In the video for her single “Running,” Jessie Ware is pure vixen. She wears red lipstick. She writhes across the room without any hint of apology. She wears her hair in a severe updo, dark eyes bared. She engages in a staring contest with the camera. She doesn’t back down.
You can watch that video a million times and every time you’ll swear that she’s looking straight at you. There are moments in that video that hint at a confidence so intense, the viewer almost has to look away. She’s daring you to find the crack in her armor – the hint of self-doubt that every star faces when she’s on the brink. Jessie Ware’s vulnerability may be almost undetectable. But it’s there.
“Confidence. Presenting myself and saying, ‘Yes, I’m a singer.’ I really struggle with that. It’s just me being really nervous and neurotic about it,” the London native says.
The singer is especially proud of the effort she made on “Running”, and she sells it well. Songwriting is new to her but she calls “Running”, along with her other high-profile single “Wildest Moments”, her “most competent” songs. “It makes me feel like I’ve come a long way in songwriting and maybe now I can call myself a songwriter. I learned how to do a skill when I had no idea to do it right in the beginning.”
Ware didn’t arrive on the scene in typical Hollywood fashion, a young ingénue made precocious by big dreams and ruthless pressure. At 28, she’s gained buzz with relatively little struggle. She doesn’t have the well-rehearsed shtick most young singers do. She doesn’t need it. Jessie may not have been tailor-made for this world. She had neither the pedigree, nor the lifelong ambition to make her a shoo-in for the music industry. But her story is sane and her voice is the real thing. And that alone makes her special.
“I knew I could sing, but I kind of just didn’t take it seriously. I thought I needed to go get an education and be sensible and go get a proper job. Although I could sing, I just wasn’t really that person who would tell everybody I could,” the singer, who studied English and planned to pursue journalism says.
Jessie got her start in the business as a backup singer, when her friend Jack Penate invited her to tour with him. “I really enjoyed it so I did some other stuff and then I got signed.”
While touring, Jessie fell in love with America, and America seems to love her right back. Comparisons are inevitable in the music industry, and Jessie earned the most coveted one – She’s been likened to fellow Brit Adele. “It’s a big compliment. She’s a great artist. She’s wonderful. So yes, being compared to her is very lovely,” she says. But Jessie is quick to add that she sees herself as very, very different than Adele.
Like Adele, soul is a huge part of Jessie’s artistry, though Jessie’s music has a more contemporary, sonic feel to it. “I’ve tried to make it as concise as possible and I feel like the music I make is kind of British electronic soul. And as an artist, I’m a bit neurotic. I’m a bit awkward on stage. I talk too much,” she reveals. She doesn’t play any instruments, but that doesn’t stop her from remaining heavily involved in the songwriting process. She collaborates on everything and finds inspiration from films, books, music and friendships – but mostly relationships.
Jessie’s voice is unlike anything the music industry has heard in a while. It’s mature, smoky-smooth, and steeped in soul. On the bottom it’s sensual, but it ascends with a nimble, almost-airy quality on her higher notes.
She has a face full of angles, the kind that lends itself to edge, so it’s no wonder that she favors fashion that plays this up. “Miu Miu’s clothes are so fun and sexy and they actually make me wear color,” she says. “I really like quite tailored stuff. Any time I can wear a Margiela blazer or a McQueen blazer, I’m happy.” Jessie feels strongly about maintaining her musical persona through fashion. “I want it to be interesting when I perform onstage, so fashion has become really important. Probably more important than I thought it was going to be. I’m really enjoying discovering new designers and having fun with it. I just wasn’t the biggest fashionista when I was younger.”
Everything – the look, the face, that incredible voice – goes to makes Jessie Ware the artist that she is. While MANIAC loves the demure and sexy side we see of Ware in “Running,” we’re glad we got to see the other side of this neurotic, inquisitive, 28-year-old Brit with a new love for fashion.
“When I was thinking about being fierce maybe I took it too far,” she says of the way that video turned out. “I’m actually the biggest geek ever, and I snort when I laugh.”