New Jack City

February 12th sees Jack L headline Dublin s Point Theatre for the first time. The culmination of many years hard work, the Point show is a major landmark on a journey that has taken him from those legendary early days at the DA Club through countless tours of the country and onto greener fields, as the Athy-born singer developed his craft and became the electric performer we know today.
I never really thought of myself playing the Point, he confesses. My show always seemed to have that small, intimate thing, but it seems to have grown, and over the last year I ve played bigger gigs like the
Fleadh and Glastonbury, and I just saw that it had the same effect when we did it in a bigger venue. Seeing as I ve played some of the smallest venues in the country, I may as well play one of the biggest ones. Plus, it s the day after my birthday, and what a way to celebrate turning 27. As my uncle would say to me, it s the All Ireland of gigs.
What s nice is that it is really all down to working the ground level. I started out playing every venue in the country, places where most men would fear to tread, he grins, and building it up from that. Without being too sentimental or too Mariah Carey about it, it is about the fans and building up a following, and it has been done in a very real, word of mouth way.
The Point concert aside, 2000 is going to be a really busy year for Jack and his band. First up, Jack L is going digital. Jack is to be the pilot project for eMuse, a cutting edge company creating the technology to make fully interactive digital television a reality. In the next couple of months, eMuse will present a new free-to-air channel that will be beamed into 22 countries over the Astra satellite, featuring Jack as its pilot project.
If digitally connected, a viewer, with the assistance of a basic remote control, can find endless information about the images they are watching on their TV. The audience can look up details about a singer, the venue, other performers, instruments, tour dates and even listen to previous recordings and purchase them. All of this may be done during or after the show being transmitted.
Our intention is to work with artists who, with a conventional record deal, would never get major exposure unless they were already selling millions of units, explains Kara Hanahoe from eMuse.
Jack Lukeman is a wonderful singer and an astounding performer. Jack is not easy to categorise and therefore the perfect artist for eMuse to work with. We have made a stonking TV show with Jack in Vicar St. (the gig was nominated for a Hot Press Award) which we are currently embedding with all his details. We have developed a brand and a look for the albums and we will be up and running next year.
Think of it: audiences in 22 countries will have the facility to see Jack live in concert, to interact there and then with the show, to find endless information about him, his band and other acts, venues etc. Finally, the e-commerce possibilities available include listening, at the push of a button, to his other recordings, looking at the merchandise, and buying it on the spot.
So why did eMuse choose Jack to pilot the scheme?
I think it was down to the live appeal of the show, the singer says modestly, over a pint of plain in a quiet Dublin hostelry. You get a better buzz off a live performance it is a spectacle as much as a listening experience. Digital TV is at an early stage, so it's hard to tell how impactful it will be. But in time, I think it will pretty much take over, which is great news for me anyway.
Digital TV is not the only front on which Jack L is advancing in 2000. He is also planning to avail of BES (Business Expansion Scheme), a Government incentive for high risk businesses. In the past, BES was mainly confined to manufacturing industry but has since been widened in scope to include music. The basic premise is that people invest in Jack s music, receive 48% tax relief and can claim their dividends after five years. According to industry insiders, BES has not taken off in the music industry because most acts tend to sign with a major label, but the impact of the scheme for an independent artist could be huge, giving them the financial muscle to compete with the big boys. The band are currently looking for investors, and details can be found on their website at www.jacklukeman.com.
It hasn t always been TV,
investment schemes and gigs at the Point, though. Jack L has certainly blossomed as an artist, from those early days when the billing was Jack Lukeman and the Black Romantics, performing a set of mainly Jacques Brel songs. Three albums later, Jack has dropped most of the Brel material from his set in favour of original songs. He tours the country almost constantly and sells out wherever he plays. His live shows have gained legendary status, and the man himself admits that it is on stage where he really comes into his own.
The original band formed when Jack and bassist Ginger O'Keeffe discovered a mutual love of Jacques Brel, convened The Black Romantics, and started gigging around Dublin.
