Singer Jessie Ware: ‘I’ve earned my place at the table’

At points during our meeting, it’s hard to tell whether I’m interviewing Jessie Ware or she’s interviewing me. The south Londoner is not just a singer-songwriter of sleek ballads and dance-floor bangers, she also co-hosts a food-centred interview podcast, Table Manners, which means she’s as used to asking questions as answering them.

But when the 38-year-old is not cheerfully grilling me about my favourite restaurants or my recollections of heady club nights, the conversation turns to her fifth and most assured album to date, the disco-infused That! Feels Good!, which she’s about to serve up.

Work on the new record began remotely, during 2020’s pandemic restrictions: tough circumstances even for a convivial spirit. “That’s probably why the music has this kind of longing,” she says. “The track ‘Begin Again’ has the line: ‘Why does the purest love get filtered through machines?’ When are we going to be able to touch again? I think there was a lot of frustration.”

The intensity of that period, and the elation of moving beyond it, is channelled into a vividly joyful album, which extends the glitterball glamour and dance energy of its acclaimed predecessor, What’s Your Pleasure? (2020), and opens with the mantra: “Pleasure is a right.”

“I was responding to the reaction to What’s Your Pleasure? Like, I’m going to carry on with this party, but take it into a different room,” says Ware. “It’s going to be more groove-led, it’ll have elements of disco — that sense of celebration and escape — and the big vocal with melodrama, beautiful arrangements and a driving beat. And it’s going to show more of my personality.”

It’s going to be more groove-led, it’ll have elements of disco — that sense of celebration and escape

In addition to Ware’s regular songwriting partners Shungudzo Kuyimba, Daniel Parker and James Ford, That! Feels Good! also features her first collaborations with Grammy-winning producer Stuart Price, who has worked with Madonna, Kylie and Pet Shop Boys. Price’s gift for crafting epic melodies and retro glamour is evident again here.

“In the studio, I was holding the microphone that Madonna held when she and Stuart made Confessions on a Dance Floor,” says Ware, who found her proximity to the star inspiring. “I was like: ‘OK, let’s see what I got!’ Maybe there’s a little bit of her genetic code on there.”

Ware has always moved fluidly between musical styles. Her first experience of playing gigs came while singing backing vocals for her school friend Jack Peñate, whose own music career was taking off in the late 2000s. Her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Devotion (2012) set her distinctly tender vocals to drum’n’bass rhythms as well as elegant ballads. On her latest album, “Free Yourself” blends sleek 1970s disco-soul with 1990s Italo-house piano riffs.

“At the beginning, it was about not wanting to be pigeonholed,” Ware says. “I was really enjoying playing with all these genres, but I think maybe it was confusing for people; they didn’t know whether I was supposed to be a pop star, alternative or an R&B singer. But I feel lucky, because it’s allowed me to explore . . . I don’t say my talent, but my artistry.” 

Ware grins when I note this slight self-deprecation. “It can be a brutal industry,” she acknowledges. “I feel like I’ve survived, and I’m thriving . . . I’ve had labels that have allowed me space and scope to create.”

Following her breakthrough success in the early 2010s, Ware was reluctant to pursue a conventional pop route, and has since created a catalogue that’s unconstrained by genre yet catchy enough for radio hits. Her latest work reflects a newfound confidence.

“I’m presenting myself in this very glamorous, feminine, sensual way because, finally, I feel really comfortable with myself as an ‘older’ woman . . . ”. She checks herself. “I shouldn’t say ‘older woman’, because it’s not about that — but I’m more at ease with knowing who I am and having earned my place at the table.” The experience and empowerment add electricity to the feel-good grooves.

Beyond making music, Ware has diversified, presenting programmes on BBC Radio 2 and co-hosting Table Manners with her mother Lennie. The podcast is now in its 15th series.

“At one point, music and my other projects felt really separate,” she says. “Now, I don’t need that division, and I get to learn new skills in tandem with other things . . . I thrive when I’m collaborating, whether that’s making music with brilliant people, talking to people on the radio or being with my mother in the kitchen.”

It was her mother who introduced her to music and theatre while growing up in London, an experience that Ware is now repeating with her own three children. She continues to cherish family life, both creatively (her 2021 pregnancy podcast, Is It Normal?, earned praise) and on a personal level. Last year, she realised her ambition to have a bat mitzvah, the Jewish ritual traditionally associated with girls’ coming-of-age at 12. “It’s really not common to have one in adulthood,” she says. “The whole thing is that you rid your parents of their responsibilities — and the joke was that I was in my mum’s living room doing the bat mitzvah. I am still completely tethered to her, and we both love that.

“I’m proud of being Jewish, and my Hebrew education . . . I wanted to celebrate that, and for my kids to see that it’s there if they want it; this is part of them.”

This grounding (including family Friday night dinners whenever possible) complement the giddier aspects of her schedule: performing to massive crowds at São Paulo’s Primavera festival or supporting Harry Styles on tour in 2022. Ware has already planned this evening’s meal: turbot followed by poached pears; Jake Shears is coming to dinner for an episode of Table Manners.

“When I started out, I set my personality further back, and that was how I managed being launched into a public world — it was my way of protection,” she says. “Now, it’s unashamedly all of me.”

‘That! Feels Good!’ is released on April 28, jessieware.com