Jacob Collier, the Grammys’ Surprise Album of the Year Nominee (Again), on Learning From Quincy Jones and Where He Landed With ‘Djesse Vol. 4’
As he was with the 2021 Grammys and “Djesse Vol. 3,” Jacob Collier is, again, up for album of the year, this time courtesy of his spiky, soul-filled “Djesse Vol. 4.” While his first AOTY nom found the wunderkind one-man-band up against a mixed bag of female and male greats (Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” won that year), for 2025, Collier is surrounded by women (Swift again, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX), plus one flute player in André 3000.
To state that the 30-year-old Londoner (who does have six Grammy wins to his name) is a fan of his fellow 2025 nominees can’t say enough about his devotion to music of all stripes. Playing virtuoso-level jazz piano and singing opera since 10 (his mother is renowned violinist-conductor Suzie Collier), Collier made a YouTube splash in 2011 with complex vocal (and video panel) arrangements of “Pure Imagination” and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.” The latter Stevie Wonder cover caught the attention of Quincy Jones, who began mentoring and managing Jacob soon afterwards. In Collier, Jones surely saw a young man whose technical wizardry, instrumental excellence, vocal prowess and mastery of jazz, R&B and beyond were reminiscent of his own chops.
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“Djesse Vol. 4” — the last in a planned series of collab-heavy albums — is another animal altogether, a record featuring Collier’s usual layers of jumbled genres and voices sharpened to an elegantly honed point with “over 100,000 voices of audiences from around the world,” bringing an air of (literal) good cheer to the proceedings. With “Djesse Vol. 4,” Jacob Collier is not just a musical marksman; he’s a sniper.
Collier spoke with Variety from L.A. a few days before the Grammys ceremony.
Based on the fact that you’re up against a wall of female superstars, and that an ambient flute record probably won’t prove victorious, do you feel like “Djesse Vol. 4” could sneak in and win album of the year?
The concept of “Album of the Year” is a funny one. It’s not objectively true in any scenario. What we have here is a system that’s been created by the Grammys, over the years, with albums put forward to represent alongside each other. I’m continuously bowled over thinking my album has been placed next to the work of these amazing artists… especially considering that it’s an important, pivotal moment for women in music. I’ve been cheering on that bandwagon for some time. It’s curious to wonder just what my album represents alongside these others… just what it stands for.
To me, this album is the end of a four-album-series designed to be a celebration of collaboration with many of my musical heroes, artists of different generations across the gamut of genres, and audiences across the globe. I’ve become obsessed with the sound of audiences, radically including everyone. So, it’s hard to predict how the voters will behave… being that I’ve never had an album of mine in the charts. The metric of how an album finds its people — the goalpost is moving all the time.
You have an armful of Grammys for arranging vocals and instrumentation. With multiple talents and victories in those specific skillsets – shared by influencers like Jon Hendricks and Quincy Jones, who was crucial to your career – do you feel like you’re already ahead of the game? Many artists have catchy songs or great voices, but how many can orchestrate?
The idea of an “arranging” Grammy is mysterious, slightly undefined. I’m an artist who doesn’t fit into single genre-based categories — not jazz, R&B, pop — so this seems to be a safe space for those who are creative with their materials. The first arranging Grammy in particular was crazy, because I made music in my bedroom in London by myself.
Quincy was mentor and manager to you. Before he passed away last year, was there was something that he said or gave you that you carried into each project?
The greatest thing Quincy gave me was unconditional love and support. Sounds simple, but that is what we need as people and artists: “You go, express the world as you see it, and be honest.” He always pushed that idea of honesty… That was his career — being honest and audacious though all the decades of his work. He made you want to tell your honest story. He saw something in me at 18, 19, that I could not see in myself – perhaps a pathway to being expansive and experimental. And we connected early on regarding the idea of being “warm.” Quincy lived and worked through generations of sound, different kinds of arrangements, and what was hip at every juncture, and what he stayed true to was the warmth of his spirit. “Don’t try to be cool. Be warm.” I’ll never forget him saying that.
It must have been a thrill for you to perform at the 2024 Grammys, playing “Both Sides Now” with Joni Mitchell and one of your “Vol. 4” collaborators, Brandi Carlile.
It was unbelievable. I first met Joni in 2021 when Brandi — one of my favorite people on the planet — was beginning this process of rekindling Joni’s musical energy after she had been rendered immobile and speechless for a time due to her brain aneurysm. Brandi’s idea was to have musician friends inspire and be inspired by Joni. This exchange of energies worked. Fast-forward a few years and Joni went from strength to strength, from whispers to strong renditions of her songs. To me, “Both Sides Now” is one of the ultimate songs of all time, and accompanying her on piano was surreal. To her core, Joni is a courageous improviser. As someone who loves to improvise, I identify with her willingness to change expectations just with little phrasings of melody, to imply something different and always look for the edge. To witness that first-hand on the Grammy stage was nothing short of astounding.
Your inflection went up at the mention of “improvisation.” Is that what puts you over the edge – the drive to invent at a moment’s notice?
