Interview: Emma-Jean Thackray
From playing the first note in Band on the Wall’s new and improved venue, to Mercury prize nominations, BBC 6 Music’s Deb Grant speaks to Emma-Jean Thackray ahead of her return to Manchester this autumn.
Deb Grant: This is like your third or fourth time at Band on the Wall, is it? Have I put you on the spot there?
Emma-Jean Thackray: I can’t remember how many times.
DG: Well, if you can’t remember how many times, that implies you’ve been here quite a few times.
EJT: Yeah, a few, a few.
DG: Band on the Wall is celebrating its 50th anniversary. So I wondered if you could reflect on some of your favourite memories from playing here, you know, your of associations with the venue.
EJT: Yeah, I think my favourite time that I’ve played here was in 2022. And it was part of a tour that I was doing, but it was also the reopening of Band on the Wall. And I got to play the first note in the new facelifted venue.
That was just like a real honour to be able to do that. Also because of the time that it was, it was a lot of people’s first gigs for, you know, some time. So it just felt like a real kind of like, ‘we’re back’ kind of moment.
DG: Seeing you live always feels like this kind of real communal, like spiritual experience, I guess. Is that something the Band on the Wall particularly lends itself to? What’s the atmosphere like when you play this venue?
EJT: I think anytime that you play somewhere where people are music heads, you’re going to have a really good time. To compare it to a festival, it’s almost like you’re trying to convince people. and it makes you approach it differently because you’re being like, you know, don’t go over there, come stay here.
But if someone is coming here and they’ve got open minds, open hearts, and they’re here to be like ‘take me on a journey, show me what you want to show me’, that’s when you can really get into some stuff. I think the groove sits differently, the risks you take, it’s just a different way of approaching a show, yeah, they’re my favourite shows to do when you know that everyone in the audience that’s come to see you trusts you and you can just creatively do what you want and they’re gonna be with you. That’s when you feel the most held, I think.
DG: Obviously it’s been a massive year for you and it’s like you’re still on the ascent with this album Weirdo getting so much attention. Obviously, the Mercury Prize nomination, congratulations, very well deserved. Have you noticed a different crowd coming to see you now? Is it still like solid music heads? Are you getting curious people drifting in from elsewhere too?
EJT: I haven’t necessarily noticed curious people. I think with the last record, there were a lot of people being like, ‘oh, my girlfriend dragged me along, but I quite liked it’ which is great. This time, it’s more the opposite. It’s people that are really into the music, like the kind of, I’m crying on the bus with my headphones on – I feel like that’s what this album is for some people, which I’m so happy about. I’m so happy to be able to reach out and connect with people through the music. So it’s been a lot of people talking to me being like ‘this album has really helped me and I haven’t stopped playing it for like a month’, I think it’s just a different thing now. It’s like more intense, which is amazing.
DG: Obviously, it’s a very intimate record, it’s packed with bangers, but as you say, it probably resonates a little bit differently with people. How have you kind of adjusted the way that you perform? Is your live setup different from the last record? How are you translating the record into a live performance?
EJT: Well, I don’t have one of those Dick Van Dyke one-man band contraptions. We’re looking into it.
DG: You do play all the instruments so that could work for you.
EJT: I do play all the instruments on the record but yeah when it comes to live I go with my band and just sort of approach the music slightly differently and there’s a little bit more improvisation and like spot for people to like have their own creative say.
I’m playing like guitar pretty much constantly apart from when I sort of chuck it off and do some trumpet or some singing and, you know, dancing, whatever. There are different moments for different kind of ways to be on the stage, which is great. There’s like, ‘I loved Kurt Cobain as a 13 year old’ moments. And there’s the, ‘I listen to a lot of dance music and I’m shaking my butt on the stage’. There’s moments for both.
I feel, more grateful than ever to be performing. It’s something that I definitely, I think used to take for granted and now definitely don’t. And it’s subject material that can be hard to sing. And I had like one blip when I first started gigging again after my break where I started crying in the middle of a song and then, just was like ‘I’m gonna do a guitar solo’ and even though the record had only been out a couple days like people were already singing along and like sort of really holding me in that moment and since then I’ve just really trusted the people that are coming to the shows and it’s like if that happens again it doesn’t matter it’s all going to be fine, so yeah I’m feeling really good about performing.
DG: That’s beautiful. Finally, are there any pre-gig rituals that you and your band like to do?
EJT: As a band we like to sort of sing a little sound bath kind of thing, where we all come together and we sing a note even if it doesn’t fit together and then we’ll just kind of do that and we’ll do some clapping just sort of being in a space like making some vibrations together which all sounds very wooey but it’s much sillier than that. And then I have to do a tea and a wee, so I have to make a tea, go do a wee while it’s brewing and then take my tea on stage. So yeah, these are the things that have got to happen.
DG: I love that you take your tea on stage, that is so rock and roll. Emma-Jean Thackray, such a pleasure to speak to you.
EJT: Thanks so much, I’ll see you soon at Band on the Wall.
Emma-Jean returns to our stage on 6 November, touring in support of her Mercury prize nominated album ‘Weirdo’.