Hack In Training: Jess morgan - Monkey Chews-tastic (1 of 7)

In an intimate room above a buzzing, atmospheric bar, Jess Morgan is rocking away. Her melodic voice fills the low-lit room as her funky, folky geet-ar strumming sets the whole room nodding along. The place: Monkey Chew’s bar, Camden. The time: 9th December…oh, late-ish. The event: Laissez-faire Christmas Special.

Jess Morgan, 22, is one of those rare things: a young singer-songwriter with genuine talent. Not so new to the gigging scene, she played her way through her Bachelor’s degree at York St John University, before finally moving to London to make her name. Her voice doesn’t seem to be going unnoticed either: she’s been Steve Lamacq’s Demo of the Week, and had reviews from the likes of James Morrison…positive reviews, I might add. So I caught up with Jess after her latest gig to ask her a few questions…

Right! First, the basics: Name, age, and where d’you come from?
Jess Morgan, 22, from Acle…which is slap-bang between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. In the countryyy!

Have you always been into song-writing? What sparked your interest?
It was the move to York really. I have always been into music and lyrics - but being in a buzzing-ly cultural city like that really gave me a shove to put my ideas into real songs and let people hear them.

When did you decide…this is what I want to do?
I can't really remember really. I was dead set on joining the navy and seeing the world after Uni - until the music I was making and developing became something I wasn't prepared to give up. Between then and now I realised I don't want to do anything else right now.

What’s happening for you at the minute?
Lots of gigs coming up. I'm usually first on the bill or the support act - but it all takes time. My biggest achievent so far was being steve Lamacq's demo of the week and getting some radio play on BBC Radio 2.

Any future plans?
Future plans? Hmmmm. I've got plans to release a promotional single - limited edition on 7inch vinyl. its not a money spinner- just for promotion really. Ideally, I would like to record and sell lots of albums.

Record Signing?
Had a weeny bit of interest, but we (me and my manager Steve Whiteley) are playing it cool. We're not in a hurry to get signed. I'm still developing as an artist.

How long does it usually take you to write a song?
Not sure really. I'm currently re-visiting a lot of songs I wrote over the summer, and actually some from over a year ago. I used to hurry songs- because I thought I'd had this great idea and I wanted to play it live, or get it down on the tascam, but now I don't worry so much. I'm not afraid to take songs back to the drawing board and start again on them. I guess that’s me growing up!

And finally Jess, what do you do when you’re not playing?
I'm always playing! No seriously, I dream of one day having a gym membership, being able to travel, surf, eat French bread, pay my mum and dad back all the money I've borrowed, being able to paint massive canvasses again and go to the cinema with my lovely boyfriend. Fingers crossed it won't be too long, but for now its really just music, music, music.