? Because, you know, you're going on tour, you're just releasing a new album but this is quite a big project in your life right yeah it is and particularly when we're putting out a record and doing the podcast i mean i did a podcast yesterday with my mom we did one on friday and my mom is really holding it down at the moment because i'm kind of in work music work mode she's like cooking a lot so i owe her but it's incredible that it's become this beast and i love that my mom is so celebrated and i am appreciative and i I think lots of people may only know me for my podcast and that's also okay.

12:23There was this really funny comment on my Instagram for the BAFTA thing where they were like, imagine all the actors that have been on the podcast and go, oh, that's what she does. But yeah, I love the podcast. I love what it's allowed me to do. I love how many people it's led me to. You know, somebody like Coleman Domingo, who's on this record. The voice of God. The voice of God. God, he's got the best voice, hasn't he? He's such a beautiful human being. And like, I wouldn't have known him if he hadn't said yes to the podcast and then us like making friends, you know, so. Jesse, perhaps, you know, to end, I mean, this is one of those kind of tricky questions.

13:04I have to think fast. If there's a dish and a drink that it is super blown, what is it? I think it's a banquet. I think it's a full, long table, family style. You are using your hands to pick up the juicy fruit or you're eating a leg of something. It's generous. It's abundant. It's homely. It's all of it. I want it all. I'm quite greedy.

13:57Thank you, Jassy. Superbloom is out on the 17th of April. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco, and this show was edited by Jack Dewars. Thank you for listening.

14:10Thank you.