Interview with Jack Cattell: ‘There are definitely Americana roots in my music’

Walsall, Midlands-based singer Jack Cattell has put out an energetic mash-up (23 July) of ‘Twist & Shout’, ‘La Bamba’, ‘Brown Eyed Girl Girl’ and ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ today as part of a ‘Covering The Classics’ competition run by Genre Music.

Entrants had to submit videos where they mash up at least three songs, according to Cattell. The competition ends tomorrow and the winner will receive a collection of music books, vinyls and £250.

Earlier this year, Cattell and his band released ‘Love Me’, a more indie track than some of his earlier songs with strong folk/rock roots. ‘I go through phases, so the style of what I write depends on what I’m listening to at the time,’ he said. ‘The band got together last August and it gives us a chance to try different things. We’ve got a new single ‘London Town’ that is ready to go and which will probably come out around November. It’s a full band affair and, style-wise, goes back to the folk/rock sound.’

On his Adult Life EP released last year, bluesy songs like ‘The Cowboy Blues’ and ‘Good Old Mr. Daniels’, he really comes into his own, though. ‘Good Old Mr. Daniels’, with lines such as ‘With Jack, you never know which way you’ll turn’ (in reference to whether you can drink away your sorrows or not) and ‘I’m not drinking any more but I’m not drinking any less either’, he’s presenting a lone man telling his drinking tales. ‘The Cowboy Blues’ is an energetic, bluesy/country hybrid, about a man who doesn’t know where he’s going but who will ‘keep walking until I find a home’.

Cattell has a gig on the cards in the Midlands in October that hasn’t been cancelled so far, as well as other gigs that will take him and his band through to July next year if they go ahead.

He cites Bruce Springsteen and Brian Fallon as two of his biggest musical influences. ‘I grew up listening to Bruce, since he did his Glastonbury set. It blew me away. There are definitely Americana roots in my music.’

If he could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive, Cattell would plump for Chuck Berry, though: ‘He was phenomenal for the time, for a black musician making his way. He was an amazing guitarist with such rhythm. I’ve been listening to him since I was three or four. My dad got me into him and into music in general.’