Oscar Jerome on Sophomore Album The Spoon, Melancholy, and Performing Live

So, here comes another stellar conversation I had, with an artist I've been a fan of for a long time.

If you follow the UK's (and the world's, really) jazz/soul scene, you've certainly heard about Oscar Jerome - the Norwich-born singer, guitarist & composer. And we've also been extensively covering his music since 2016 - including my fav "Gravitate".

So, Oscar recently released his sophomore album called The Spoon which took a more cinematic & melancholic approach and he stopped by for a chat to give us some details about it and to also share stories about his creative process, touring with Kamasi Washington and the Blue Note: Reimagined project.

Tune in to the full conversation below (and feel free to save, rate & share the episode):

Here are also some snippets from our talk to get an idea:

[04:16] On singing & playing the guitar

I used to sing along to cartoons & stuff, I used to walk around & sing all the time as a kid but in terms of actual studying, it was definitely the guitar. I didn't really study vocals or take vocals seriously... I always sang songs but never took it seriously in a professional way, how to use my voice until 5 years ago.

[09:13] On melancholy

I've always been a fan of melancholy music, dark music. I love the beauty that you can find in, like, very difficult moments. For example, someone like Jeff Buckley. I love how he has that beautiful, sweet music but it's always got this undertone of something quite dark and it kinda gives you this depth. I've always been drawn to that ever since I was a kid, I can't explain why, I just have.

[34:44] On cancel culture

People get canceled every day. We're in a place where people can do anything and people get jumped on: "You're canceled, you're never gonna work again, you're never gonna be in the public eye ever again". We don't really leave the space for people to actually learn and try to do better. There are people who are just plain downright evil but a lot of people just don't understand stuff because they haven't been in a position to learn that and this is all a reflection of their life experience and whatever shit they've been through as kids. So, it's important to provide people with space to also learn.

[45:18] On doing things online & in real life

This whole thing of being online is limited. I think it's important to do stuff in your day-to-day, try to affect your local community, things that are directly in front of you. As an artist, people are also coming to you for a place for a release, to get away from all the crap that's going on around them, so it's important to get balance, so you don't become like a bad news channel. You're a place where people get joy but you create it in a way where everyone feels it's for them and people aren't excluded as well. I think that's super important