33 1/3 minutes with...Jake Bugg

A prodigious talent, Jake Bugg burst out of Nottingham aged 18 with his self-titled debut album in 2012. Featuring timeless rock’n’roll hits Lightning Bolt and Two Fingers, it saw Bugg championed by Noel Gallagher and starting a fascinating career that has led to albums produced by Rick Rubin and The Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach. After 2021’s poppier Saturday Night Sunday Morning returned Bugg to the Top 3, his debut has recently been reissued as a deluxe set adding demos and a London Royal Albert Hall show. Bugg tells RC of rediscovering teenage demos, hanging out in Rick Rubin’s garden, and getting walloped with indie stars at football.

- John Earls

You’re only 28, but you’ve got a 10th anniversary deluxe edition reissue out. Are you a veteran now? 

There’s a long way to go for that yet. But, having done this for a while, I’m seeing newer artists coming through who say they grew up listening to my music. That’s when you realise you’re not the new guy anymore.

How did you feel going through your schoolboy demos for the extra tracks?

I’d completely forgotten some songs, so it was interesting hearing things I wrote at 15, seeing what I was writing about. I sometimes thought: “I’ve gone backwards since these!” Songs like Devil Song and Man On The Moon are from the darker regions, which are my own preference. I enjoy them more than some of the album’s big songs.

Did looking back make you realise how much you achieved at such a young age?

I think about it more and more, because of the way the industry has evolved. It’s become harder for new artists to break through, so I wonder if I’d have the same opportunities if I started out now. It’s hard to say how I’d fare now, but 10 years ago people were still buying CDs, which definitely helped me.

How do you reflect on the controversies around some of the anti-pop comments you made then?

The press were asking an 18-year-old from a council estate what he thinks about boy bands and pop music. What did they think I was going to say? I grew up with that music and I disliked it very much, so what did people expect? Part of the drive to do what I do was hating what was on the radio. The way I said things was really bad. But the sentiment – that there should be more opportunity for more organic artists’ music to be played on radio – still stands.