He who always sits between tables
Originally a covers artist with surprisingly little vocal experience “I could make noises that were in tune but I didn’t have a voice to speak of,” Jeremy Warmsley thankfully honed his craft to give us sweet infused music just over two years ago. His debut, The Art of Fiction, celebrated vocal variety and a concoction of orchestral layers making you tingle with glee. This year, Warmsley returns with bab distinctly communicating a different leap with his music. This time it’s about wanting us to play a bigger role by sharing the feelings in his work. SUPERSWEET met the involving artist and without a doubt we fell a little bit in love, with droll quips and his sacrifice to talk to little old us (despite his fading voice), what’s not to like?
Equipped ready with luminous Lucozade, Warmsley wets his whistle to talk profusely on new album to his consequential Daniel Day Lewis impression. The cheery singer confesses his last album was “very personal” which may have prevented people to connecting to the songs. This time round Warmsley tackles this problem “I tried really hard on this album to connect to themes that were wider than just the content of my own experiences…that allows them to be opened up to more people. The lyrics…you hear the words and straight away you’ve got a picture in your head, hopefully, if I’ve done my job right! It’s not like you have to have to decode it, say like an of Montreal song. I love them, but what the fuck is going on there”.
Continuously focused on the impact of words, whether inspiring him or affecting others, we wondered how far Jeremy brooded over lyrics considering misinterpretations that have been made. Informing him that his last single was reviewed by some as ‘Loose My Cool’ instead of ‘Lose…” Warmsley jokily chirps “That’s really interesting! Punctuation and Spelling is very important to me…those idiots”. The artist reveals he “never really thinks about” if lyrics get misheard, yet does mention his pal Emmy the Great and her problems with lyrics:“She had a song called ‘Hypnotist Sun’ and she talks about meteor showers, and she said to me “Oh I’ve got it in my head now that its showers of meat…like really meaty showers”. Eventually recalling his own humorous experience how “somebody recently told me that they couldn’t work a lyric in ‘Lose My Cool’, thinking it was “you are the gap in the cheese” it’s in fact “you are the gap in the trees”. Laughing, the pondering lyricist reconsiders the impact of his words “maybe I’ll have to start thinking about it…”
From the onset, Jeremy Warmsley is frank and approachable, honestly revealing his love of cheesy music “I’m perfectly open for my love of extremely cheesy 80s, 70s music like ABBA. I think especially what like about these songs is that anyone can appreciate these songs, but that it takes a really perverse mind to appreciate the production of a song like ‘One of Us’ or ‘Bad’ by Michael Jackson where as synthetic and plastic, probably the worst of the 80s, I fucking love it.” Jeremy eagerly divulges his plans to cover “this ABBA tune, called “One of Us”, it’s one of the greatest songs ever written. Its cheesy production is this horrible light reggae stuff, but I’m looking forward to trying to reinvent it into a style that’s actually make sense when I’m singing it”.
Warmsley’s thought on popular music has not gone unheard, who recently wrote an article dissecting the appeal of obscure music called “Pop Snobbery”. He affirms “what makes music obscure is the fact that it’s difficult to get hold of…hard to hear about” yet Warmsley aims his music to take a different direction: “I do believe that there’s a kind of a cut at the middle of pop music at the moment. Some of them are making rock music like the Kaiser Chiefs and the stated aim is for people to just really have a good time, to make you happy and entertain people. Then there’s people who are like Radiohead or Tom Waits who are trying to make art with a capital “A”, that’s music that’s going to last throughout the ages and really make a difference to people’s lives. Basically what I’m trying to do in my own peculiar way but what I am trying to do is make music that bridges the two and try and do two things at once..I’m trying my best…probably failing”
Despite his calculated direction into music, we had heard about an altercation at his recent Transgressive Tour, so SUPERSWEET wondered if Jeremy Warmsley was in fact a rash person behind his cool exterior. Guiltily, Warmsley blurts “Where did you hear that?! Ah, this guy that comes to all the gigs in Bristol and he dances right at the front and he’s got really long dreads, and he dances crazy and he fucking loves it. He’s a legend and a really sweet guy and I thought there were people making fun of him. They were also talking really loudly right at the front and I was playing this really quiet song and I could just hear them going “mehmehmehh” and I threatened to kill’em. We’d watched “There Will Be Blood This Day Before” and there’s a scene where Daniel Day Lewis comes up to the guy and said (boldly putting on a decadent accent) “I’ll come to your house at night and slit your throat” so I said that to them. Of course no one picked up on the reference and it all got a bit out of hand!”
Despite that his rash action was actually rather witty he confesses that “I do lose my rag sometimes, I get really into what I’m doing and when something happens to snap me out of that it’s like being woken from a dream. Today my sound guy rung me up at 9 in the morning to suggest that I go on stage to ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ by the Baha Men, and I was in the middle of really nice cozy dream about working out how to fix my guitar, and I was woken up for this joke suggestion and I was really pissed off!”
Keeping on his game, Jeremy Warmsley is inherently focused on the progression of his music, whether what he hopes to achieve or even having further records in the pipeline. Refreshing to see an artist so happily attentive Jeremy confirms “I’ve got record three written, record four 25% written. I like to keep ahead of myself”. SUPERSWEET heard of his upcoming fifth album (!) before we had even questioned him “It’s a song cycle about two kids who find a magic world in their back garden. It’s gonna be one of those things where when the first time you listen to it you follow the lyrics and by the time you get to the end you will have a pretty intense experience. I love stories, I love storytelling and I’m not a writer of prose but I have stories in me that I want to try and tell. I love the feeling you get at the end of a book where the loose ends are tied up and you begin to grasp the point the author is trying to make. I don’t see why you can’t do that with a song”.
Hi-fiving us at the end of the interview, the animated singer is a modern gentleman beyond belief, removed from the ostentatious expectation of a solo act. When he takes the stage tonight, Warmsley proves his worth, elevating the sound from his albums to creative heights. Enthusiastic to continue his career in different directions, the modest artist will be anything but failing.
Words: Gemma Dempster
Photography: Dean Varoj