Taking Off: Jackson Mathod

Trumpet hotshot Jackson Mathod is a restless soul. No sooner has he recorded a bunch of classy tunes with a top-drawer quintet (his recent EP Studio Natives Vol. 1) than he’s off making an album with a new band (Volte-Face). That’s on top of doing regular Ronnie Scott’s Late Shows, running a function band, and doing sessions for the likes of Blue Lab Beats and Stormzy, and playing in the latter’s band at Glastonbury.

Our initial conversation takes place at That Sound Studios in south Tottenham, London, where Mathod and the Studio Natives band are recording tracks for the EP - their funky update of ‘Watermelon Man’ and an original, ‘Mandible’, which appropriately enough starts off a bit like the famous soundtrack to Jaws. Keyboardist Allesandro Ilona has created the perfect chomping bass line for this relentless groover. Apart from him, the band is a largely acoustic outfit. By contrast, the new enterprise teams Mathod with guitarist/producer Leif Maine (aka Tom Leaf). It’s all about the hip-hop vibe, lo-fi electronica and grungy beats.

“It's just a four-piece... It’s harder for me because it means that I have to play more. It's exciting, just using that guitar as the harmony voice. Like early Christian Scott, you know? He uses a lot of guitar, and I just wanna explore that world. I want it to be a bit grungy, a bit rocky, you know, that's the kind of world we're exploring. We're doing a Jimi Hendrix cover as well.” (In fact, Jackson recently bought some Jimi Hendrix vinyl).

He acquired his serious listening habit while going on Saturdays to the junior conservatoire at Guildhall.

“That’s next to the Barbican library, and the Barbican Library has such a good collection of CDs. So every week when I’d go into junior Guildhall, I’d get some CDs, burn them, and put them on my iPod, and I’d listen to albums. A classic one that I always used to listen to was Baby Breeze by Chet Baker…”

Jackson Mathod grew up in the cathedral town of Ely, near Cambridge. It was a major stroke of luck for his future career as a musician that his family are “arty”, as he describes it. His mother Chris Wood is a well-known visual artist who works with glass and light. His father is an absurdist poet.

“My dad always used to play stuff like Dizzy Gillespie. He didn’t necessarily like jazz, but he liked the fact that I was getting into playing trumpet. You see the big puffy cheeks of Dizzy Gillespie, you hear him playing on ‘Night in Tunisia’ and you're like, this is sick! And I still love Dizzy a lot. A big character like that is enough to get you into playing the trumpet.”

Music began to dominate his life even in primary school. “It was year four or five where you get to see instruments and you get to play a bit of recorder and then you graduate to a real instrument… Logistically it's great, I can just rock up to places, and it takes me five seconds to get my trumpet out. I don't have to lug a drum kit round, or a big keyboard.”

He began attending junior Guildhall, an hour and a bit away on the train to Kings Cross from Ely.

“I didn't have my weekends as a kid. I just used to do loads of music. It was mainly classical at junior Guildhall. They had a jazz ensemble class. It was full-on - I got in at nine [and stayed] till six, doing loads of different ensembles.”

There was a wind band, and a brass band, where he encountered several trumpet players who were at least as good as him. He continued at Guildhall into his early twenties, in all spending 11 years at the institution.

How does he see his career developing from here?

“Look, I’ve just got simple aspirations – to sell out my shows and just record and release music that is a good representation of myself, that people get behind. I'm not trying to be a famous musician. I just want some recognition for the journey that I'm on, whether that comes from people writing reviews or whatever, you know, like the amount of streams or whatever. It’s funny because I was a bit stressed before the last gig, and I was wondering how many people were going to show up. It’s a bit stressful putting on your own shows.”

He has now graduated to headlining shows at Ronnie Scott’s. Is there anything left to worry about?

“A bit - especially when there aren't many ticket sales a few weeks before a gig, but then people come to the gig and say, 'oh, I've been following you for a while and I really like what you're doing'. Those moments are what it's all about.”