It was a late night thing we always started the show at midnight, he recalls. It was a very exciting time, playing all those gigs. Half of the reason why I did the Brel songs was to give me a vent to be on a stage, because I didn't think my own stuff was up to scratch at the time. It definitely helped my craft, if you like, and got me used to being on stage.
The crowds gradually built up, mainly through word of mouth, and Jack & Co. quickly became a cult sensation. The Black Romantics culminated in the Wax album, recorded live at the DA Club and featuring incendiary recordings of Brel classics like 'Jackie', 'If You Go Away' and Port Of Amsterdam'.
When the album was done I decided to make a break from it while it was on a high, he says. I didn't really want to do another Jacques Brel album, but the core of The Black Romantics is still in the band. We still have elements of that and I think we never lost that original appeal.
When did he decide to write more of his own material?
I always had an instinct to write, which I think most teenagers have, he smiles wryly, and slowly but surely those turned into songs. I didn't really see the Brel show lasting as long as it did, but it was a great time. When I ended it, I felt strong enough about doing my own stuff.
It seems to have picked up moreso since I started doing original material, probably because when you're singing another man's songs, you can only give them so much. Obviously you're going to give a little bit more to your own songs because you know exactly where they are coming from.
Two years ago saw the Acoustico album, a limited edition unplugged collection featuring Jack and guitarist David Constantine, which showcased the duo's songwriting talents for the first time. It was mainly original material, although there were a couple of covers, most notably Count John McCormack's 'Macushla' and an acapella version of 'Ol Man River', which had become a live favourite.
That came about as a mistake, really, he laughs. It was a song my father used to sing at sessions, so I knew it, and one night my microphone kept breaking down, so eventually I just sang it with no music. It's funny, because you can bombard people with technology and then you get up on a table and sing a song and people think it is the most amazing thing. It is music at its simplest, which is something that has obviously been lost if people think it is so amazing.
His star has continued in the ascent since Acoustico, culminating in the release of his third album earlier this year. Metropolis Blue captures the Jack L sound more completely than anything that went before, and has all the raw energy and passion that makes up the live show.
Metropolis Blue seems like my first album, in a lot of ways, he says. The rest of the stuff was just a stepping stone, a glimpse of what I was doing. Metropolis Blue is the fruits of all that.
We recorded it after doing seven nights in Whelan's. Live music, for me, is where it's at it captures a moment. That's what I love about old recordings, 'cos most of them were done in one take. That was the whole idea in recording Metropolis Blue. We recorded some of the songs with us all in the one room, and a lot of the takes are the first takes. That wasn't an intentional thing but it just seemed that the more you re-do songs, the more you start thinking about them.
Music to me is about magic you just can't put it in a box. The clinical nature of the stuff that is bursting out of the charts at the moment is a bit of a nightmare it s more like a science. Mistakes are part of life too so why not put them on a record?
Jack admits to being very pleased at how the live show has travelled outside Ireland, progressing from the early days when Jack and Dave [Constantine] went out with the old guitar and played every fucking chicken coup we could to sell-out performances in Europe and America.
In New York, the show is over the top enough that they'll dig it, he smiles. For all the slating Americans get, their enthusiasm is always inspiring. It has travelled really well in France as well, maybe because of the passionate nature of the show. There seem to be no language barriers because it's a spectacle to look at as well as the music.
Sometimes it's not what you're singing about, it's a link with what's coming off the stage. You can join something between the audience and yourself and it's not a language thing, Entertainment is one word for it, but there's more to it than that.
Unquestionably, it is the Jack L live experience that is in the process of wowing the world: 90 minutes of pure adrenaline-fuelled madness that encompasses everything from feather boas to howling at the moon.
It's hard from my perspective to put a handle on it, cos it's just what I do, he says modestly. Some people are astounded by it but to me it makes all the sense in the world. People still want to be entertained. They don't want to eat McDonald's every night, which is all they're getting - fast food music. There is a big hole there and it's not being filled.
