Jai McDowall - Interview
After blowing the socks off the Britain’s Got Talent judges with his powerful, pop operatic renditions of such tunes as Evanescence’s ‘Bring me Back to Life’, Jai McDowall is back with his debut album ‘Believe’. Student Punch met up with him to find out how the shrinking violet has adapted from a pub singing support worker to a fully fledged musician, primed to sing to the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance.
StudentPunch: Jai, you’ve come a long way from your old life as a support worker, it must be strange living in the public eye, how have you adapted to you’re new found fame?
Well I don’t think I’ve done too bad. I’ve been taking it all one day at a time really, seeing how it goes. There have been a lot of changes obviously that I’ve had to get used to and if I tried to take them all at once my head would probably explode. I’m trying to just take it easy and go with the flow. It’s been a great experience and everyone’s been nothing but nice, so I can’t complain.
The new album ‘Believe’, is a mix of both pop and choral music, how did you decide what songs to include on it and are any of them particularly significant?
Well I kind of went along the lines of ‘Bring me Back to Life’ from the show, and I wanted to do stuff that was different and fresh that people would get to know. A lot of people will know the songs from the original artists so hopefully they’ll like them already and then come to recognise my sound as I put my own spin on them. Hopefully, they’ll like the new versions.
Who would you say are your main musical influences and what current musicians appeal to you most?
A lot of my influence comes from my dad as he’s a musician, but my style of music now is based a lot on Josh Groban. I listen to that operatic style of music a lot and it definitely affects my sound. I want my own songs to be along the same lines as his but with a rockier edge. I sang with him a few weeks ago, it was amazing! I got a ticket from a friend on the Friday night then phoned up my management and cheekily asked for a meet and greet. Then they called back and asked if I’d like to sing with him, it was an absolute dream come true, he was great. I managed to slow down my speaking enough so he could catch what I was saying. It was the most nervous I’ve ever been, I had three bottles of water in the space of five minutes!
Having such an eclectic taste in music, would you ever consider upping the temp of your songs and producing more dance tunes?
Yeah, I want my music to develop, I’m open to everything. I really like the sound of say Kelly Roland and David Guetta with the big voice and the dance beat. I could definitely see myself doing something like that in the future.
So you can see a ‘Jai ft Pitbull’ in the pipeline?
Well now, that would be great!
You grew up singing with your dad in pubs, do you still dabble in that?
Not so much unfortunately. It was fun but I have to be careful of my voice these days, can’t go about singing at the top of my lungs, no more karaoke power ballads.
I hear you covered a few Westlife song’s in your early days, how do you feel about their split?
Aww, how have you found out about that! I think they were a great band and there comes a time in a person’s career where they want to do other things. If I have half the success that they I’ll be over the moon.
Performing in Glasgow is a big deal for you as it’s close to home, do you still get nervous playing in front of your friends and family?
Yes. Yes I definitely do. I did a gig recently for Fireworks in Glasgow and there were twenty odd thousand people there and my mum and dad were all up so it was all very nerve wrecking. My nephew was there and waved at me and I couldn’t even look at him as even that, I was scared, would put me off.
Where do you plan to take your music after the release of this first album?
Well I’d like to a lot more in my current music style, maybe develop it into a more rocky sound. I love a lot of rock music, but I mean, you’ve given me a great idea for dance music now! You just never know.
Becoming a household name after Britain’s Got Talent must have brought with it some avid fans, have you had many crazy fan run ins?
Well not crazy fans, I have a lot of support and I get sent a lot of lovely cards and things. It’s weird when I walk down my local town and people recognise me. There was a wee woman who just came right up to me and said ‘oh my word, I just love you’, I was just like ‘thanks very much’ and she continued with ‘oh but I think you’re just great’, and I just stood there and again said, ‘thanks very much’. It was really lovely but got to the stage were I was like ‘ok, you’re scaring me now’.
So you’re going the meeting the Queen soon, what are you going to say to her?
I have no idea. I’ll probably just say ‘hello’, then just wing it and hope she understands me and doesn’t chop my head off, then go home a nervous wreck.
Jai McDowall’s debut album ‘Believe’ is out on the 12th of December.
By Caroline Gauley.
