If you’re a lover of music which truly makes you feel something, then you need to be listening to Jazz Morley.
Encapsulating real-life stories and struggles into carefully crafted emotive pop offerings, Jazz Morley boasts a natural lyrical talent and divine vocal ability. Earlier this year she released two incredible singles which are taken from her upcoming EP set to release later this year.
On Friday, Jazz Morley closed the Barclay Card stage at BST Hyde Park and we had the chance to sit down with her backstage to discuss her single ‘Lights’, down days, pre-show rituals and more.
You’re closing the Barclaycard stage later on today, how are you feeling about that performance?
Very excited.
Have you done many festivals so far this year?
I did a couple a shows with Tom Jones a few weeks ago which were really fun.
Did you get to meet him?
I did, he was lovely, really nice.
You’ve recently released your new track ‘Lights’ what was the inspiration behind this song?
So I went to Spain to do some writing with my friend who’s a producer and on our way back to where he lives in Spain we broke down in a tunnel and a lorry very narrowly missed the back of us and we all thought we were going to die. As soon as we got back to the studio we sat down and wrote this song which is about embracing life, being a bit confused about the whole experience but realising that life is too short so let’s just go for it.
Life is super short, What do you do to try and live in the moment?
Well, I live by the sea and that’s my therapy in a way. I often go swimming which is really nice and obviously I have to do the whole social media thing because of being in the music industry but I try to keep it as real as possible.
And with social media do you ever feel the pressure to be, act or look a certain way?
I think if I was younger I would because I feel sorry for teenagers these days because I struggled as a teenager without social media so I can’t imagine that now but I’m very open about mental health online and super passionate about that so I just try and keep it real in the hope that it helps someone else. I think it’s important if someone sees someone might have this ‘perfect’ life to know that they have struggles regularly and if I’m honest I feel down half the time I’d say because this job is so up and down and there are huge highs but there are days when you feel rubbish and I just feel that being totally transparent about that with people who might follow you online is really important to me and I think people do appreciate it.
And when you have those down days is there anything in particular which lifts your spirits or comforts you?
I like to walk or run by the sea and listen to music really loud but usually fresh air and being by the beach.
You’ve also got an EP coming soon, what can you tell us about that?
Well, I released Parallel world and lights which are both on the EP and the rest of the EP is coming out September time I believe. There’s a couple of songs on there that I’ll be performing this evening and I’ve played them at a couple of previous shows and they seem to have gone down well so it’s nice.
Out of all of your songs which would you say is most special to you?
I would say it’s probably a song called ‘Disconnected’. I wrote it about 10 years ago before my brother went to Afghanistan with the army and I finally released it last year with a military charity so that’s the song I connect with and is most important to me. All my songs have different jobs but that one is the one if I had to take just one with me.
Do you still get nervous when you perform, if so, do you have any pre-show rituals to try and calm you down?
I do but I feel like if I’m prepared then it’s a good nervous but if I’m not then it’s a bad nervous. In terms of rituals, I would say drinking some whiskey.
How does it feel for you, especially with the emotions involved in your songs, to know that they will actually be released for people to hear?
I really like that feeling because I feel like when I’m on stage and being on stage is something that I love the most, I love the writing, but I really appreciate the writing more when I’m on stage.
Lastly, what would you say the highlight of your year has been so far and what are you most excited about for the rest of the year?
Highlights so far this year has to include today because today is a massive highlight for me, also the two shows I did with Tom Jones were incredible. I’m excited because I have a couple of shows at the Hammersmith Apollo coming up and next week I’m performing in Paris which is my first show abroad. Oh, I also have my biggest ever headline show in London in November so there are lots of things to look forward to.
Jazz Morley released a brand new single ‘Jackie and Wilson’ today which is available to stream across all major platforms and tickets to her November headline show are available via her website.
Be sure to keep up with Jazz Morley on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and let us know what you thought of the Interview over on Twitter @CelebMix
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