Jamie Woon is firmly established as one of the UK's most acclaimed talents.
Initially working with the legendary Burial, his 2011 debut Mirrorwriting won plaudits across the board before his eagerly-awaited follow-up record Making Time arrived earlier this month to similar effect.
We caught up with Jamie to discover his ultimate playlist: check out the selections, and the stories behind them, below. Stay tuned for a nineties hip hop smash, together with some classic soul and funk.
Favourite Sad Song
"Stevie Wonder - They Won't Go When I Go, from Fulfillingness' First Finale. It's not my favourite overall album from his seventies purple patch, but it's definitely my favourite ballad of his. I don't even really know what it's about, but it's just so unbelievably sad. I think he played it at Michael Jackson's funeral. It's just really soulful - Stevie at his best I think."
Favourite Movie Soundtrack Song
"When Doves Cry by Quindon Tarver, from Romeo & Juliet. I just love the vocal - it's only a little kid who's singing in it, but he's got amazing chops. I think there's something quite brilliant about these little kids who can sing so amazingly - he does Everybody's Free (To Feel Good) on that soundtrack as well. I think I Googled him recently as an adult; it's always a shame when they're so amazing when they're kids and then when they're an adult, they're not quite as good. But he's done his life's work in those tunes I think."
Favourite Song No One Else Knows
"Grains of Friends by Sonnymoon. I've been banging on about them to a lot of people recently - they're a duo from Brooklyn, Dane Orr, and Anna Wise, who sang a lot of the vocals on Kendrick Lamar's latest record. It's a really leftfield approach to soul music with very forward-thinking production. She's got a very beautiful voice but she uses it in a lot of very interesting ways - kinda similar to how Kendrick does as well - sometimes it sounds really beautiful, sometimes it sounds quite ugly in a way. They just sound super fresh, I'm really into them at the moment."
Favourite Song From Your Childhood
"Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill. Big memories of driving in my dad's Honda Civic to the Shaking The Tree greatest hits record. I think that whole greatest hits is magical for me, but Solsbury Hill has got that yearning, but kinda upbeat and joyful at the same time. A really beautiful song."
Favourite Club Anthem
"Gabriel by Roy Davis Jr. Just a magic US sort of house/garage tune, with Peven Everett singing the vocals. It's a real early classic vocal house tune, which set the tone for UK garage. It's got quite a rough production style, but from the moment it starts, the complete vibe in the club changes - really anthemic vocal but quite reserved and funky as well, I'm really into it."
Favourite Wedding Song
"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. It's just an absolute failsafe isn't it? I dropped this at my mate's wedding near Milan this year and yeah - it doesn't matter where you are, it's gotta be one of his most danceable tracks I think - any song that starts with a grunt like that, you're onto a winner."
Favourite Lyric From a Song
"'Who is he (and what is he to you)''. Bill Withers is one of my favourite lyricists anyway, just because he finds a way to say very everyday, very simple things but he'll do a simple thing like that that twists it and makes it sound fresh. But that particular lyric, he just sounds tough, like he's about to go and deck someone. He sounds so hard! So it's a really interesting way of dealing with jealousy."
Favourite One-Hit Wonder
"I've been listening to it a lot recently, as I'm a Liverpool fan and Daniel Sturridge doesn't have a song which I've always thought was a bit of a problem. So I've been trying to shoehorn in a song for Sturridge and Here Comes the Hotstepper - it's quite good when it gets to the 'extraordinary, red like a strawberry' bit! I'm gonna try and release it - he follows me on Twitter so I'm gonna try and make it see what he reckons!"
Favourite Current Song
"Honeydripper by Royce Wood Jnr. He's one of my oldest mates, I've collaborated with him quite a few times... he's one of those very talented people who can just do everything himself - he's a great guitar player, great singer-songwriter, producer, he's worked with a lot of different artists. He's just released a new version which is slightly different from his album version of it, which is even more hyper and a bit more gnarly, so I'm really feeling that one."
Favourite Song From Your Own Music
"Skin from the new album. It's pretty stripped back - just a bit of vocals and a bit of percussion. It's quite short and it's quite to the point - I don't really know why I like it so much! I do change from day to day, but I was just quite proud of the way it turned out really. I'd always wanted to make a song that sort of had that kind of trajectory to it - I kinda got there on this one."
