Lollapalooza celebrated its 25th anniversary by expanding to a phenomenal four-day festival, headlined this time around by the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, J.Cole, and Lana Del Rey. Curious to learn more about 25 of our favorite performers, LADYGUNN was on hand at Chicagoās historic Grant Park providing a predominately blank canvas for each individual to paint a captivating picture of their unique story. Hereās our chat with Jack Garratt, who opens up about learning the importance of self-respect and constantly striving for improvement.
Would you like to introduce yourself to the readers?
Yes. My name is Jack Garratt, and I am a producer and songwriter from the UK. And Iām currently enjoying a lot of popcornā¦ and feeling pretty good about it.
What do you love about music?
[Pauses to think] You know? Iāve never genuinely, really thought about it. āCause itās always beenāitās never been a question. [Pauses to think] I love the fact that I canāt answer that questionā¦ that thereās no obvious answer for it ā like, there never has been. Ever since I was a kid, itās just always been the most obvious thing for me to beā¦ for me to be like a part of in some way. Musicās always been the way that Iāve most honestly and, kind of I guess, self-respectively been able to communicate with other people. [Pauses to think] Yeahā¦ I donāt know what I love about it, thatās a fuckingāthatās a really good question! No oneās ever like genuinely, seriously asked me that before.
Youāre the first person whoās had that perspective on it as well, so thatās rather interestingā¦
Right. Yeah, no ācause thatās the thing is that likeā¦ I donātāitās not that it would be easy to, but yeah for sure, absolutely I love the way that it makes me feel. I love the way that it makes other people feel. Musicās always been ā at least in my eyes ā this incredibly primitive form of conversation that we have. And thatās fucking sick! But to involve communication with creativity in the way that music is able to, is genuinely baffling. And that thereās no science to it, thereās no right or wrong answer, it justā¦ it is ā and has been for a long time.
Can you recall your earliest memory of music?
[Pauses to think] I remember being a kid, and having music everywhere. My mom and dad wereā¦ not professional musicians, but musicians ā music appreciators. My mom was a music teacher, and my dad taught himself to play the guitar when he was a teenager. So because of that, weād have guitars everywhere, and pianos, and records, andā¦ just music. It was as obvious in every room of my house that you would walk in as a chair would be ā as commonplace and as necessary. And I remember the first time I realized that that wasnāt the same for everyone else. You know? Like, realizing that music ā as incredible as it is ā is not something that everyone has the opportunity to have an open-minded introduction to in a sense. I was lucky as a kid growing up that my parents were never the kind of people to say, āHey, donāt listen to that,ā or, āYouāre not allowed to play that instrument.ā It was always, āYouāve shown interest in it? Well then go ahead.ā Like they never pushed me into it, but they also never denied it from me. They allowed me to kind of grow up with music.
Did you ever wanna be anything other than a musician?
I was gonna be a teacherā¦ and it just didnāt really work out [laughs]. I ultimately realized that I didnāt like being taught how to be a teacher. I do a lot of my own stuff when it comes to music: like I produce a lot, and I write a lot, and I mix a lot of it myself, and stuff like that. So with teaching, the minute someone sat me down, and was like, āHey, hereās how you should teach,ā Iād sit there and go, āThatās not how I would do itā [laughs]. And I had spent a year at school already working with a kid who had Cerebral Palsy ā and he was incredible ā and that year of my life was unbelievable. Like, completely giving myself over to a group of kids, and one kid in particular, and being so aware as to how important teaching is ācause youāre inā¦ ahhh, itās weird, ācause youāre not in control ā bad teachers are in control, good teachers are enablersā¦
More facilitatorsā¦
Yeah, exactly. They are able to give to your children opportunities to expand their minds and kind of realize their potentials. Bad teachers take control of situations, I feel. And those kids taught me that. But then when I went to [university], I was very much like, āNope, this isnāt how I wanna do it,ā and I dropped out. I mean, the music was always there and it was bleeding out of meā¦ I had to listen to it at some point, and I had to take it seriously. And I did, and that was about four-five years ago.
