Just Jack

‘Someone talking about their first ‘E’ or meeting his girl at the school gates is just so narrow. That’s not what I’m about. I want to put over life experiences with some kind of depth.’

Twenty seven year old Camden native Just Jack comes from a long tradition of British wordsmiths. Not of the MC variety, bragging about guns, gangs and schoolyard shenanigans, but the poetic observers, mapping the changing shapes of the world they watch. Artists ranging from Massive Attack to Roots Manuva, Stereo MCs to Billy Bragg; all speaking in their own natural dialect, telling the stories of their own lives. More classic Gil Scott Heron than contemporary geezer chic. Only very British.

Jack grew up in North London. His upbringing typical of any kid surrounded by a myriad of different cultures and ideologies on a daily basis. It was an experience which was to give him a natural ability to see both sides of the coin. Something which would emerge in his lyrics a few years later.
“I’m a typical middle class north Londoner.” he explains “Growing up, there was always a clash between my liberal, comfortable home life, and my school and the kind of people I was knocking around with. Something that really pissed me off at the time, but should be thankful for now, was the lack of a TV at home. This forced me to read a lot. I had to bullshit for ages and tell people that my TV was at the menders because everyone would have thought I was too poor to have one!”

A wannabe breakdancer at eight, his love of electro naturally evolved towards house culture at fifteen. He started DJing soon after. However he didn’t start making music until after completing a degree in Furniture Design at Kingston University. He then enrolled in a community music production course being run by a friend of his and felt immediately inspired by the possibilities offered by sampling.

The years that followed found him honing his sound by night, and working at a series of unfulfilling jobs by day.

“I’ve been a washer upper, a flower arranger, a runner for a TV post production company… I even worked at Gap for while. That made me all the more determined to work at the music. I would get this down time in a studio and be recording all night, and working at Gap all day. It was knackering but it was very inspiring time.”

The hard work was worth it though. The resulting songs found Jack exploring stripped down terrain, where musical opposites become melted through simple arrangements. It’s music which is all about contradiction and dichotomy, where dark moods play counterpoint to warm ambience and source material is dragged from the most diverse places.

“I’ve never been into one kind of music to the detriment of others.” he says “I’m not even good at listening to the whole of an album by the same artist. So my music is all about inclusivity. It’s inclusive of everything I’ve liked, from odd underground stuff to disgusting pop. Actually, I really like sampling from really shit records because it’s more satisfying polishing a turd than using something that’s already good.”

“I’ve never been into one kind of music to the detriment of others.” he says “I’m not even good at listening to the whole of an album by the same artist. So my music is all about inclusivity. It’s inclusive of everything I’ve liked, from odd underground stuff to disgusting pop. Actually, I really like sampling from really shit records because it’s more satisfying polishing a turd than using something that’s already good.”

Jack’s debut album, ‘The Outer Marker’ reveals an artist with more than one tale to tell. ‘Paradise (Lost and Found) offers the perfect introduction to the world of Just Jack. A gorgeous slice of lazy summertime urban blues, it was written, like much of his forthcoming album, during a three month stint living in France. Typically the track features a barbed spike behind its balmy warmth.

“‘Paradise’ is about a three month stay in the south of France, taking in an intense affair, a stalker and the general feeling of being a stranger in an unreal environment. I went to France because I wanted somewhere that I could feel slightly removed. I didnt want to go to Bali or somewhere and be surrounded by a load of crusties! I of lazy days, amazing storms… a mentally open time.”

Elsewhere on the album the stunning ‘Snowflakes’ marries the duel themes of hope and despair over a melting groove and haunting ambience before dissolving into an achingly melancholic chorus and a gorgeous, liquid string arrangement. ‘Eye to Eye’ layers sombre piano motifs and funk fuelled beats over a tale of dysfunctional love, while ‘Triple Tone Eyes’ offers scratched soul par excellence. Its lilting melody as infectious as it is addictive. And then there are the lyrics. Just Jack doesn’t talk about the so-called rough hoods of London, just because that’s what your supposed to do at the moment. His lyrics are drawn from the wider lexicon of human emotion and fuelled by a rare love of language. His songs are all about the dueling opposites of the realities of life – love and hate, darkness and light, hope and despair.

“I’m an observer, an avid people watcher. Everything interests me in some way” he says.

Jack’s a part of a great tradition of British lyricists, however somehow standing alone, untouched by fad or fashion, in field of his own.

“I never had heroes and never wanted to be like other musicians.’ he says ‘I have no affiliations to anyone, I’m not a part of a gang, I’m not a part of a scene and I don’t have a sound that’s obviously a part of scene. I’m Just Jack.”

Just Jack indeed.