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Jamie Cullum - "music for the love of it"
"Jazz is like punk is supposed to be: you can go anywhere with it!"
A "Twentysomething", that's what he is: and this is also the title of the current album of the young British pianist and singer Jamie Cullum. His incredible voice – remarkable not just for his young age, his true charm and his pop-appeal helped to make the up-and-coming musician one of the presently "most wanted" new acts in the business. "Twentysomething" is Cullum's third CD and this time international attention is guaranteed. Now a major-act, he is the one to transport "jazz with a pop-appeal" into the future.
Jamie Cullum
Although, in the end, as he himself prophesied, Cullum didn't really win the "Brit Award" he was nominated for, he did a stunning duet with singer Katie Melua. Anyway ... does a "winner" have to win all the time?
Carina Prange talked to Jamie in January this year.
Carina: How many interviews did you do today? Are you a little fed up with it?
Jamie: No, everyone asks me that before they start! It´s actually number eleven I think. That's not many!
Carina: Then here's another one ... On the 9th of February, many people are going to vote for you in the category "British breakthrough artist" of the Brit Awards ...
Jamie: Oh... I don't think so!
Carina: ... how important would it be for you to win this award, and what would be the consequences for your career?
Jamie: Actually it is not even remotely important for me to win the award! Because, you know, just to be nominated within that arena, is already quite an incredible thing ...: Well it's very unlikely to enter this kind of mainstream-arena! It's just nice to be performing there, to be at the party. I think I'll just go there, drink some of the free drinks and then it should be enough! It is not important for me to win even remotely.
Jamie
Cullum - "Twentysomething"
Carina: You have been on tour in the USA and as well in Japan. What impressed you most in the USA and in Japan and in which country did you feel more comfortable?
Jamie: Ah, that's interesting! I love to travel, I try to make myself comfortable wherever I go. I mean, even every separate state in America feels different. They are like another country. I must say, I did love Japan! I love the food. And also the culture is very strong out there.
Carina: Everywhere your concerts are sold out in advance, you can be seen on TV, in magazines and all around the world. Would you say, that you sometimes look at yourself as a person, who is in a way a fictional character, that there are two Jamie Cullums in existence?
Jamie: Yes, exactly: At the moment I feel like there are eleven Jamie Cullums in existence! You know, it´s a crazy life, and I find it difficult. So I have to kind of match up the life that I actually lead with the one I see on the television and I read about in magazines. But I see it from inside, you know ...
Carina: A short biographical question: You grew up in England, but your father is from Palestine, is that right?
Jamie: Actually ... O.K., it is strictly true: My dad was born in Jerusalem. His mother was German and his father was English. He was born in Jerusalem but he came over to England by the time he was like one or two. And he grew up in Kent.
Carina: You took "Drama and Film" as one of your subjects while you were at the University...
Jamie: No, actually it was "English and Film"!
Carina: ... in which way did that have an influence on your stage-performance? In other words: Does an artist, who wants to be successful, have to be an entertainer and musician to the same degree?
Jamie: Actually I would say that course had no effect on my stage-show or -presence or whatever. Because the "acting" wasn´t acting really; it hasn´t anything to do with that. The stage-personage that I developed really comes purely through playing off the DJ-list from the age of fifteen, sixteen. Playing a lot of gigs in rock-bands, pop-bands, hiphop-bands, reggae-bands, funk-bands, jazz-bands, everything! That´s where it comes from, really.
And I would say that... you know, it is important to be entertaining on stage. But it doesn´t mean you have to please everyone. It means you got to be engaged, whether it disgusts people or excites people, or whatever.
Carina: Concerning your singing and piano-playing: you are mostly self-taught. Do you feel the need to learn more, to get deeper into playing and singing – technically?
Jamie: Yes, definitely! Definitely, this is something I crave!
Carina: Do you often feel the pressure to stay successful, is there a fear concerning the future or the possibility to loose control?
Jamie: A success, for me that means playing great, writing great songs. And that's a lifetime project that will grow and grow. I don't worry about that!
Carina: To write songs and lyrics, what inspires you?
Jamie: What inspires me? ... anything! is the answer. Anything can inspire me: A newspaper-article, a dream, a thought, an emotion, a rhythm, a melody ... anything.
Carina: You also play songs written by your brother – how much is he a part of your success?
Jamie: Oh, he is central! He was central to getting me into music in the first place and to lots of other things like that.
Jamie
Cullum
Carina: To put pop- and rock-material into a jazz-context, to use jazz as a medium to express different stylistical aspects and your current musical ideas: Does jazz mean for you sort of a field for experimentation, a free art form without limits?
Jamie: That´s why it excites me so much – you really hit the nail on the head! I found myself explaining that to every journalist today: And you are really the first one, who understands why I do it in the first place. They asked: Why jazz? What if you were into other music...? Really: it has the biggest palette available, it´s the widest platform available to explore so much, it´s so free! It´s like punk is supposed to be: you can go anywhere with it. That´s what it is so exciting. That´s why I do it, that´s why I am here.
Carina: Young musicians, singers and instrumentalists, youngsters, who dream of a career like yours – what would you tell them: what is most important to reach the aim?
Jamie: Just to play music for the love of it and for no other reason! Don't do it to get famous, don't do it to be on the cover of a magazine, don't do it to get a major-record-deal. Just play music for the same reason you play football in the park. The same reason you maybe paint or draw or something. Then ... hopefully ... hopefully, if you work hard enough, things will come to you. You know, you have to make your own luck, you have to find things – but if the main reason for you making music is cause you love it, then it comes along.
Carina: Do you have a sort of philosophy for life?
Jamie: Find something you like doing and do it for the rest of your life!
Carina Prange
CD: Jamie Cullum - "Twentysomething" (Universal 06024 98655574)
Jamie Cullum im Internet: www.jamiecullum.com
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Fotos: Universal
