Hot Press Meets Jake Bugg

You have to admire and/or be insanely jealous of the youthful powers of recovery. Despite leaving last night’s Ivor Novello Awards in London “pretty fucked” and then getting up at stupid o’clock to fly over to Dublin, Jake Bugg is all boyish grins
and, “Can I have more reverb, mate?” as he soundchecks for his Late Late Show debut.
He may enjoy kicking back off stage, but on it Bugg’s striving for perfection means that ‘Lightning Bolt’ receives five run-throughs before the 19-year-old declares himself happy with the sound. There’s also time for a quick blast of ‘Paranoid’, which as we all know contains the greatest riff of all time.
“That’s a bit fucking controversial, isn’t it?” Jake says when we adjourn to one of the few Late Late dressing-rooms that don’t contain naughty nymphos, champagne fountains and mountains of illicit drugs paid for by, you, the licence-player. “What about ‘Voodoo Child’? I’d err on the side of Jimi, but I love Sabbath too – Rick played me their new album a few months ago, which is amazing.”
I’m just about to ask, “Rick who?” when a record company lady pokes her head round the door and informs Bugg that he’s being replaced as the Late Late’s opening turn by a 75-year-old parachuting nun.
“You wouldn’t get that with Jonathan Ross, would you?” he rightly observes. “They were happy for me to mime or sing over a backing-
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track tonight, but I’d be a fucking fraud and a hypocrite if I did that, wouldn’t I?”
Given the pop he took at One Direction recently – “There’s far too much choreography going on in the band’s performances for them to be able to sing live well, which is always a suspicion” were his exact words – he definitely would.
“Standing there twiddling with a guitar and nothing coming out... we’re not a boy band, we play music,” Jake resumes. “Another thing I won’t do – and it really pisses TV people off
– is wear make-up. I’d rather have a shiny forehead than look a complete twat. I was at this thing in France and the guy put loads of make-up on me because I was exhausted. My face looked fresh but my eyes were
just fucked!” Anyway – “Rick who?” “Er, Rubin,” he says referring to the
legendary American producer who was entrusted with making sure that Sabbath’s 13 reunion album is on a par with its classic ‘70s predecessors. Readers of record cover small- print will also know that his CV includes Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Slayer, Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sheryl Crow, AC/DC, Mick Jagger, Metallica, Justin Timberlake, Johnny Cash and Kula Shaker – but, hey, we all make mistakes. How did Jake manage to land one of the most in-demand studio men around?
“Well, the record company kind of put a request in, he listened to a couple of tunes and said, ‘Yeah’. I didn’t know he was as renowned as he was, which is just as well because I’d probably have freaked. He hooked me up with some great people. I had Matt Sweeney who played guitar for Johnny Cash on his American Recordings and this drummer guy who Rick introduced me to as just ‘Chad.’ I asked him, all innocent like, ‘Are you in
a band?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, the Red Hot Chili Peppers...’”
Fair enough seeing as Bugg was minus-11 when the debut RHCP album came out.
“I was like, ‘Yeah mate, that’s great, but just play the drums,” Jake laughs. “He’s brilliant though; tight as a nut. Rick’s studio, the Shangri-La, is in Malibu and has an amazing feel to it. It’s kind of cut off from the rest of the world. You can see the ocean and it has lemon trees growing in the garden. It’s a million miles away from anything I’m
used to.”
What, there are no lemon trees on the sink- estate where Jake grew up in Nottingham?
“There were old lads growing marrows and onions and stuff, but no lemons! I’ve got 12 songs recorded. I’m going to do another two weeks in there and hopefully have it finished by September.”
How, when he’s been touring non-stop for the past year, has Jake been able to come up with a new collection of tunes?
“Whenever I’ve a spare minute on the tour bus or about to go on stage, I’ll pick up the guitar. Not because I feel obliged to but because it’s very therapeutic and soul- cleansing. I just love to write and want to keep putting music out there for people to enjoy listening to.
“It’s simple – make a record, tour the ball-bags off it and then make another. The Beatles were knocking ‘em out every six months. That’s probably not realistic anymore, but I want to release something new every year.”
The lyrical themes on album #2 will be a lot different.
“I can’t sing about stabbings in car-parks and smoking on the street and drinking Malibu anymore because it wouldn’t be honest,” Jake reflects. “I’ve seen a lot of the world and met a lot of great people in a short space of time. You observe their characteristics, their good and bad attributes. Looking at different cultures is a real eye- opener, and gives you loads to write about without necessarily making an ‘American’ album. I’m still very much a Clifton boy!”
While not sure what to make of him – he’s variously graced their folk, rock and pop charts – the US has definitely taken a shine to Bugg whose star there went into rapid ascent when he appeared on Letterman.
“It was great until the end when he asked, ‘How old are you, Jake?’ and instead of lying I said, ‘19’. No way was I going to get served in a bar after that! The main guest was Harrison Ford who was acting a bit weird. He was just rubbing the settee and told some awful joke.”
Old-time country ‘n’ blues obsessive that he is, Bugg was in his element when he journeyed south of the Mason-Dixon line.
“I went on before Jerry Lee Lewis in Memphis and then got to watch a bit of his set from side-of-stage; he was brilliant. It was surprising how many young people were there. He had a huge fucking crowd – much bigger than mine obviously. He goes out there, enjoys himself and fucks off in his limousine afterwards. He looks old now though; it’s hard to think of him as the same person who did all that crazy shit in the ‘50s like marry his 13-year-old cousin.”
Before leaving town, Jake got to check out three more of Memphis’ famous rock ‘n’ roll landmarks.
“I did some demos in Sun Studios, which was cool,” he beams. “It was mad thinking, ‘I’m just stood here with a guitar and singing into these mics like Johnny Cash did more than half a century ago.’
“I got taken to Graceland to do an interview; they wanted film of me in the mansion. I didn’t enjoy it. I felt like I was intruding. I wouldn’t want a load of fucking weird people walking around my house when I’m dead; you know what I mean? Fuck that. It just didn’t do anything for me.
“I also went to the crossroads where Robert Johnson was supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. It was a bit shit, but another tick on the list I suppose!”
Of course, no American musical odyssey is complete without a trip to Nashville where Jake renewed acquaintances with
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Snow Patrol’s mate Iain Archer who co- wrote and produced a fair share of his debut album.
“We wrote some tunes together and he came up to Rick’s with me for a bit. Iain’s a cool guy and a great sounding board – you’ll have two or three ideas knocking around, and immediately he’ll tell you which are good and which are shit. They also hooked me up with some big Nashville songwriters, but it didn’t work. The connection wasn’t there. The best thing was buying a 1954 Fender Telecaster Squire there with the serial number 8078. It’s like the 8,078th Telecaster in the world!”
Okay, before we hand him over to Ryan Tubridy, what precisely went down last night at the Ivors?
“I got quite drunk and went off to bed at seven before all the networking and other bullshit started,” Jake concludes. “I was staying nearby in the Groucho, so I just rolled into bed. I seriously didn’t want to get up this morning, but you don’t want to miss a parachuting nun, do you?”
Jake Bugg plays Longitude in Marlay Park on Friday, July 19.