Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay contemplated not returning to music because of how "overwhelming" the industry is nowadays.
The ‘Virtual Insanity’ hitmaker just made his comeback with the acid jazz band’s eighth album ‘Automaton’ and has opened up about how daunting it was coming back into the business, which has advanced with the rise of social media and streaming, after a six-year hiatus.
Asked what the most difficult part of getting back together was, he told the latest issue of Highsnobiety magazine: "The most challenging part was actually starting up again. I didn’t know whether I particularly wanted to carry on in the business because it can be overwhelming.
"It’s a little bit different when you’re younger, but the whole industry has changed so dramatically now. Although you see artists who were from an era before me carrying on, they tended to have all their major stuff release long before the whole internet and social media thing ever came along."
The 47-year-old singer – who took a break to raise his two children, Carla, two, and five-month-old Tallulah with his wife Maria – was put off by the "workload" involved in releasing records now, but his passion for music overrode those feelings.
Explaining the differences in the release cycle, he said: "I still started at a time when you put out one single, an A- and a B-side, and then you had an album and that was really it. There might have been a 12-inch remix as well, but now things have changed so dramatically that you almost have four times the workload and there was no ‘least challenging’ part to that. So it was definitely deciding to start up and debating whether it was worth it, but then again you continue to do it because you love doing it and you love creating music."
Ultimately, it was the "buzz" in having thousands of fans screaming the words to his songs back at him that made him return.
He added: "I love the buzz of starting with a blank sheet of paper then seeing songs come together, especially when you see and know when they’re finished, and when you are overdoing or overcooking them, and when you feel you’ve got it right.
"The buzz of creating something from scratch and seeing that lyric you came up with in your head go onto a record, and then off to the radio and eventually you end up with 30,000 to 40,000 people singing that line that you thought of when you were wandering around your garden thinking, ‘What can I do for a chorus?’ — that’s the buzz and that’s why most musicians do what they do."
Highsnobiety is on shelves from April 11.
Jay Kay contemplated quitting music entirely
