Jack Garratt has put an end to his absence from music with ‘Time’, the first cut from his new EP ‘Love Death & Dancing Volume 1’.
The EP (out now) will be followed by three more volumes of ‘Love, Death and Dancing’, which together will be compiled into Garratt’s second album of the same name. ‘Time’ is the lead single from the first volume and is accompanied by a music video in which Garratt dances amid projections of multi-colours and white light spotlights.
It’s his first new music since 2016, a time when the multi-instrumentalist was rewarded with accolades (he won the 2015 BRITs Critics Choice Award and topped the BBC’s Sound of 2016 poll) and saddled with praise for his debut album ‘Phase’.
But, as the artist has explained to the BBC in a new interview, he was hit with crippling self-doubt and had to take time out to focus on his health.
“It screwed me completely,” the 28-year-old said of his rapid success.
“All I ever wanted to do was make music that I wanted to listen to. And, at a time when I was figuring that out, I got put into a corner where I had to defend myself for winning awards that I didn’t ask for,” he said.
As the BBC notes, Garratt was one of only four people at the time to have won the BRIT and BBC award in the same year. The others were Adele, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith.
“The world knows of three of them and it doesn’t know who I am,” he said. “That’s true. It’s not unfair. It’s not rude. It’s not mean. It’s just true.”
After a year and a half away from music, Garrett started working with Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, The Killers, TLC) on the follow-up to ‘Phase’, the results of which will be released as a full album on May 29.
“It’s like each song is one letter of a pen-pal relationship between me and me. And you only get to see one letter,” Garratt added in explaining what fans can expect from the record.
He also heads out on a UK and European tour this month, with two new London shows at EartH added.
Jack Garratt ‘Work In Progress’ tour:
FEBRUARY
18 – Deaf Institute, Manchester SOLD OUT
19 – The Caves, Edinburgh SOLD OUT
20 – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds SOLD OUT
22 – Castle & Falcon, Birmingham SOLD OUT
23 – Thekla, Bristol SOLD OUT
MARCH
2 – Paradiso-Noord, Amsterdam SOLD OUT
3– Theatre Les Etoiles, Paris
4 – Orangerie-Botanique, Brussels
6 – Helios 37, Cologne
7 – Silent Green, Berlin
9 – EartH, London
10 – EartH, London