S01 - E02 - Who is Jack Perrett?
In today's episode, I speak with indie rockstar Jack Perrett about the music industry. At the end, we cover some essential music idioms.
www.facebook.com/jackperrettmusic
www.instagram.com/jackperrettmusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/44ILyteqavSvFsJHvh7MAl?si=OXsoM7UIT-qOP6nX7_6mzQ
SO1: E02 Who is Jack Perrett?
Full intermediate level ESL podcast transcript
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Intro
Rich: Hey, Hey, Hey, welcome back. My name is Rich and this is another episode of the Love to Learn English podcast. In today's episode, I'm speaking with Jack Perrett. Jack is a Welsh indie rock and roll musician from Newport, Wales. He has been performing live since 2014 and he is currently self-published. He is however associated with the “this feeling” label and is currently on the BBC’s horizon scheme. His music has been described like Jake Bugg, early Oasis and the rock *Titans, the Jam. If you want to help the podcast grow, always remember you can go to lovetolearnenglish.com where you can purchase the transcripts for the best vocabulary and tips to help you speak English the way it is spoken on the streets.
NOTE - A titan is an extremely important person.
This Feeling label - https://www.thisfeeling.co.uk/
BBC Horizons - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qpyrv
Rich: Hey, Jack, how's it going?
Jack: I'm very good. Richard. How are you?
Rich: Very good, welcome to the podcast, the special guest.
Jack: Thanks for having me.
Rich: Very well. Um, so we're gonna start with a few questions for you about yourself. But first of all, please introduce who you are to the listeners.
Jack: So I'm Jack Perrett from Newport South Wales and I am a musician.
Rich: You're a musician. And what instrument do you play?
Jack: I play the guitar and I sing *as well.
Note - You use as well when mentioning something which happens in the same way as something else already mentioned, or which should be considered at the same time as that thing.
Rich: Are you in a band?
Jack: Um, so I'm a solo artist, so I play on my own but I have a band that plays with me.
Rich: So a solo artist is an artist who plays on their own?
Jack: Yeah so it is quite complicated. So by name, I'm a solo artist, but I have a band who play with me.
Rich: Right. Okay. So it's Jack Perrett when people see you.
Jack: Yeah. And, uh, but it's a bit like Elvis Presley, I suppose he had, he was one person. It was Elvis. Yeah. But then he had his bands with him as well.
Rich: So we're a minute in and we've got an Elvis comparison. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Um, so have you always played music?
(Elvis Aaron Presley, also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "The King".)
Jack: Um, I've always listened to music. Yeah. Um, so I started, I started playing the guitar when I was about 16. Um, I started writing, writing songs as well, not long after I started performing in front of people when I was about 21. So, um, yeah, I've been performing live in front of people for about five years now.
Rich: And what inspired you then? Cause that's quite a late age, I think to start. Right?
Jack: Yeah. So I think a lot of people sort of have lessons when they're young and things like that. But, um, I, I didn't start, I just taught myself when I was about 16. Um, so the main inspirations were Oasis really. Just seeing what they could do being *working class.
NOTE - Working class - The social group consisting of people who are employed for wages, especially in manual or industrial work.
Jack: Um, and sort of achieve world domination really in their *field. So I thought I could do that myself. Haven't reached that yet but hopefully one day.
NOTE - Field means an area of work or study.
Rich: And Oasis were a band from Manchester, right? Very popular in the 90s.
(Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(band)
Jack: A lot of good music has come from Manchester.
*Note how Jack pronounces “has” here like “huz”. This is a very informal British pronunciation.
Rich: Um, so what's the biggest problem you've had *to overcome.
NOTE - to overcome means to succeed in dealing with (a problem or difficulty).
Jack: So far. Um, something that's really hard is I haven't got any management or any agents or anything like that, so. Sort of doing everything myself from performing, writing, writing songs, and sort of being my own manager. That's really hard. Just finding the time to, to all those sending emails and things like that is, that's the hardest part.
Rich: Yeah. It must be very hard to try and balance the creative process. And then also, doing *admin.
NOTE - Admin is short for administration.
Jack: Yeah. Well, the admin stuff is the thing I do the most but the thing I don’t want to do. *You know what I mean? So performing and recording, and writing songs, they’re the only things I want to do.
Note - * You know what I mean? is a common informal way to suggest the hearer agrees with and understands what has been said or to ask whether he or she does.
Rich: Yeah.
Jack: But the admin side, it takes up the most time.
Rich: Yeah. So there's a lot of work just to work, um, to get shows, to get opportunities and radio and everything else.
Jack: So, but obviously you have to, you have to put that work in to get those shows, to get those opportunities by doing all the admin.
Rich: What radio channels have you been on?
Jack: Um, so a few of my songs are being played on radio one, BBC radio one, which is probably the biggest, um, the biggest radio station in the U.K. I've also had a lot of plays on BBC radio Wales, which is obviously the local, uh, local station. Um, also our plays, um, on independent stations like community radio stations in America or in Australia.
Rich: Nice. Yeah. International.
Jack: International
Rich: Like Elvis haha.
Jack: I've had a few, uh, international plays on small community stations as well.
