In her living room in south London, Emma-Jean Thackray triumphantly opens the gatefold sleeve of her new album, Weirdo, to reveal the liner notes inside. It’s a dizzying index containing the brass the UK jazz star is known for – trumpet, as well as flugelhorn, trombone and euphonium – along with vocals, guitar, drums, keys, production, mixing and art direction. Her name appears 123 times.
“I thought it was funny, my name listed over and over,” she says. Similarly, in the video for new song Wanna Die, Thackray plays every member of her band, introduced – in a send-up of the infamous Fast Show sketch Jazz Club – by a turtlenecked Gilles Peterson, her label boss. But Wanna Die is about deep depression, and the multiple Thackrays are a serious statement of intent. The album, she says, “is about survival. If I hadn’t made this record, I would not be here.”
