South Africa’s in this weird suspended reality because we still have an incredibly strong album-buying culture, which isn’t the case worldwide. Financially, it still makes sense to release a physical album here,” Clegg tells me when I ask him why his second album isn’t yet available digitally. “A physical album is still a very important commodity here. That’s why I really wanted to put a lot of thought into the album packaging; people are only going to buy it if it’s like a little art piece in itself. Instead of doing a booklet we did individual cards with the lyrics – and related imagery – for every song. There’s a window on the front so you can decide which image should be the cover.”
He continues, “It’ll be on iTunes and so on eventually, but I’m in no massive rush. I’m looking at doing an international release, and overseas record companies often want control of the digital side, so I’m still shopping it around and don’t want to jeopardise that option. Also, I want to give it a solid release here, and tour it here, before taking it to the US or Canada or Europe. South Africa has been good to me and I want to be good to it.”
The album’s production value is incredibly high, and it’s certainly got an international flavour. I ask Clegg what the greatest benefits were of having the likes of Canadian producer Dave Bottrill (Tool, Muse, Silverchair, Placebo) and mastering engineer Bob Ludwig (Bowie, Hendrix, Nirvana, U2, Radiohead) work on the album, and how they came to be involved?
“Dave Bottrill has opened a lot of doors for me. He’s plugged me into so many important contacts. I’d been listening to the last Placebo album when the label asked me if I had any ideas about who I’d like to produce the album. I said ‘Someone like that’, never expecting that we’d actually get Bottrill himself. The label sent his management the demos, and he fell in love with them. We could never have afforded him, but based on the strength of the songs he wanted to be a part of it and made it viable.”
“It was a huge confidence booster,” Clegg adds with a smile, “having someone such as Bottrill like my music. So many of the albums he’s produced were ones I listened to growing up… he really shaped my musical understanding in a sense. Bob [Ludwig] got on board because Dave called in a favour. I was really lucky there too.” There’s no doubt Life on Mars is a much rockier album than Clegg’s debut – an album that suggests he could go either the pop or rock route with equal ease.
“My first album was made with a huge amount of hesitancy, a fair amount of insecurity, and just a general tentativeness. I never recorded the songs with the intention of releasing them. It was definitely flawed, but it was so honest. It was an album of someone trying to figure something out and it was naïve and innocent. It’s nice that that time was documented. It’s thanks to Roddy Quin [his manager] and my dad that those songs ever got released. They encouraged me and made me feel confident enough to release them.”
“This album is about me taking the reins and deciding on the direction I want to go. I’m much more surefooted this time around. The darkness and the heaviness is a combination of working with Bottrill, and being true to my roots and influences. Musically I’m a child of the 90s. To me it was obvious that this record was going to be more rock than pop – in fact, I want to get heavier, and more alternative, and more experimental. I don’t want to have a ‘sound’. I think artists have to keep themselves guessing and progress – even if that progress is misunderstood.”
“Overseas you’re playing to an historically-informed audience. They’ve got high standards and I’m trying to hone my live performance in preparation. Rock ‘n roll is a genre of live performance. I battled with playing live at first. I was a bedroom artist who was thrust into the limelight quickly. When my first single exploded I didn’t even have a band.”
I’ve heard rumours that this album cost seven-figures to make? “I invested everything I made on the last album into this one. I think it might be the biggest budget for a local album ever. But I think of it as an investment with bold ambitions. I have to take it overseas to recoup, but it’s also an investment in myself as an artist and in my professional career. Relatively speaking, in international terms the budget was chump change,” Clegg adds with a laugh.
“Originally, I was going to go with a band name instead of my own.” Clegg tells me when I ask if he considered a stage name in light of his father’s fame. “I felt a bit like an imposter in my own career at first. Dealing with the media was really strange… I was inexperienced but I had this name. But a name will only take you so far: the music has to stand on its own to take you further. A strong melody will find a market. Sure, most people don’t get the chances I’ve had at a musical career, and I’m really appreciative of the opportunities I’ve gotten. But getting that chance has also made me want to be as good as I can be.”
I assume Life on Mars is a Bowie reference? “You’re the first to say that” Clegg tells me. “Actually, the biggest influence on this album was George Orwell’s 1984. I think of my life in terms of life before I read it, and life after I read it. The album title, which is also the name of probably the strongest song and single on it, is more about finding your feet in a foreign environment – it’s an existential question about the bigger picture and my place in it. It’s about trying to make sense of the weird world my first album dropped me into.”
With the first video for the album out soon and a tour coming up I ask Clegg what he’s doing in the meantime. “I’m writing. Always writing… don’t think about it, just write. You’ve got to be a bit of a soldier in that sense – it doesn’t matter if what you’re writing is any good or not, I think you need to always be working those muscles.”
Check out Craig’s review of the album.
For more information on Jesse Clegg go to http://www.jesseclegg.com/
Written By : Craig Wilson
Connect with Muse