Photo: Press
Not be confused with an iconic brand of footwear, this Puma Blue is Jacob Allen - a musician from South London who is busy taking classic sounds and moods and adding his unique vocal essence into the mix. In between two showcases at the iconic Montreal Jazz Festival, Jacob opens our conversation by explaining the name. “It was a feeling that I wanted a real superhero style of name. I love the old blues guys’ names like Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, these really cool two-word names. I decided I was going to have a name like that. So Blue came because that’s kind of the colour of the music, and I was sitting writing names in my notebook one day, and ‘Puma’ cropped up, it’s a slinky cat, and the name was there.”
Off stage, out of smart suit, looking quietly assured, Jacob takes his time considering my view that shouting feisty gobby sounds from the front of a noisy guitar band is simple, but baring your emotional core with a couple of jazz friends takes real courage. “Thank you. I don’t really know about that. It is about the vulnerability, which the English don’t do that sort of thing very well. I think when you sing in that style, there is always the chance that you might fall over vocally, you may stumble, or your voice may break or something like that. I love treading that line. I want them to not feel completely safe in my hands, because that adds to the emotion in the musical impact. I do sing out with the band on stage, not in a Bon Jovi way, but I do think it is powerful to sing softly.”
The image of walking a parapet floats along – you could fall, but you don’t. “Exactly! That is how it feels. I have only been training my voice for the last two years, so it is quite fragile. It’s a bit rough and ready. I don’t have a voice like D’Angelo who is completely in control. I don’t want to lose that rawness, that feel.”
Jacob Collier – another British artist showing out here at the epic Montreal Jazz Festival - has recorded a Grammy album at home – so maybe anyone can do it? Our Jacob reckons you just need the vision, but you need the money as well. “Jacob Collier has more money than me, so he has access to more gear on which to write and record his material. I had to work on whatever gear I could find and afford when I started out. So I am using the same interface that my dad got for me, and the same beat-up old Mac that I got when I was eighteen. So I am looking at making what I want, with what I’ve got, which is really the bare necessities. The other thing I have to work with is my imagination. I try and work out the thing that is missing in my musical knowledge, and then I try and make that thing. It’s really become apparent that there is so much pop that has millions of pounds pumped into it, and it has nothing in it, but people like John Frusciante with a guitar and voice, can do so much. I aim for a sound that blows my mind, and if people like it, that is the proverbial bonus. I just want to make darkness, something that feels like it’s being swallowed up by the music. It’s taken me a while to learn how to create those sounds, but I think am getting there.”
Puma Blue the musician, the band, (but not ‘the brand’) sounds wonderfully fragile on record and especially on stage – thankfully, he’s safe. “I think I am very lucky to have a lot of people around me who keep me grounded and I was raised to be myself and not get lost in all of it. It’s not like I become a different person, it is me, but not all of me. I am able to express what I feel . I would love to be heard, ad you need a level of success to be heard. At the moment the level is modest, but we have been so happy to be here in Montreal, and we hope it leads onto other things.”
You shouldn’t need a frame of reference, but if you do, think of Jeff Buckley baring his damaged soul while Chet Baker emotes smoky jazz vibes underneath – and you’re in the right area.
Puma Blue should be massive – so make sure you play your part.