Jack adopts different characters on stage, from flaming transvestite to honey-tongued lothario, from small-town chancer to frightened child.
I've always sung like that it's like finding the source of a song. When you get right into the heart of it, that is why I was inspired to make music, for that moment. To go from being a bisexual transvestite in 'Ode To Ed Wood' to being a kid in 'Rooftop Lullaby', you can't sing it all in the same mindframe," he smiles. "It's like 'method singing': you take on a persona.
His personality on-stage bears scant similarity to his off-stage manner. On stage, he can be supremely confident, even arrogant, whereas in person he is affable, modest and quick to laugh at himself. I wondered if he psyches himself up before performing.
We kinda have a psyche thing in the dressing room beforehand, he says. I meet people afterwards and they tell me I'm not at all like they thought I'd be. It's like they expect you to jump up on a table and start singing. I sometimes feel like I disappoint people cos I'm not as mad as they think I am.
Being on stage is like excess energy leaving my body, getting rid of whatever's inside me. I find performing a very good vent you just let go of the fucking steering wheel and go with it. I try not to think about it too much if you count your steps you forget how to dance. But most of the time it works.
Does he ever watch videos of a show and think 'Jesus, what the fuck was I doing?'.
He laughs. Yeah, most of the time, but people like it and I feel good doing it. It's a bizarre world, and one could go crazy very easily, jumping from one part of your head to another all the time. It's a bit like when people drink they change too. It's my excuse to be a drunken, arrogant fool.
Probably the biggest testament to the power of the Jack L live show is the fact that he has managed to build up all the momentum he has without the help of a major label. In fact, it wasn't until Metropolis Blue that he linked up with any label, and the lucky recipient was Dublin's Dara Records. Joe O'Reilly, head of Dara, recalls seeing Jack live for the first time:
I was just knocked out by the gig. I didn't know what to expect, and from the first number he did, his voice just grabbed me. I was a fan from the minute he opened his mouth.
Confessing that he was amazed that they didn't have a record deal at that stage, Joe promptly got in touch with Jack's manager, Martin Clancy, and a deal was done. (Incidentally the album is currently undergoing an artwork change, which will see Jack billed as Jack L instead of Jack Lukeman, which caused confusion in some quarters.)
While it is possible to retain independent status in Ireland, due to the small size of the market, in somewhere like the US that is not always feasible. To this end, Jack signed a publishing deal with a New York company called Bug Music, who manage self-owned catalogues around the world, and whose client roster has included luminaries like Iggy Pop and David Bowie.
They operate with very short contracts, so you're not giving all your livestock to someone else, Joe smiles. People who have always maintained their integrity, like Johnny Cash and David Bowie, have worked with Bug before.
Jack first came to my attention last summer when he came over for a couple of low-key shows, says Bug's Gary Veletri. I didn't see them but I had started hearing a lot about him. A girl that worked here at the time had seen one of the shows and was raving about it. She brought Jack's manager in for a meeting, and without even hearing Jack or seeing a show, by the time I got done talking with Martin [Jack's manager], I was ready to work. Fortunately, once I heard the music, it verified my instincts.
Veletri maintains that Jack's live show is quickly gaining him new legions of admirers Stateside.
The response from people has been really incredible, he says. He wins an audience over, and there are people that keep coming back every time he plays. I think people are really thirsting for this thing that Jack does so uniquely.
Jack comes over here and he's very flash and he's got a very dramatic show, which has a sense of humour and is over the top: there's something kinda glam about it. It's hitting a lot of people as very refreshing, but there are also people who don't get it at all if Jack was to stand motionless, staring at the floor, he would be praised as the second coming by the same people.
It is not just in the US that Jack is making ground. Paul Charles, from London-based Asgard, Jack's agents for the entire world excluding North America and Canada, feels that Jack's following is on the rise globally.
With this kind of artist, all you've got to do is put them on stage and it builds from there, he says. By virtue of his performance he will build up a live following, and record sales will follow. That's more real than just writing a hit single and signing a contract on the strength of that. But because he is so powerful live, you tend to forget the strength of the material: I can't think of one bad song in the set."