Whatās something you wish you knew when you were younger? Speaking of educationā¦
I wishā¦ I knewā¦ I wish I knew how to take myself seriouslyā¦ when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I was a lot more into the attention of what performing would bring, and the attention of what writing music would bring, and all that kind of stuff. I wish when I was a kid I had the self-respect, and also the kind of discipline to say, āYou donāt need to do all those things to get the attention, because what youāre looking for, young Jack, is not the attention, but itās justā¦ respect ā for yourself, and from the people that you love and admire.ā And I came to realize that only like five years agoā¦ kind of when I left [university]. I wish I had learned to respect myself at a younger age. But I think kind of the point of being a kid and being a teenager is that you donāt respect yourself. You think that you do, when you kind of donāt. Yeah, fucking being a teenager is fucking hard, no matter who, or what, or where you come from. But yeah, I was lucky enough kind of a few years ago to have that realization, and realize I didnāt respect myself, and didnāt respect the music that I was making. So I made necessary changes toā¦ to change that.
How would you describe your approach to life?
[Pauses to think] I believe that practice doesnāt make perfect, practice makes routine. I donāt think perfection exists. I think itāsā¦ itās a weird concept, and totally non-human. Practicing something ā though important ā doesnāt make perfect, it makes routine. It just means that youāll do the same thing every time. And in music, I think itās important to constantly be different, to constantly strive to better and improve yourself, and your mind, and your creativity, your performances, your interaction, your ability to be an artistā¦ to constantly question yourself. And you can question yourself without doubting yourself, and thatās a difficult fucking margin to see the difference between.
Walking a tight line thereā¦
Yeah, exactly. But like, I donāt know, whenever I hear people who say that theyāre the greatest, that theyāre the best that they could ever be, and that thatās it, I always sit there and I go, āI feel so sorry for youā¦ because I have no idea what youāre gonna think when you wake up tomorrow.ā And I say that a lot, ācause I do believe in it. I am neverā¦ Iām never gonna fulfill my fullest potentialā¦ and I kind of donāt think I ever want to.
āCause otherwise youāre just striving to maintain, rather than striving to growā¦
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Thatās exactly it. Thatās exactly it.
Whatās been your biggest pinch-me moment?
[Pauses to think] I wasā¦ kind of very recently, I did a festival out in Australia. And when I do a show, I find it quite hard to really realize the moment Iām in ā to look around and open my eyes, and kind of go, āAww, shit, this is where I am.ā
Especially for all the multi-tasking that youāre doing. [Note: For all intents and purposes, Jack is essentially a one-man band ā originally out of necessity.]
Exactly, thereās a lot going on. Not a lot of space to think. And I had that moment in Australia: I looked up, I looked around, and I sawā¦ like, I was in a country the other side of the world from where I grew up, in front of a bunch of people Iāve never met before, let alone know if theyād even heard of me or heard my music, and there were thousands of people there, and I was genuinely shocked and surprised by it. And Iām always shocked and surprisedā¦ like thankfully, because of my job, every day something comes along that surprises me, and itās amazing. But that was a real moment where I kind of sat there and went, āHoly fuck.ā Like I did not know anything about this situation, and itās here. Fortunately, I have a lot of moments like that, which is amazing. And itās important to pinch yourself. If it becomes normal, then thatās weird. Nothing should ever be normal. Weāre not normal, weāre weird. Itās fine.
If you had one wish, what would it be?
[Pauses to think] Iā¦ wouldā¦ oh man, thereās way too much pressure behind this.
Take your timeā¦
One wishā¦
Thatās it, pal!
Thatās it! [Keeps thinking]
All of humanity is waiting on itā¦
[Laughs] Yeah, right? Yeah, Jesusā¦ shit. Thatās how many people [are reading this!?] Oh god. No, I ummā¦ kind of referring back to what I said before, if I had one wish, it would be that everyone would have at least just one momentānot forever, not to change forever ā but at least one moment where they could see themselves for who they truly are, and rightfully and honestly judge themselves for that. Because no one else can judge you for who you are.
Totally! Although we sometimes allow them toā¦
People will! Yeah, people will. Butā¦ they canāt. Only you can truly look at yourself and be able to make a decision as to whether you are happy or not, and I just wish everyone had the opportunity to see themselves in that way. I think that would change a lot about the world that we live in, in a lot of different ways. Could you imagine for example if likeā¦ [gathers his thoughts] could you imagine if Donald Trump actually looked at himself in the mirror and was like, serious about itā¦ and was like, āOh shit, Iām 70ā¦ look at my hair.ā And just that alone might be enough for him to kind of go, āYou know what? Maybe there are other things I need to look at then.ā I donāt know, thatās one situation. But if everyone had that opportunity, I donāt knowā¦ maybe the world would be different, maybe it wouldnātā¦ who gives a shit, just as long as youāre able to start a change by making a small one.
Any final thoughts for the readers?
THANKS!
story / Damon Campbell
