He's arguably one of the most loved musicians around, adored by his fans and fellow musicians - with his creativity fuelled by his believe of compassion - stand up for Jamie McDermott. He's the highly talented artist behind The Irrepressibles, a 10-piece band who've been influencing the more exciting 'players' from the music scene since 2002.

Using conceptual sets, none-theatrical lighting, projection, dance, and couture fashion the collective bring their music to life in what McDermott calls his 'performance objects' or 'live spectacles'. These have been commissioned and performed for many of Europe's leading festivals and institutions including the V&A, Hackney Empire, BGWMC, Southbank Centre, Barbican, Paris quartier d'été, Cite de La Musique (France), Vie Festival and Sexto Festival (Italy), and the Holland Festival - plus extensive tours to the US and Australia.

Iconoclastically fusing classical orchestration, grunge rock, kitsch, exotica, electronica, sound art, jazz, samba, folk and much much more into a heady and heavily emotional style of music that is created instinctively, playfully and cathartically by McDermott. Initially critics and music industry couldn't understand what it was with the collective embraced only by the art and fashion world - but with their eventual influence on more mainstream artists they were eventually able to find support and see the release of their debut album Mirror Mirror and the newly released album Nude throughout the world.

With their second album, Nude, recently released, we caught up with Jamie to ask about his work, etiquette, auto-tune (the dark side), inspiration, touring, London, gay Cardinals, and sin.

RR: Good to be back in London - what did you miss most?
Jamie McDermott: It's wonderful to perform to so many friends who have helped make us who we are as a band. Their support over the years got us to the place where we got the first deal and were able to release Mirror Mirror. Some of these fans and friends actually helped financed the creation of the first EP From the Circus to the Sea. It's a wonderful city is London - full of so much creativity, diversity, languages and difference. I always miss it.  

RR: You've just returned from a European tour - how was it?
JM: I love Europe and being European. I wish we English spoke more languages and could get more involved. My manager is French, my agent is  Italian and my publisher is German. I always feel ashamed that I'm not bi-lingual. I think one of the striking things about other European countries is how bi-lingual everyone is and how you can communicate internationally because everyone speaks English. We're lucky sods us English aren't we? Europe is so diverse and complex and unique from country to country it's impossible to even begin to define. I was recently in Portugal doing promotion for the new album. The people there are so friendly and stylish and sexy actually. The architecture is stunning, the energy of the city of Lisbon is electric. Though my favourite city is Paris… no, Rome… no, Barcelona! Too many wonderful places. I'm a luck boy to be a performer.

RR: Is the album a musical conduit for finding moments of peace within one, a kind of radical acceptance of the self?
JM: I wrote much of Nude when I was 19, 20, 21. At that time I was really finding who I was. Blossoming with my sexuality and writing songs about my adolescent experiences. I've always been very honest and open. Making music for me has always been a very cathartic emotional process. It's funny, I'm sure other people do this, but I always had a soundtrack in my head to my life. As a child, I was often alone, bullied and isolated, and the soundtrack kind of got me through - giving me a sense of purpose.

I always have music in my head, most of the time I am composing it or sometimes I'm doing a remix of the track I heard in the last shop I walked into. There's a bit of background anyway.

New World - from the new album - was a song I wrote to a friend to tell him to come-out and be free. Originally it was with just guitar, a kind of country track really. It was certainly not something that would have worked on the last album Mirror Mirror. I was hearing a lot about these kids killing themselves for being bullied because they were Gay; I was deeply disturbed by this. So I wanted to send this message out to people like them in the hope of being part of making young people confident in their difference. I set the song with a kind of doo-wop quartet of male voices, for me these are like the voices of gay men singing across the wastleland of time who have died as a consequence of their oppression; then there is a dark electronic war-like landscape of beats and 80's electronica. The track ends with an outro of analogue synths that build into a sunrise with the lyrics 'love is freedom'. I then shot a video for the song with a clear story of discussing gay bullying - its effect on the individual - but then, in the video he finds emancipation and is affirmed in his difference. The album Nude is heavily about affirming difference and letting it be free.



RR: What's your take on contemporary etiquette?
JM: Etiquette for me is a funny starting point. I do not personally like suspended systems of interaction that are a kind of way to keep people emotionally distanced, but 'polite'. When I've ranted on about this in the past I'm talking about a sort of compassionate interaction. I think the world would be a better place if people connected with the assistant in the shop, the person at the hotel lobby, the street sweeper, a little Hello or meaningful Thank You can literally change someone's day. Bad energy moves quickly through people - you can really see it. My thinking is quite simple really. If we were all to think 'wow another human being, with blood, bones and a spark; possibly has children; was once a little girl or a little boy with hopes and dreams'. Similarly if someone is an arsehole to you this helps you deal with it. As you can see, it's just their insecurities or perhaps you are causing them hurt - then it's a chance to look at yourself. I think this is the sort of compassionate interaction I want to see more of and actually it's just about creating a space where people just have to make a little effort. Then everyone does it.

RR: Stonewall vs Cardinal Keith O'Brien - any comment?
JM: Oh dear. Perhaps he is a closeted gay man. It is dark when societies and cultures don't give proper acceptance to people, or a social group - of any kind. I think this acceptance should involve hard work, a process of discovery, a process of listening and compassionate understanding. Otherwise these groups can become marginalised, separated, and difficult for wider society. Religion can be the cause of so much confusion, violence, and deep sorrow. People not doing what they want to do because they feel like they are being selfish and should be submissive to their husband or a class of people that are in charge of the religion.

