Jamie Cullum : "What we do on stage is very open"
Sophia Bischoff - Jamie Cullum a passé un coup de fil à Students.ch pour discuter de sa passion pour la musique, de ses projets et son émission de radio.
Students.ch : When and how did you get your interest for jazz music ?
Jamie Cullum : I think actually it really came more trough hip-hop music and acid jazz. I was about maybe 14 or 15 years old. I was listening to a lot of hip-hop, sounds like the Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, the Beatnuts, SlumVillage, bands like that. You know even Snoop Dog. There was some sampling going on. And, I’ve become a record preacher, i’ve become someone who liked to collect records know a lot about music so that was my kind of patron at school. So I start learning where these samples came from and I start coming across names like Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Art Blakey people like this. And I started checking it out and it seemed very exotic and beats I didn’t understand, but I knew I liked it…it really spoke to me. And I heard Harry Connick Jr and bands like Steely Dan, and acid jazz band like Cordroy and Incognito and James Taylor Quartet…it all kind of duck-taped together and the language of jazz is being spoken a lot among those people so I became interested in it that way…
Students.ch : Could explain us the title of your last album, “The Pursuit” ? And why are you blowing a piano on the cover ?
Jamie Cullum : The titled of the album, The Pursuit, really relate to how I feel, me being a musician relates to your life. It’s a wonderful thing, because a lot of things in life, you kinda do and then they’re finished with. Music is a constant buzz of the thing you’re just doing throughout your life. You’re musician, you never know everything, you never go back at it, you’re always working and always striving at this kind of pursuit. So I thought I was really good analogy of the way you live your life. And the reason why I blew up a piano is because I was trying to get behind the expectation of what people think you’re gonna be like. I think when you see a young man wearing a suit standing behind a piano and seeing it’s a jazz album you assume you know how the music is gonna be like. So by walking away from a exploding piano you’re exploding the nit and the cliché of what you think the music is gonna be.
Students.ch : Your last album, "The Pursuit", has more electronic sound on it than your order albums. How would you explain the evolution ?
Jamie Cullum : I think the evolution is just mainly to do with confidence. I was always someone who was interested in many different type of music. From the young age I was in a rock band, pop band and hip hop band. And I am interested in electronic music and classical music. As I got older I got more proficient in my instruments and my song writing, I realised that I could really start to mix these sounds together and make a more calm and mediate sound
Students.ch : How did you find the right balance between electronic music and jazz, as we can see on the Pursuit ?
Jamie Cullum : There’s no right or wrong. It’s all very instinctual. When we’re in the studio I’m not one these musicians who thinks about what the public is gonna make of it all the time. I try to just think, you know, to gage my own opinion on it and if I think it sounds good then it’s normally ready and can be released.
Students.ch: How do you take this electronic vibe on stage ?
Jamie Cullum: You know there are various range of instruments and the other thing that we like to do is not just to recreate the sound of the album. It’s much more open. It’s more exciting than just recreating an album. What we do on stage is very open and very improvisational.
Students.ch: You really did a good job on the cover of Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music". It really feels like you gave another dimension to the song. How did you come up with the idea of doing this song that way ?
Jamie Cullum : The best way to describe it is that you don’t come up with the idea. The song finds you by accident. You’re in the shower and you find yourself singing a song, you don’t think about what you’re going to sing, Am I correct ?
Students.ch: Yes
Jamie Cullum : Songs can enter my kind of brain by osmosis. And one day it will be underneath my fingers and then I need to develop the idea, obviously. But it needs to happen kind of organically like that.
Students.ch: I heard that you and your wife are expecting your first child. First of all, congratulation. What effects do you think having a child will have on your music? Do you think this will change something?
Jamie Cullum : Well I have no idea. I think it’s something I’ll find out in the years to come. I hope it’ll make me focus even harder, because having a child and getting married, those things; they make me a lot less selfish. When you have a greater center of the universe and how you fit into it, not only your selfish kind of needs, then you become a lot more focused. And yes, that is a good thing.
Students.ch : You've been hosting a weekly show on the BBC Radio 2 since april 2010. Can you tell us a little bit about this experience?
Jamie Cullum : Yeah, it’s wonderful. It takes me back to the days I was talking about before, when I used to be a listener and not a musician. I loved it. I am a big collector of music, and tapes and I have a big record stock. So hosting a radio show is, for me, like a natural extension to who I really am.
Students.ch : What is the song that describes you the best ? Why ?
Jamie Cullum : I think, probably, the song “Mixtape” on my new album “the Pursuit”. It’s a music lover song and it’s kinda a love song for a music geek. Which is basically what I am, you know? Romantic but also musical.
Students.ch : What's coming next ? Another album ?
Jamie Cullum : Yeah, absolutely. I am finishing the tour this November - December and I then go home to start working on the new album early next year. And in the mean time I’ll keep the radio show on going and having a child.
Students.ch : Do you have a message for your fans in Switzerland who will attend your gig in Geneva next month ?
Jamie Cullum : Absolutely. We have nothing but very fun times when playing in Switzerland. So we are excited to come back because we know the audience is always really fun and crazy. So we are really looking forward to seeing everyone and hope to see everyone at the show.
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