Q&A with Jake Bugg

How’s the festival season been going for yourself?
We’re just doing a hit of the big festivals and some of the smaller ones, and we heard Wilderness was a really cool one to do so we thought we’d do it

What big one’s have you done and have coming up?
Reading and Leeds, Bestival and T-in the Park. T-in the Park was absolutely the best gig I’ve done up to date, it was just a crazy day. Everyone just gets dead behind it and they support it, one guy was trying to climb onto the stage and the scaffolding, it was just mental.

To be having this sort of hype and success at such a young age, do you find it daunting or are you just taking it in your stride?
I try take it in my stride, but it can be quite daunting, especially in the last couple of weeks where I’ve supported the Stone Roses and I’ve met Jimmy Page, so that’s quite weird, but yeah you’ve got to take it one step at time and not let it get to your head and remember why you do it.

Who did you get to meet and of the Olympians at the Adidas gig?
Wiggins was there I got to meet him, and I got to hold a silver medal, which was cool.

Have you been following the Olympics much?
Yeah I’ve tried to, I was really glad Usain Bolt won, because my song Lighting Bolt got played before he run the 100, so I was like c’mon if you win, I'm in. It went to number one in the singer-songwriter chart so I was very happy about that.

The BBC has plugged you a fair bit...
Yeah they’ve been quite good. I’ve been supported by my local station, they help me to play Glastonbury and Radio 1.

You’re from Nottingham, a scene that seems to be quite dance orientated with the likes of Dub-Step and DnB
Yeah they have a big Drum and Bass scene, but the last 5 or 10 years the music scenes been getting better and better, and there’s been more and more places for you to play and develop your talent, and getting used to playing in front of a crowd.



In Nottingham at the moment you’ve got the likes of yourself and Dog Is Dead, who have played a sold-out Rock City, is that a gig you’d be interested in doing, on that scale?
We’re doing a gig at Rescue Rooms, which we sold out in two days. Everyone tried to get us to upgrade to Rock City, saying that we could sell out but we wanted to keep it like small sweaty gigs at the moment, then maybe next year move onto the bigger venues.

What’s on the horizon for Jake Bugg in upcoming months?
The albums out on October the 15, which will then be followed by a UK tour in November. Before that though I’m doing an American tour with Noel and Snow Patrol.

Noel’s a big fan isn’t he?
He’s asked me to go Europe with as well, it’s just stupid because he’s such an idol.