Rich: Nice. Um, what do you love most about being a musician then? What is it that keeps you going?
Jack: Uh, the thing I enjoy the most is probably recording. I do like going into the studio sort of, um. It's just a really, it's a really good feeling writing a song and then going into a studio and then by the end of the day, you've got that song that you've written yourself and you can hear it back. And most of the time it is as good, if not better than what you thought it was. So I think recording is probably my favourite thing.
Rich: What bit do you hate?
Jack: The admin.
Rich: The admin.
Jack: Being my own manager. That's it. Yeah. That's the thing. Also driving as well.
Rich: A lot of driving. Different cities.
Jack: A lot of driving. Yeah. So, so for example, if we gig up in Manchester or London I'm designated driver, which is fine but...
Rich: What do you mean by designated driver?
Jack: So, because, because I'm the only one who's really got a car.
Rich: So yeah, the designated driver is the person who is going to drive
Jack: The person who is going to drive.
Rich: Sometimes people use this when they go on a night out or to the pub. So one person will be the designated driver and everyone else gets drunk and decides to, you know show them YouTube videos as they are driving.
Jack: Yeah, exactly. So usually when we go away gigging, I've got to drive to the gig. So from Newport to, for example, Manchester, it's a three hour drive at least.
Rich: Yeah it's a long way.
Jack: It's a three hour drive there. You do your gig, you play for half an hour.
Rich: Yeah.
Jack: You watch the other bands play and then you drive another three hours home. So you are driving for at least six hours, maybe more, depending on traffic.
Rich: Yeah, that's a long...
Jack: Driving for six hours sometimes after a full day in work as well.
Rich: Yeah. So at the end..., yeah, it's like another job, isn't it? Kind of two jobs.
Um, if you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
Jack: Um, I would change... making it easier to make money. Um, so it's really hard for, like you said, those gigs, like if I *done a gig **up in Manchester. Like, if I'm playing my own songs, we don't get paid enough to cover our expenses. You know, there's more money in performing in tribute bands.
*Note - Jack here says “If I done a gig”. The correct way grammatically would be “I have done” or “If I did”. This is a colloquial way of speaking. It is interesting to note that natives do not always follow the rules you see in textbooks.
** He says “up” in Manchester, because it is North of Newport. It is common for British people to use “up” and “down” instead of north and south.
Rich: Yep. So what is a tribute band then? That's a good bit of vocab.
Jack: That's a *tricky question. So for example, I was in an Oasis tribute band, and we were called the Oasis Experience. So obviously it's a band that impersonates Oasis or..
NOTE - Tricky means difficult.
Rich:...copies?
Jack: Copies... Yeah. So we had a singer who sort of sang, dressed, like and sang Liam Gallagher.
Rich: Yeah...and you play other bands music, that's what a tribute band is. And that's where the money is these days.
Jack: In tribute bands and cover bands.
Rich: Cover bands, same thing as a tribute band right?
Jack: Similar sort of thing. So with cover bands. They could play a set of say 20 songs, but they're not, they might not all be from the same bands.
Rich: Right. So the difference between a tribute band and a cover band is that a tribute band impersonates, pretends to be, or copies the artist.
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: Maybe the same clothes and a cover band just plays other people's songs.
Jack: Just plays *a handful of hits from different bands. Yeah.
NOTE - *A handful of means a small amount of.
Rich: And a hit is what? a well known song?
Jack: A hit is a well known song.
Rich: Nice. Um. What has been your biggest gig so far? So you used this word earlier actually, but we didn't explain it. So a gig is a show, right? It's a performance concert. Um, so what has been your biggest gig so far?
Jack: Um, I think the biggest game we've played was at the isle of white festival in 2019. Uh, I think it's... It's one of the biggest festivals in the UK, probably in the top five. So to play there was, yeah, really special.
Rich: Nice. Yeah. I've actually been to the festival myself and they have a lot of quality acts. It's, it's worth going. The isle of Wight actually is an interesting place to point out, so. Just off the South, Southern coast of England, there is an Island called the isle of white. It's very beautiful.
They've got white cliffs. Um, and famously Jimi Hendrix played there, one of his best performances.
(The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England.)
(James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.)
LINK - Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpoqD-Z31yI
Jack: I think it might have been the first one.
Rich: Yeah. If you haven't seen that, um, that concert -- Jimi Hendrix at Isle of White, it's worth, worth watching, um. How can people find you on social media?
Jack: So I'm on Facebook. Uh, Jack Perrett music. So to spell it, my name is JACK space PERRETT .
Rich: Nice. So that's Jack Perrett music.
Jack: And then on Twitter you can find me @jperrettmusic, and on Instagram, just search Jack Perrett music.
Rich: Nice. Uh, so just to finish off today, we're going to cover.... four, I had to check then. We're going to cover four music related idioms. So the first one here, you actually said you're not familiar with this one, but it's elevator music, elevator music. Or if... in British English it would be Lift music cause Lift is the British version, right? So elevator music is soft, pleasant, but ultimately boring music that people play in public.
Jack: Right.
Rich: So you know when you go to a shop. Yeah. And they have this music in the background that isn't music.
