» Music With Jeff Hemmings
A mormon upbringing, a spell as Tom Waits’ nanny and a love affair with Elbow have all helped shape Jesca Hoop
From the almost perfect climate of California to the downright imperfect landscape of Manchester, Jesca Hoop is one brave girl. But there is no doubting the ambition of Tom Waits ex-nanny.
“I was in the the tub when [Elbow’s frontman] Guy Garvey rang me,” says Jesca, sounding sleepy from her Manchester pad. “I didn’t really know Elbow, but he had heard one of my songs and this compelled him to track me down. We got talking and a few weeks later I got an invitation from Elbow to go on tour with them.” So began her love affair with Elbow, which is why she is currently in Manchester foregoing the weather and the almost supernatural riches of California but enjoying one of the world’s greatest musical hotspots.
“I grew up in a musical family,” she says. “It was a regular fact of everyday life, singing together and being raised in a religious [Mormon] household. I then started writing my own music as a pastime, when walking to school or something, but it wasn’t until much later that I decided to do music full-time.”
A bit gothic, a bit folk, her musical mix of Bat For Lashes, Kate Bush, Kristin Hersh, Vashti Bunyan, Sandy Denny and Mr Waits himself is underlined by a raw purity that has been winning fans here and in her home country. “There was a lot of country-blues music in the house,” says Jesca of her time as a nanny to Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan and their three children. “I just dug into the record collection. I don’t think it really shows as an influence, but I ended up writing a lot of spirituals as a result.
What about Waits himself – was he an influence? “They helped mentor me and answered my questions,” says the engagingly laid-back American. “But my music is very personal, some of it is from my dream world, my sleep.”
There are, she says, more love songs on her second album, Hunting The Dress, which features Garvey on the leftfield folk song ‘Murder Of Birds’. Music is an aspiration that has come to Jesca only recently. “If I wasn’t doing music I think I would like to grow gardens for those who don’t have the time. I spent a lot of time in remote areas of California; no electricity, no plumbing, no car, no money. When you don’t have to aspire it’s something you can do, even it it’s an aspiration in itself!
Jesca Hoop, Latest Music Bar, Thursday 4 February
