Can anyone help Jessie Ware find the suburban Chicago pizza place she visited with Kelsey Grammer, who co-starred on “Boss” with her older sister, Hannah? Or the Irish oyster and prosecco bar with the chalkboard walls? The younger Ware has no memory for these things.
Even if the 30-year-old English singer can’t recall those names, it should be impossible for audiences to forget hers. Her sophomore release, “Tough Love,” was one of 2014’s best, most beautiful records. She co-wrote and is featured on Nicki Minaj’s “The Crying Game,” co-wrote the title track of Haim’s “Days Are Gone” album and her “Meet Me In the Middle” appears on the “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack. She also helped Chance The Rapper with his cover of “Wonderful Everyday: Arthur.”
“I had such a lovely time with him when we did [“Wonderful Everyday: Arthur”] together, that was amazing,” Ware said by phone from her London home, where, by the way, she has a new French bulldog puppy. “I’d like to work with Social Experiment; I think they’re brilliant. Aren’t they Chicago-based? Yeah, I want them all to come to my show; I love those boys.”
How’ve things been going with your puppy?
He’s all right. We’re having his first training class today and I’m just—I feel like he’s my son, so if he misbehaves or if he’s like a little shit in front of [his teacher], which I know he won’t be, but I imagine if he is, I don’t want her to think that we’ve brought him up badly.
Oh, he’s a brand-new baby; I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Yeah, no, he’s great, he’s lovely. And, yeah, he just still loves cuddles, which is great.
Do you have to leave him behind when you go on tour?
Yeah, my husband’s going to have him. I’m gonna be leaving him for a couple of weeks, and so I’ve actually decided to not go to Coachella as like a punishment because I want to be able to get back to my puppy. That was quite a hard pill to sort out.
When you spoke with RedEye in 2013, you talked about the idea of breaking through in the U.S. and achieving success here. How do you feel like things have gone for you since then? Have you achieved the level of success you want?
Considering I’m not an American and I haven’t spent that much time there, and this’ll be my first and only tour for this record, I feel like it’s progressing. I’m playing bigger venues, and to put it another way, people are still coming back to listen to me. For me to have that, and to have a solid, strong fan base that hopefully is growing little by little, that’s really satisfying for me because I can’t really expect much more when I feel like I’m still relatively unknown in the States. I feel like I’m kind of everyone’s secret a little bit, but maybe the secret’s out, do you know what I mean? I like being everyone’s secret.
I think there’s such a power in spreading and sharing the love, and that’s so flattering for me as somebody who makes music. For people to be telling their friends about it and it to be this word of mouth is so wonderful, and that’s so brilliant because music is all about kind of discovering it too. There’s nothing quite like discovering somebody. Like I’d heard about this name Natalie Prass. Have you heard of her?
No, I haven’t.
She’s American. She’s from Nashville, and she’s written this beautiful album, which I’d heard about but I hadn’t given it any attention yet, and then I just can’t stop playing it. Now I’ve put it on Twitter. I’m like, “Oh my God, I’ve fallen in love with this girl,” and then somebody else writes back, “Yeah, oh my God, she’s the best,” and then it just kind of spreads and it’s lovely. And now I want to tell you about her because she’s wicked. Then through her I learned about this guy called Matthew E. White, and it’s kind of a chain reaction.
What’s been the proudest moment in your career so far?
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Probably selling out two Brixton Academies, I think. The Brixton Academy is my local venue, and I think it’s the best venue in London for going to watch music, and also to perform on the stage there is just—it was better than I ever could have thought. To play two sold-out shows there was just a dream, and it was very overwhelming. And I definitely cried on stage, which was not that cool.
What’s something really embarrassing that’s happened to you that you wished you could take back at the time?
Some woman in Germany asked me if I was pregnant onstage. I was in Germany, and I had given her a bit too much attention onstage because she was making me laugh and I like to chat with my crowd. And then it was the last song, and I was like, “Thank you everyone, good night, have a nice lovely evening,” and she was like, “Jessie, Jessie, Jessie!” And I gave her the mic again and she said, “I think you’re pregnant. You’re pregnant aren’t you?” I’m like, “What the [bleep], no I’m not, how dare you?”
And she was just like, “No, no, no, you look like you’re glowing, you look amazing.” And I was like, “Mate, I had some time for you, and you were wicked and you made me laugh, but now get the [bleep] out of my show.” You never tell a girl that she’s pregnant, even if she looks glowing. And I think she was very embarrassed, and it was actually hysterical and it became like a pantomime. Everyone was like, “Ooooo.” It was very funny.
Jessie Ware, 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 6 at Metro. Sold out.