I feel the most myself when I am a megaphone for other voices, but I combine those voices with deep curiosity and adventure. Whether that means working with my own voice, collaborators’ voices or that of my audiences, there’s something that I feel when I use this palette where the whole world becomes a musical instrument. I can see interesting combinations and collisions based on those materials. A lot of that comes from curiosity. … Quincy mastered that thing with being a megaphone for others, and did it in an amazing way. I’m also obsessed with the unusual, the subversive, the irreverent. As a listener, I’m drawn to artists who aren’t afraid to give something else a try. Joni or Bjork, Stevie Wonder, Freddie Mercury or Igor Stravinsky – people who go there.
Your musical talents are abundant. Your willingness to experiment with form is clear. Your rise to prominence, however, came courtesy your colorful YouTube videos. Going back 11 years, now, how do you view that rush of fame beyond music?
No one knew what it all was, yet. That made it magical. There were no algorithms to speak of. As a creative person, that’s a cool place to be. So, YouTube was a mystery, but it was a safe space to experiment – so I did so in all sorts of ways to get my fascinations out to the world. And it was multi-modal. Not just about the music, but filming all of my faces, hair styles, color-coordinating my outfits, and editing it all together…. At age 16, you’re full of ideas, and ravenous for an outlet, so I went down so many rabbit holes to suit my fascinations. I still do that. You just have to dodge the algorithms.
The ”Djesse” series started in 2018 with you announcing, then, that it would exist in four volumes. Listening to the arc of the series, is “Vol. 4” what you thought it would be when you created “Vol. 1”?
I deliberately didn’t plan “Vol. 4” too much… though I did originally plan for all four albums to come out in one year (laughs) in a typically Jacobian manner. I knew the first would be orchestral, that the second would be folky and acoustic-based, and that “Vol. 3” would be mysterious and digital — which coming out as it did around COVID made sense. For a while, then, “Vol. 4” was an unmakable album; its confines were too broad and hard to complete… When I began playing again after the pandemic, I found that I had fallen in love with audiences and realized that this next volume would include their voices as part of my collaborations. “Vol. 4” became about the human voice – still euphoric, unifying colliding genres and languages, as there are 23 languages on this new album. Working with Brandi Carlile, Kirk Franklin, Anoushka Shankar and Chris Martin – all amazing. Everything I had planned in 2018 went as far as it could go. I wanted to feel euphoric, feel fun, and create an epic finale – end with this collision of worlds.
And yet, rather than close on something as grandly complex as the first three volumes, “Djesse Vol. 4,” is not so much simpler, but rather, blunter and punkish. All of your usual, dynamic-rich, layering-upon-layering, all of your obvious knowledge of close harmony, micro-tonality and dissonance is, on “Vol. 4,” compressed, more direct and more tightly melodic.
I could see that coming when I got to the second volume by the means of what was exciting me. As a writer, producer and singer, I wanted to increase its intensity. One way to do that is to utilize a lot of materials and sheer breadth. You could do so too by upping the quiet. That’s grounding and draws you in. You could make everything brighter. My own voice grew with that, and I fell in love with the idea of a voice that grew, naturally, and with intensity. It took me 10 years to learn how to sing like that. As I recognized that, my job became to let the natural intensity of that shine, and be clear. My skillsets and interests focused on that different kind of intensity…
You used the words “punk” and “direct.” There’s something about “Vol. 4” that it seeks to provide more obstacles – seeking other edges – and handling them in unusual ways. All we can do as artists is catch the wave and ride it. To your word, yes, it is more direct. And I see what you are getting at, too, with the word “blunt.” I would use “sharp,” instead. This is a sharper album. Clearer. Every sound you hear has a place and an identity. Listening back to my past albums, I can hear me figuring this out.
Lastly, this was the first album that I wrote with playing shows and touring in mind. The first three albums were their own world, designed in the studio, for the studio — very colorful, multi-layered environments. With “Vol. 4,” I sought to discard some of those layers in favor of songs that would sing themselves more easily. That makes for something more direct. In playing “Vol. 4” live, these were songs that had to fill large spaces.
Without playing psychologist, your songs may welcome audiences and use their voices expansively, but your lyrics focus on loneliness and seeking communion. You’ve been a one-man-band for so long. Do you think that you make music to emulate the shared family sing-alongs of your past with your mom and siblings? And how that comes through most on “Vol. 4” by including the audience, now, as a part of your process?
I think you’re probably right. My earliest memories of being a kid were that, having a single mom with three kids and our singing being a big part of things. I’m wholeheartedly an introvert and came into the music industry never dreaming of playing shows – I never saw “JACOB COLLIER” in neon lights. My dreams were of being an alchemist, someone in a workshop of beautiful metal and tools sculpting things that were visceral and come with meaning. And that was quite a solitary process, even if it was informed by the world around me…
My first-ever tour was that one-man-band thing, done in solitude. But craving collaboration and loving my audiences made that same crowd my playmates, my bandmates. Having audiences gave me someone to vibe off of. True improvisation is having that audience in the room with me. So, I’m still building worlds, but – like any artist – I’m providing a mirror, something that offers an opportunity to see themselves. That’s what an artist such as Joni Mitchell did for me – allowed me to see myself in her work. The mirror I hope to provide for others is to literally make them part of the band. You 5,000 people may never have met before, but what if it’s me just directing you, and as a team we can reflect each other?
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