Paul first came across Jack while on holidays in Cork last year, when a friend of his wife played some of Jack's music for him. He was immediately hooked: "On the strength of that CD, I booked him for a festival we organise in The Barbican every second year.
Jack, needless to say, played a blinder.
He was on in broad daylight at two o'clock in the afternoon, but by the end of the set he had the audience going ga-ga, Charles relates. He has that kind of magic where he performs as if his life depends on it. Every gig he does has so much commitment, the same as artists like Ray Charles, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison and Mary Margaret O'Hara.
He's a genuine performer there's no pretence, no forcing it. There's a sense of naturalness that is just hypnotic: you cannot look away from the stage. Even if you're not into what they're doing, with artists like Jack, you get the sense that this is vital to them and to their lives. It's not a case of, if this doesn't work, they'll become a DJ or write a book.
This sentiment is echoed by none other than Mary Coughlan, one of Jack's biggest fans: I went to see him in the Olympia a couple of years ago, and since then I don't think I've missed a gig. I've even been to see him in New York. I think he's fucking brilliant. His voice is brilliant, and he is completely natural: it isn't contrived. Jack does it better than anyone else.
Jack has his fair share of celebrity fans. Internationally renowned author Pat McCabe is another of Jack s famous fans. They met at the Galway Arts Festival two years ago, when Pat was looking for someone whose music could complement his words, because he felt that bookshop readings were becoming very predictable and very stale, tedious both for the audience and the author. Enter Jack and guitarist David Constantine. They hit it off immediately and the gigs proved a riotous success.
It wasn t any big deal, says Pat McCabe of the whole notion of marrying his words with Jack s music. It was the literary people who made such a big deal of it. They were kind of aghast at this new notion. It never seemed anything new to us. It was just an extension of a country kitchen where everybody does a turn. It was a mixture of cabbage and beatnik.
It works really well, and people seem to have taken to it all over the world, muses Jack. It can be almost like stand-up comedy because Pat is such a good reader and he really takes on his characters' personae. It has all the appeal that I would have in the live show together with the appeal of reading one of Pat's books.
So what, in Pat s view, does Jack bring to this heady mix?
He brings the music and he brings an understanding of the characters as well, because we share the same background. In every one of the books, there is a kind of an orchestral, subterranean refrain, a pulsebeat which he immediately taps into, gives it life and lifts it from the book onto the stage.
Indeed, Pat is full of praise for Jack as a performer. He has a really honest engagement with the audience. he says. He s very physical, and the range of his voice is quite astounding: I don't think there is anybody else in Europe who can sing like that.
The liaison between the duo has proved so popular that an album is in the offing, which will be a mixture of live and studio material. Some of it is already recorded, although there is no release date pencilled in as yet.
And these forays haven t been Jack s only flirtation with the other arts. He has also made his acting debut in a feature length movie called October 2nd, which he describes as a Rebel Without A Cause set in Carlow . In it, Jack plays a guy mourning his brother s suicide, who takes over the local museum and holds the town to ransom.
It was kind of an option between going on summer holidays or playing the leading role in a feature film, Jack says of the experience. It was just somewhere else to go in your head, another perspective. But I wouldn't aspire to be an actor in any way: it hasn't got the same creative potential as music, at all, in the respect that you get five minutes a day to do your thing. Cameos I would like, but the long periods of waiting around are only good for reading books.
He doesn't feel the same sense of boredom when on a video shoot, however.
People go on about how boring video shoots are that's a load of bullshit. Basically, you're getting to fulfil your dreams. Imagine telling a guy who carries coal that you were bored the other day on set, waiting around all day: I mean, fuck off. Being in the music business, in a lot of ways, is like getting to maintain your teenage years: grown men and women being children. I don't see how people cannot enjoy that."
Jack L plays the Point on February 12th.
Our thanks to Cafi Rouge, St. Andrew St. for their assistance with the photo-shoot.