Someone not being gay because they believe the words of writers in a time of stoning, flogging, torture and wife selling have told them across the space of thousands of years through a book that they shouldn't! It is sad that these books have so much of a baring on peoples lives and that people are not able or allowed to think for themselves. That said, there are parts to religions that are worth listening to. I grew up a Catholic, and I read a lot about Hinduism and Buddhism in my teens. Compassion is the most important element to living well together. We must find compassionate interaction in our lives. You can relate this to a god if you like (or need), but not a book or outdated rules written a long time ago where a man was to murder his own son for god until god told him it was okay not to. This exemplifies for me the ultimate in a kind of lack of self responsibility and autonomy - it is this sort of behaviour that is passed on to children that then bully others for difference or worst still make a society of people that lead a group of people to the gas chambers. No one can tell you what to do - you must be responsible for your self and accept this responsibility and the effect it has on others.

Society is a culmination of thousands of minds. We need to take care of peoples minds and spirits not fill them with mumbo-jumbo and seek to control them to make money. I believe spirit exists in a mixture of compassion, responsibility and freedom. If one of these elements is lacking then society falls down. Society is the great provider to the people. People can be the teachers - parents, leaders, the wiser older generation and these people should be respected - but they must not take away people's liberty. Children should be taught to think for themselves.

RR: Natural singing voice vs auto-tune - any comment?  
JM: Yes this makes me mad. The singing voice is an oscillating instrument in that the voice moves between pitch slightly. It is not 'perfectly' in tune. Even if you have incredible control it depends on the nature of the instrument itself. Some people have big clunky voices that are less pitched but are harmonically more interesting and characterful, often they express more conversationally, some others have thinner voices that are more pure like the ring of a wine glass, and pitching is more part of this instrument. The human voice is that - human - and a voice in that, it is a conversation. As soon as it is auto-tuned it becomes a kind of sterilised instrument and looses one part of its communication, and worse still - sounds like a robot. Now, this said, if the music is meant to be distanced emotionally or the theme is about being a robot or part of a machine then roll on that auto-tune. If you're singing jazz or folk then you should probably put it away, unless it's a radical new arrangement that fits this theme. If you can't hear the auto-tune then believe me when it's not there you'll feel the emotion allot more. I've now heard jazz standards and classic folk sung by droids. Worst still you can have no voice and with the wonder of auto-tune and some serious effects and editing they can give you one to go with your amazing tits and arse. Very sad. Singing is an amazingly communicative thing. Perhaps if we heard more real voices we'd have more compassion for each other.

RR: You're a hearty chap, how do you tap into your inspiration?
JM: I do not have a healthy balanced life! Imagine me as a kind of mad-child chained to my working life. It is all consuming being a pop musician. Every word you say, every bit of music you make, is to be consumed by others. It's like the ultimate paranoia - if you haven't got an enormous ego - ha ha! It's an incredible responsibility. The impression of effortless ease that many pop stars elude takes allot of work. When you don't have the support of a massive label (like I don't) then you're like a mad child, super adult, mega objective computer. I am very lucky to have a partner of 10-years that puts up with a lot. He is the one that literally pulls me away from things. Inspiration wise it's always going on in my head. I can certify that I have a kind of musical madness. My head is always composing. It's like it's trying to work out puzzles. I also have singing tourette syndrome - so every time I yawn I sing a passage of music! It's not fun if someones ear is right next to my mouth, so be warned. I love singing. It completely fulfils the essence of my spirit; from singing close, intensely and quietly in my low voice, to pushing out the full resonance of my counter tenor - I am at one with my demons and become an affirmation of something more than I could ever be in normal life.

RR: What's next for you and The Irrepressibles?
JM: We will tour this album. Which is very exciting. We've just released in the UK, eastern Europe and Asia. Then in November we release in Portugal and then in January 2013 central Europe and in February 2013 in the USA and Canada. I've got an amazing group of people behind me including of course my band, my agent, my publisher, my manager who take good care of me. Other projects I've been doing over the last year have included doing vocals for some really great electronic / dance music artists. Can't tell you who until they are released, but I went to Norway at one point. I wrote the music for an opera for Danish company Hotel Pro Forma which is led by the amazing artistic director Kirsten Delholm which was premiered at the Latvian National Opera and has been touring Europe since. It was daunting approaching writing music for an opera. I wrote music that was a combination of electronica and orchestration and focused on the voice and making sure the music would communicate the emotions even though it's in Japanese.  I spent a while developing a vocal approach with the singers to give more emotional depth to the voices. The opera has received a few awards, which is nuts. It's up for another one at the end of this month. I could never have dreamt it.

RR: Can you treat us to a Jamie McDermott London anecdote?
JM: I'm a little insecurity monkey. When I was young I'd met this new group of people and I wanted to meet up and impress them. So I dressed up head-to-foot in a super costume. I had long dyed blond hair at the time which I tied back, and then there was these heals - hmm. Now, I've always been more of a lad really - I used to wear boots, jeans and shirts before I met my boyfriend who introduced me to the world of makeup, collaborative designers, and wild clothing. Anyway I wanted to impress these artistic friends, so I went out in these heels. But then I couldn't find the place. I walked up and down the streets of central London for hours. In the end I arrived at the venue with no shoes on, carrying them, knackered and looking like a bag of shit. So this is my philosophy on life now, don't try to pretend you're something that you're not. Ha ha! But then again you should always strive to be super human with a bit of humour.

Official site: theirrepressibles.com
Buy the album: theirrepressibles.bigcartel.com

Next gig - Album Launch: NUDE
The Irrepressibles
with support from Ebe Oke
19:30, Thursday, 8th November 2012
at the Village Underground
54 Holywell Lane
London EC2A 3PQ
villageunderground.co.uk