Welsh singer Jade Bird tells how she’s already surpassed her wildest dreams by touring and releasing her debut album
Five years ago the singer wrote a list of dreams she hoped to achieve, sealed it and gave it to her grandma for safekeeping and now she's going to open it on the day of her debut album's release
FIVE years ago, Jade Bird wrote a list of dreams she hoped to achieve, sealed it and gave it to her grandma for safekeeping.
She was 16 and a student at the Brit School in Croydon when she penned those hopes.
Now, Jade is one of 2019’s biggest “new names” and releases her self-titled debut album today.
She tells me: “On the release day I’m going to open the letter and see what I wished for.
“Back then my ambitions were just to make music and be able to play gigs.
“I never expected I was going to travel the world playing gigs with my band and best friends. I have surpassed any dreams I had.”
Jade, 21, is the real deal. A singer-songwriter who does not rely on co-writers and her album is based on the “experiences of the past two years”.
It is evident Jade has star quality when I meet her for lunch in New York.
In a few hours she will play live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the huge US evening chat show, and she has just finished a cross-country tour with the Irish Take Me To Church singer Hozier.
After the show, Jade posts on her Instagram: “The Fallon performance . . . it’s the highlight of my whole year so far.”
'YOU HAVE TO BE A BIT SELF-INDULGENT'
Earlier, over a lunch of sushi and green tea, she tells me: “I love playing live, and doing big TV shows are exciting. It’s my second time on Fallon.”
Jade is good company. Chatting and jumping from one topic to another, she has a confidence that makes her an old head on young shoulders.
She says with a laugh: “I am a bit of a granny, I feel older than my years. I like to read rather than go to parties but at the same time my band and I have a lot of fun on tour and can be big kids.
“I like to keep morale up and not take things so seriously all the time. I enjoy life and laughs but I’m serious about the music. Serious about the craft of songwriting.
“Balance is the key to understanding the context of the album and how it represents the experience of my past two years.
“You have to be a bit self-indulgent with a debut record and write about how you see the world.”
Jade made the album in London before decamping to upstate New York to work with producer Simone Felice, of the Felice Brothers.
She says: “I’d been having a bad time with anxiety and so where we were in New York really helped.
“We were in the countryside, like Wales, with hills and incredible seasons — snow, falling leaves and silence. We tracked everything live and then there was a tiny vocal booth and piano room.
“In those four rooms, the whole record was made. There was even a studio dog, who was great when I was a bit stressed. I’ve found anxiety really crippling at times.
"It sounds pretty precocious, but I got into transcendental meditation, which pretty much saved me at one point. It was two years ago and things were bad for me.”
Standout songs on the album include Ruins “about when everything is perfect one minute and the end of the world the next”, Side Effects “I wrote that one after my boyfriend (guitarist Luke Prosser in Jade’s band) went for a walk to get away.
Jade Bird - Jade Bird
1. Ruins
2. Lottery
3. I Get No Joy
4. Side Effects
5. My Motto
6. Does Anybody Know
7. Uh Huh
8. Good At It
9. 17
10. Love Has All Been Done Before
11. Going Gone
12. If I Die
Sometimes relationships can feel claustrophobic” and I Get No Joy “about saying it’s OK to have negative feelings sometimes”.
The album’s closer, the poignant piano ballad If I Die, is about Jade’s mum and is the singer’s favourite track on the record.
Jade says: “I am so close to my mum. She has worked so hard for me since I was a kid. I don’t know anyone who works as hard as my mum. She is thrilled for me now.
“But she said if something happened to me, she wasn’t bothered about sticking around without me.
“I know parents feel like that about their children but I wrote that song to say if I died, I’d want my mum to stick around.
“There are so many personal moments like that across the album and I’m so proud of it.”
Jade is labelled Americana, country and indie, which proves how diverse the 12 tracks on her record are. She says: “You can’t really put my music in a box.
“I get the Americana thing but the one thing I really don’t connect with is being called a country artist.
'I FEEL REALLY STRONGLY ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS'
“I find that quite limiting. I don’t sing with an American accent. It’s just a bit unimaginative and people calling me country need to listen to my record.
“Ruins, fair enough, it’s open. But then you get I Get No Joy, Love Has All Been Done Before and My Motto and you are like, country?
Come on, really? Cut me a break.”
She cites Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette and Patti Smith as her icons. Jade, who grew up with her single mum and gran, admits she had these two strong women as role models.
“I feel really strongly about women’s rights and making young girls feel like they can do it. The more educated we can get as a gender as women, the better.”
Jade feels strongly about these issues and wants to get involved with Tori Amos’ RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network) charity.
She says: “I’ve been reading a Tori Amos book about some of the misogyny she had to experience in the industry. It’s unbelievable and so even if I was selling RAINN products on her merch stand it would be great. I really want to stand for that cause and get involved.”
Singer Ryan Adams declared himself a fan of Jade (and her of his music) when he tweeted her before claims of inappropriate behaviour emerged against him. How does that make her feel today?
She says: “You just delete his music and move on. But it’s not just Ryan, there’s others. Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek) called a female journalist a bitch on stage.
“Sun Kil Moon is another whose music I won’t be listening to again.
“I think it’s great that women have spoken out. Luckily, I’ve been surrounded by good men in the industry.
“My manager and my label head have been nothing but supportive and I know I am fortunate in that respect. But it is not the same for everyone.”
Jade says her independence comes from travelling around as a child. She was born to Army parents in Northumberland before moving to Germany, London and then settled in Bridgend, South Wales when her mum and dad split up.
'I HAMMER MY VOICE TO TRY TO GET TO PLACES'
She says: “I guess I found my escape in music when I was about 12 or 13, post my parents’ and grandparents’ divorces.
“We had a family friend who played the acoustic guitar and I was just transfixed by it.
“So I borrowed my grandma’s and would sit on the floor, try out chords and started writing music virtually straight away.
“Anything to do with words sparks a thing in me. It was quite therapeutic at the time as I was going through a lot and I’ve not stopped songwriting since then.”
It was moving to London at 16 and performing at school and doing open mic nights where Jade found her voice.
She says: “I had to get up on stage and sing and keep doing it. It’s where everything started.
“I’d got into the Brit School — the second time round as I was rejected the first time — and I’m glad I went there. I learned a hell of a lot.
“There’s a preconception that it’s like a fame academy, where you see people dancing in the hallways. It’s not. They really work you hard. And my voice has improved so much over the years. For me, I’ve hammered it to try and get to places.
“A big turning point was hearing other artists do that. When I moved to London, I played at Spiriyual, this blues bar in Camden owned by Ref, a Brazilian
“He was like my mentor. We became really close friends and he pushed me. I was playing with these burly guys and would get drowned out, so I had to figure out a way to drown them out. That’s when I started to really sing.”
After being away from home for the tour, Jade says she is excited to get back to the UK and has a week of record store performances to celebrate her album release.
She says: “I’m looking ahead and already thinking of the next album. I never stop writing and the whole album was an attempt for people to see me as a songwriter first.
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“I wrote the whole album by myself. Someone told me only two singles in the charts in the past five years have been written solely by one person and that was Ed Sheeran and Pharrell. Jesus, that’s crazy!
“I’ve had an amazing two years making this record and I hope to make a classic all-time record one day too.
“It’s great to be compared to icons like Alanis Morissette but I want to do my own thing in a way, that is my biggest aspiration. I’d love to just be Jade Bird. And when I open that letter of dreams and start writing the next list, that’s what will be at the very top.”
- The album Jade Bird is out today.