Jack Garratt turned to dance music to “feed [his] own soul”.
The 31-year-old singer spent several months feeling “frustrated” and “out of touch” creatively, so wanted to make music for himself, and though he parted ways with his record label Universal as a result, he couldn’t be happier with the new direction his career has taken with new label Skint.
He said: “I spent the summer last year in a bit of a frustrated phase.
“And I felt quite out of touch with myself creatively and I would just spend time in the studio.
“Working on dance music just kind of like to feed my own souls and make myself feel a bit happier.
“It was music just for me, and I ended up showing it to my management and they absolutely loved it.
“And so we spent some time with my old label trying to figure out a way to release it and ultimately couldn’t find a way to make it work and that’s when my label and I kind of parted ways.
“And when my new label came into play, when Skint heard it they were fully behind it. They absolutely loved the music.”
And the ‘Just How I Like It’ hitmaker is pleased his new direction has gone down well with fans, which he thinks is because it isn’t too much of a radical departure.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “It was very me feeding my own soul, filling my own well and just so happens that lots of other people so far who have heard it also really enjoy it.
“And I love dance music. It’s always been in the music I’ve made. I’ve just never explicitly made dances and so it’s really nice to kind of lean into that a bit.”
Jack will perform at the PizzaExpress Live Jazz Club in Holborn, London, on 17 December and he can’t wait for the intimate show.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to it. I really rarely get to do things like that, where I’m just like, sit the room and play some songs.
“Especially in a venue like this where the whole place is designed for it to feel attentive, even though people are going to be you know, like eating.
“It’s so rare to kind of have the opportunity to perform the songs intimately like this. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Jack is performing at PizzaExpress’ Jazz Club in Holborn on the 17 December, tickets are available now.
He was also the recent star of PizzaExpress and music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins’ interview series ‘Behind the Base’, which can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BifFR7NirUc