Adele interviews Tobias Jesso Jr: ‘I think that a couple of the ideas we had could be rap songs’

I loved Tobias Jesso Jr’s song, Hollywood, and I reached out to him when I was working on 25. I say I reached out… I got my manager to contact his manager. I’m pretty behind on social networking culture, I’d have no idea how to do it. Also I didn’t want to ask and have him say, “Absolutely not, I think you’re shit.” At least if my manager asks, he can absorb the rejection and just never tell me. Anyway, he was well up for it. We met up in LA and I absolutely loved him; his vibe, his humour, the way he plays piano – so felt. The music he makes is romantic, with a 70s vibe. In person he’s strikingly tall, with this mad mop of hair. It turned out he was a really big fan of mine – and he totally kept his cool together, being thrown in the deep end, for our first co-writing session. I was nervous too. I always get nervous when I’m first in a room with someone. I get frightened to sing, frightened to suggest lyrics out loud. But we spent two or three days together, often just chatting. His grandparents were friends with Philip Glass, and Tobias had inherited Philip Glass’s old piano. We wrote our song, When We Were Young, on that piano. How cool is that? I’m definitely going to work with him again. He’s my new secret weapon. Listen to his songs How Could You Babe and Hollywood. I love them. I caught up with him for a chat…

Adele: What is your earliest musical memory?
Tobias: In Lynn Valley, where I grew up, there wasn’t much to do as a kid – this is pre-internet, pre-cellphone times, when you’d meet friends at the mall. I was at the mall – I was about 10 – and Gimme One Reason by Tracy Chapman came on. It kept coming on. The best speaker was in the vegetable section, so I just stood there, staring at the lettuce or broccoli, just listening. I went home to try to find it on the radio to tape it. It was hard, but I got lucky.

What song do you wish you had written and why?
I love Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me - and I know you do too. I have always just loved everything about it, it’s a perfect song. The reasoning behind it is pretty hilarious. Some guy smashed his girlfriend’s car when he caught her cheating and when the police or whoever asked him if he’d learned anything he said, “You can’t make them love you if they don’t.” The songwriters [Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin] read that in the paper and were inspired.

Tell me about the process of making your album Goon and working with producers JR White, Patrick Carney and Ariel Rechtshaid.

Well it all started with JR. I was a fan of his band, Girls, so I sent him a few demos after I had heard they had broken up. He wrote back pretty quickly and we went from there. Patrick Carney I met through my friend Dakota and I went to Nashville to record with him. He also played in the Black Keys so I was already fanboying out on him. Then Ariel came in pretty late; he recorded one song I had written after my album had mostly been laid down. Since then we touch base all the time with songs and things, he’s just super-supportive. I think it’s important, especially as an artist, to find those people in your life who you believe can do a job better than you. They all were that for me; they’ve very much become a part of my life.

How did learning the piano change everything for you?
Well, I have always had problems with my voice, and the piano helped me believe the song could be bigger than my voice, and I could play with new melodies and things that I couldn’t on guitar. It was easier to make the sound fuller, and easier to get away with not being as good. Piano is one of those instruments you don’t have to be good at to sound good - you just have to know where to put three little fingers, which is really pretty easy to figure out. I learned one of your songs first, haha! Someone Like You – great practice.

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What’s your best quality as a singer and writer, and what’s the worst?
Best quality: writer. Worst: singer. Just kidding. I often compare my voice to an old car you’re only 50% sure will turn on when you need it to. Writing is a bit easier for me. If I find a melody I like, even if I can’t sing it, I feel as if I know it’s right or wrong. Sometimes that can hurt me, though, letting my melodies lead me, because I’m stuck with a song I can’t sing.

Who would you most like to work with and why?
Well it was you, ha ha, before we worked together. I guess now that that dream is realised, I’d say Kanye or Drake. I often find myself writing little ditties I can imagine becoming rap songs. Not the actual rapping part, just the chorus. I think a couple of the ideas we had when we worked together would be good for rap songs!

How did it feel when you first started grabbing people’s attention with your videos on YouTube?
YouTube for me was a way of getting to a friend of a friend, somebody who didn’t know me, to get feedback in the comments. I noticed that the more personal the song, the more honest and real, the better the response would be.

What song do you listen to when...
...you want to feel like you’re in a film walking down the street in slo-mo (mine is the Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony)?
Ha ha! Right now I’d go with Cause I’m a Man by Tame Impala, I feel like that song slows the world down a bit around me.

...you’re on a road trip (mine’s Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi)?
Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.

...you want to have a mass sing-along (Elton John, Tiny Dancer)?
Hey Ya! by Outkast – you can’t help but join in on that chorus.

...you feel like shit (either Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye or Me’Shell N’degeocello’s Liquid Moon)?
Pretty much any Nick Drake,or good ol’ Canadian Celine Dion’s version of All By Myself.

…when on your way to meet someone you think you might fall in love with (mine’s always been Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry; even now I listen before date night with my boyfriend)?
Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra. Ha ha. “The pickin’s have been lush” is a great lyric.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
I had a pretty awkward date one night where I had too much to drink. I woke up the next morning in her neighbour’s bushes. I didn’t know where I was until I saw her making coffee. Whether she ever found out about that I’ll never know. We went out a few times, but I kept that shameful memory locked away.

Who is your favourite artist/band and why?
Awkward. You, ha ha, and Randy Newman. I think it’s really important to believe in the artists you like, and I always had a huge respect for you being true to yourself, and believed it. I don’t like flashy, in-your-face kind of things, I prefer modest. And Randy is a boss and literally couldn’t act different if he tried.

Now, a quickfire round. What’s your favourite album?
Randy Newman Live: so good.

And your favourite movie?
The Human Centipede. Ha ha, just kidding, I have so many, but The Notebook and Gladiator are both in my Top 10. That’s no joke, I fucking love those movies.

Your favourite book?
I’ve never really been a medieval lover, but I’m gonna go with Pillars of the Earth.

And colour?
Blue, for sure!

And lastly, when did you first realise you could walk backwards down the stairs with your feet forwards?
I had a bunch of party tricks when I went to school – I always tried to be the class clown. I think the backwards walking happened sometime in late elementary school, after I stopped being able to fold my ears inside themselves and flick erasers out of them.