Jack: Background music?
Rich: That's another word. Yeah. So it's, it's music that... It's on but nobody cares about it. Okay. It's just, it's kind of, it's not horrible, but there's no passion or nothing creative or interesting about it. So hopefully your music is not elevator music.
Jack: Hopefully not.
Rich: Uh. Do you want to do the second one?
Jack: So like a broken record... now, like a broken record that is someone who repeats themselves.
Rich: Yeah. Someone who repeats themselves. Yeah. So obviously if a record is broken... probably. Well, people don't buy records anymore, right? So a record is a big vinyl disc that people used to play music on, um, back in the day, and if they break, they... repeated. Right? I think for a modern one, this would be like a Spotify glitch or something maybe.
Yeah. So, yeah, like a, like a broken record is when someone repeats himself. If they keep saying the same thing again and again, and again. Often we use this sarcastically when someone is complaining. So if somebody says, Oh, my toe hurts and it's the fifth time that day, you’ll say you're like a broken record.
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: You keep saying the same thing. Yeah. Okay. Number three is a jam session. Um. So it's not jam as in marmalade or something sweet you put on toast. What is a jam session?
Jack: Jam session. Another name for maybe rehearsal.
Rich: Rehearsal. Yeah. Or practice.
Jack: Practice. Yeah. I don't know why the word jam is used. I don't, I'm not sure. But it is a rehearsal or practice. Yeah.
Rich: Yeah. So it's, it's when musicians get together and practice, they jam. How often do you jam?
Jack: So we rehearse once a week. At least, yeah. At least once a week.
Rich: Once a week. And finally…
Jack: I suppose, so I suppose the jam session could also be sort of an unrehearsed song as well, like bands do sort of have a jam in the middle of a concept don’t they?
Rich: Ah right. Yeah. So it can be an improvisation, something that's not planned. Um, that happens randomly. Yeah. It can happen in the middle of a show too. Yeah. So we have one final idiom for today. Would you like to read that out for me Jack please?
Jack: Blow your own trumpet.
(A trumpet - A trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles.)
Rich: To blow your own trumpet. So do you blow your own trumpet?
Jack: I think sometimes you have to.
Rich: You have to?
Jack: For example, If you're in a job interview. Yeah. I think you sort of need to blow your own trumpet and sort of big yourself up.
Rich: Okay. So that's one idiom explained by another one too. Big yourself up. So to blow your own trumpet and to big yourself up means to give yourself...Hmm. How would you say?
Jack: So sort of talk, talk about your achievements, maybe talk about how good you are at things?
Rich: To talk about how good you are at something. So if you are blowing your own trumpet, you're praising yourself, you're saying good things about yourself. Again, we use this sarcastically sometimes when people say something maybe a bit arrogant.
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: So if somebody says, Oh, well, I got an A in my last exam, I'll say, well, you're blowing your own trumpet. You're just talking about how good, good you are.
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: All right. So in a moment, we're going to play one of your songs. Um, what song. Are we going to play? And what is it about?
Jack: Okay, so this song is called like a fever. Uh, we released this one back in 2000 and, uh, 2018. Um, the song we rehearsed quite a bit, it started off with, I have this riff, which I've sort of stolen from another band.
Rich: What's a riff?
Jack: A riff is sort of... Oh, good question. How would you explain a riff? Um, it's, I suppose it's a Part?…perhaps you can explain it better?
Rich: So a riff is a guitar part that's generally played with single notes.
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: So think about Rolling Stones, satisfaction. (Sings Satisfaction). That's the riff maybe of the song. Oh yeah. A riff.
(The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962.)
Link below to The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction with lyrics
Jack: A hook?
Rich: That's another word for it. So it's the main, it's the main part of the song. It's what, what, um, drives the song. Sorry, go on.
Jack: So the riff in the song, in like a fever, is at the start really so you can hear, If you press play, it is on Spotify, have a listen or Apple music or, or wherever you use, you can hear the riff straight away. So I started off with a riff and I had this melody as well. Um, but then I had to sort of think about, well, what words and what the title of the song would be really. And someone who I write my songs with Rhys, I think he had the idea of calling it like a fever. If I remember rightly, I might be wrong there, but somehow like a fever became the title. And then I sort of wrote the lyrics around that. What my interpretation of that could be, and it turned out the song was about people who like to go out on a Saturday night drinking loads and going to nightclubs, but they sort of do it every Saturday in the same place with the same people. And my...my, what I am sort of saying in the song is how are you not bored yet? By doing the same thing every Saturday.
Rich: Yeah. So it's, yeah. People who live for the weekend and get drunk every, every Saturday doing the same thing. And how they get maybe stuck in doing that…
Jack: In trouble maybe with bouncers. So the song is about getting into trouble with the bouncer and...
Rich: A Bouncer is the security in a nightclub, right?
Jack: Yeah.
Rich: All right. Perfect. So thanks so much for joining me. We're going to play a song in a second and take care Jack.
Jack: Cheers Richard.
NOTE - Cheers is an informal British way of saying thank you. It is also commonly said before people drink alcohol.
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