{"id":6915,"date":"2012-04-17T09:20:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T09:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/?p=6915"},"modified":"2012-05-03T13:42:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T13:42:57","slug":"questions-answers-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/2012\/04\/questions-answers-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions & Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

British jazz singer Zara McFarlane recently released her debut album, Until Tomorrow<\/em>, to critical acclaim. In March, she starred alongside the legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela in a sell-out concert at London’s Barbican, to mark the start of Commonwealth Week. Global <\/em>caught up with Zara as she was preparing for the gig and she explained why she prefers jazz to pop music and told us about her love of <\/span>“sweet-smelling soapy stuff”.<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Global: Do you think that music can help connect cultures?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zara McFarlane: <\/strong>I think it’s a great way of bringing people together. Music lifts people’s spirits and helps them to express themselves. People can’t always put things into words and I think music allows them to express things that they wouldn’t normally be able to.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

When did you know that you wanted to be a singer?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, when I was younger, I wanted to be a dancer and then I wanted to be a teacher. I always thought that I would be singing in some way, shape or form, but it wasn’t until around the age of 18 that I decided I really wanted to get into singing properly.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What drew you to jazz rather than soul or pop music?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

At the BRIT School of Performing Arts I studied musical theatre. I went on to do a course before my degree and there I got a bit more involved with jazz music. It was something that I seemed to have a knack for – a lot of the vocal jazz standards come from musicals, so I was quite familiar with them anyway.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

I had the opportunity to work with one of my teachers – he’s a pianist – doing some jazz gigs. I got more involved with it from then on, trying to find out about jazz, going to jam sessions in London and working with different musicians.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What do you particularly like about jazz music?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I like the fact that you can improvise, be a bit more free. It’s much more of a form of expression than popular music. But the way that I see jazz is that you should write good lyrics and have strong melodies, and popular music is [also] based around strong catchy melodies. All the great jazz songs from the American songbook have that element to them – I suppose they were the popular music of the day.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

You were recently signed to Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label, but before that you self-financed your own EP.How difficult was it for you to secure a recording contract?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

After I did my Masters in jazz, I decided to sort myself out and get something ready to show people. That was when I decided to do the EP. Without that no one knows what you sound like. Now, I think, it is slightly easier in some ways because you’ve got YouTube and people can check out recordings that you’ve done so you don’t necessarily have to have a CD to give [out]. But I still think for me – and maybe it’s the style of music I was doing – it was important to have a CD. Without that it would have been much more difficult. Even with the EP some people were saying, “Oh, I need to hear an album.”<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

But I wasn’t seeking to be signed. I was trying to go for more of a live gig approach – that’s how I see myself, as a performer. I didn’t think I was ready yet. It just kind of happened. A friend of mine had a friend that knew Gilles Peterson and he passed on my tracks. Gilles liked them enough to play them on his radio show – that was at the beginning of 2010.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What did you do yesterday?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was teaching the recorder to primary school children. It’s my day job! I work part-time for Southwark Music Service, so that’s what I do Tuesdays and Thursdays. <\/span>Then I met up with a friend I haven’t seen for a long time, and after that I taught at home as well. It was a bit of a busy day, but it was nice because it was sunny.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Could you describe your home?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve been doing a bit of decorating in my house so it makes me feel great to be at home these days. I’ve decorated my bedroom very nicely and a little music room\/ office. The last year or so I haven’t been home very much – I’ve been out and about, running around. But in January I was at home quite a bit and [am] getting attached to my house again.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What do you do to relax?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t relax very often. I feel stressed out quite a bit [laughs]. I like having nice baths. <\/span>I use lots of sweet-smelling soapy stuff – I like to pamper myself in that way. And I like going to the cinema, having people over and spending time with my family.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Who would you most like to meet and why?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I wouldn’t mind meeting Barack Obama. <\/span>Having a conversation with him and finding out about how he feels about his role and how people perceive him as a black president. Really, I don’t think of him being a black president, I think of him just as a president, but many people do feel that it is a big thing to have a black president. I wonder whether he thinks about it like that, if he is aware of it, and if it means something to him personally.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What is your most treasured possession?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally I am not very materialistic, but I suppose my phone. I’ve had it stolen a few times and it is quite liberating not to have it, but on a day-to-day basis, I need my phone. <\/span>And my car, living where I live [and] doing what I do as well – having to travel around the UK singing and coming home late on my own – it’s very useful having a car. I suppose your car and your phone can really be safe havens.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Be yourself and accept yourself and others as they are. I can’t think of the actual words but that’s the message.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British jazz singer Zara McFarlane recently released her debut album, Until Tomorrow, to critical acclaim. In March, she starred alongside the legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela in a sell-out concert at London’s Barbican, to mark the start of Commonwealth Week. Global caught up with Zara as she was preparing for the gig and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[123,103,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7364,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6915\/revisions\/7364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}