Jack Garratt: “I want to see more joy, more grounding and more songs. More things that make my heart feel hopeful and give my steps more purpose"

At 32, Jack Garratt is at peace. Having won both the Brits’ Critics’ Choice award and the BBC Sound of 2016 poll (a feat achieved by only a handful of artists, including Adele, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith), Garratt found himself overwhelmed and burnt out by the pressures of the music industry.  A lt has changed in his life since, including label changes, a career hiatus, moving countries, and getting married and since divorced. Sitting at home in London, he tells me how he’s rediscovered meaning in what he does.

“I’ve been in a space of purposelessness, I think, and I’m coming through the other side,” Garratt admits. “I defined myself so strongly for so long through the music I made and my place in the industry. Whether I was selling enough tickets, whether I was getting enough streams… blah, blah, blah. None of it matters. The only thing that matters is that I am alive and healthy and well.”

The singer elaborates on the theme.

“I had a really good chat with my therapist recently,” he continues, “about how I’ve lost my ‘god’, I say god with quotation marks, because I’m not religious. God for me is purpose. My therapist was like, ‘And you’re trying to find him in the music industry? God was never there.’ My purpose in life is to seek the joy in what it is I’m lucky to do.  I’ve worked really hard to have the career I have. I love writing songs more than anything in the world.

“My most recent tattoo is the three rules that Stephen Sondheim put into print about what makes a good lyric. I love songwriting so much and I got lost for a bit, because I got so concerned with what the industry was doing. I’ve learned that even the people in the industry don’t know what the industry is doing, so why should I be losing sleep over it?” Since the release of his lauded debut Phase in 2016, Garratt has released one other studio album (2020’s Love, Death & Dancing) and is currently promoting his third live album, Jack Garratt At PizzaExpress Live In London. Known for his electrifying one-man band shows, this LP marks the first time he’s ever recorded with a band.

“I’ve played with a band a couple of times on bigger stages in more intense places,” he notes. “ But this is the first time I’ve done something as delicate and intricate. I would say this is the first time I’ve done something as joyous and as free as this with a band.”

Jack Garratt

Featuring stunning new arrangements of tracks like ‘Surprise Yourself’ and ‘Worry, the album was recorded live at Pizza Express in Holborn, London. Garratt makes magic when he performs and his soulful energy and musicianship are brilliantly captured on the album.

“My biggest regret is that I’ll never get to see myself perform live,” he reflects. “I’ve worked really hard at that part of my career and there aren’t a lot of artists who are doing the show that I do, mostly because they’re smarter than me!”

There’s no doubt that Jack Garratt gives every part of himself every single time he performs live.

“I don’t know how to do it any other way,” he nods. “That’s part of the reason why touring and doing shows is so exhausting for me. With that in mind, when I listen to this album, I can hear how tired my voice is. Because I’ve already done two performances earlier in the day for safety recordings and I don’t know how not to give 100%” “Most of the takes are from the show in the evening, because the electricity in the air was tangible in the record. But when I listen to it, because I’m my harshest critic, I hear my voice is tired.”

While Garratt has been hard on himself since day one when it comes to his music, over the last eight years, his confidence has grown in terms of his stage presence and swagger. For the album performance, he is wearing a teal green suit with matching nail polish and electric guitar.

“Funny thing about the suit, that was my wedding suit!” he chuckles. “I’ve been kind of repurposing it ever since. It’s become a piece of armour for me. It’s not a costume, it’s armour that protects me, but it also gets me in the right headspace to walk out on stage. I feel like I’m arriving at an important moment when I’m wearing that suit.”

Having released more live albums than studio recordings, Garratt explains what attracts him to the format.

“A big part of my musicianship and art is based on what I do live,” he notes. “My favourite albums when I was growing up were often live albums. When you’re young and finding all of this music, who knows if you’re ever going to get to see any of these people live? I’m not thinking! ‘Oh I wonder if I’ll ever get to see Stevie Wonder play?’ Live albums hold a certain amount of gravitas.”

Stevie Ray Vaughan Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985 is another favourite of Garratt’s: “I love that record, it has a really special place in my heart.”

Having been booked for an acoustic night at Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland in 1982, Vaughan’s rip-roaring blues performance was met by boos. But all was not lost.

“I love that story,” Jack reflects. “Jackson Browne then offered Stevie Ray Vaughan his studio in California, which is where Stevie recorded Texas Flood, was his debut and biggest record. Then David Bowie was like, ‘Hey I’m doing this record with Nile Rogers in London. I want you to record on it’. So the lead guitar on Let’s Dance is Stevie Ray Vuaghan, and it’s all because of this show he did where he was booed off stage!”

Having last released a studio album in 2020, Garratt fans are crying out for new songs. Going by his posts on instagram, he seems to be heavily teasing a studio album.

“I’ve written more in the last year than I have cumulatively across my entire career,” he says. “My goal is to get a studio album out as soon as possible – the trick is getting the partner for it. That’s where I am at the moment. I know these songs I’m writing are the best ones I’ve written and I love them dearly. I want to find a partner who is as creatively ambitious as I am.

“Because I’m really tired of putting my songs in front of people and being the only one in the room who feels there’s something to risk. Just because I wrote them doesn’t mean I should hold all the risk. I want someone in front of me who will die for my songs in the way I will.”

As we cross our fingers in hope that Jack finds the right person to release his next studio album with, halfway through, 2024 I ask what he’d like to see happen over the next six months.

“In my personal life, I want to see more joy, more grounding and more songs,” he says. “More things that make my heart feel hopeful and give my steps more purpose. It is impossibly difficult for a lot of people in the world at the moment. It feels very strange to be trying to create things and release music and take any of the spotlight away from conversations that should be happening, specifically in regards to what’s happening in Palestine.

“There’s lots of things I’d like to see happen in the world, but something that’s always on my mind is getting the fuckin’ Tories out!”

• Jack Garratt At PizzaExpress: Live In London is out now.