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Jemma Griffiths has had a busy life. Better known as Jem,
the Penarth-born popstrel has penned a hit record for Madonna, played Glastonbury,
toured the world, gained a law degree, shacked-up in London and Brooklyn, and
featured on just about every decent American TV show of the last five years.
Oh yes, and her 2004 debut album, Finally Woken, has sold more than a million
copies worldwide. Now living it up in LA, the 33-year-old took some time out
of her busy sunbathing schedule to talk about surviving Detroit, sniffing out
Welsh pubs and just why we’ve had to wait four years for her second album,
Down To Earth.
RedHanded: So where are you right now, right this second?
Jem: In my apartment, looking out the window at some palm trees.
Swine! I bet there’s a cracking beach just
around the corner too?
Yes. I live in Santa Monica and only ten blocks from the beach so you can walk
it in about five minutes. One of my English friends has just brought me a huge
Welsh beach blanket, so if you’re ever helicoptering over Santa Monica
beach look out for someone having a picnic on a huge Welsh dragon - that’ll
be me.
Does that mean you’ve turned into an ex-pat
surfer chick?
Er… No. I don’t go surfing as I’m too afraid of sharks, even
if there aren’t really any. But I have surfed twice in my life at Llangennith
in the Gower. Does that count?
No. Living in Santa Monica surely you’re more afraid of the locals who
think they’re related to Merlin than an irate halibut with wonky teeth?
Some of the things people say about LA are totally true. And lots of people
think Santa Monica is a horrible, fake, disgusting place, but I actually think
it’s a wicked place to live. It’s got pockets of really beautiful
areas. Plus, I live in quite an expensive part so there’s a real nice
feeling to the place. But my apartment isn’t that flash. It’s just
a standard flat. It’s not like Lenny Kravitz’s house or anything.
Surely you’ve run into at least one certifiable
yankee fruit-loop though?
I did go to a Korean restaurant with a guy who ordered just about every part
of an animal you can imagine: the neck, gizzard, heart – little birds'
hearts, that sort of thing. It felt like some mad kind of initiation rite.
It was very odd. I came out starving.
That’s more like it! So do you think you’ll
stay in LA for good?
Spend too long in LA and you will go mad. It’s a good place if you can
leave it. But in terms of quality of life there is something special about
walking every day in the sunshine. If you’re having a bad day you can
walk outside and think, ‘This is brilliant’. If you’re having
a good day it just gets better.
OK! Don’t rub it in. Surely there must
be something you miss about rain-lashed Cymru?
If I could have one thing over here it would be the Gower as there is just
something amazing about it. The sheep in the Gower too. I have always been
a bit anti that whole thing, but now I’m starting to embrace it and think, ‘You
know what, there’s nothing wrong with beautiful sheep’. People
have obviously been banging on about it my whole life and like most Welsh people
I’ve been like, ‘Shut up’. But now, when I think of the Gower,
I think, actually the sheep are quite cool.
Er… while we’re on the subject of
stereotypes, do you manage to get any rugby on the telly out there in La La
land?
Yes, but it’s hard work. I went to a pub at 9am to see the England vs
Wales game and watched it over a cooked breakfast, which was really, really
nice. We also got unbelievably lucky as we decided to avoid this rough looking
English pub that’s near my flat and chose one at random because it looked
a bit mellower. We opened the doors and it was a sea of red - it was almost
completely Welsh! I think there were about two English fans in the whole place
and one of them was my friend who had his England T-shirt on. I’m half
English so normally don’t get that weird about it, but there’s
something about the Welsh being the underdog that really gets you going.
Would you ever take it one-step further and go
for the ‘flag waving at
the Millennium routine’ loved by Katherine Jenkins and that Church woman?
To be honest, I’m a bit too lazy. I’d rather just have a drink.
So even if I were asked, I’d probably let someone else sing and just
enjoy the match anyway. I don’t know if I could get the national anthem
right either.
So why has it taken you four years to release a new album: were you too busy
sunning yourself on the beach?
If only! Down to Earth was originally due out in 2007 but it got delayed because
my indie label decided to leave the major they were affiliated with. So I had
to wait while they sorted out all of their legal stuff as obviously the bigger
company had paid for half my record. It was totally out of my control and very
frustrating but totally the right move, as the major are very much an American
Idol type of label. The worst thing is that it now looks like I’ve taken
forever to write my second album when the truth is I’ve already written
the third one. My priority now is to get the third one recorded and out early
next year so it’s not another four years!
Down To Earth was partly recorded in Detroit. Is it as dangerous as it looks?
Most people think Detroit is a s*** hole, and in many ways it is, but I am
a massive Motown and Stevie Wonder fan so for me it was like a Beatles fan
going to Liverpool. I also got to work with Jeff Bass, who helped discover
Eminem, which was great. That is, until I stayed at his house and discovered
it’s overrun with cats. He’s also got this huge Bull Mastiff called
Frankie that wanted to eat my head. In the end I got a hotel room.
Crikey! What about the Detroit hip-hop gangster scene?
There were a lot of shootings over the time I was there. First a rapper called
Obie Trice was shot on the freeway, then the next day T.I. got shot. I didn’t
get shot at but it does make you kind of go, ‘Oh my god’. You realize
that when people like Eminem write songs about violence it is an actual, real
world they’re talking about. I’d come out of the studio and think, ‘Is
anyone watching me?’ That was a bit weird.
The Beach Boys famously dragged a bucket load
of sand into their LA studio to get the proper recording ‘vibe’.
Did recording in California push you to adopt such mind-bending antics?
Probably, the trickiest song to record was Aciiid! as I initially wanted a
rapper to do the chorus but the guy I had in mind couldn’t do it. There
was no way on earth I was going to try and do a rap as it would have sounded
hideous, so I came up with the idea of doing it in a foreign language instead.
I have a friend who’s Japanese American and he got two housewives to
come to my house and translate the words. I then spent the rest of the day
learning all the lyrics in Japanese and the following day was in the studio
with these two housewives sat in the recording booth bringing me up on my pronunciation.
It was all a bit weird but they were lovely and I completely trusted them.
After all, they could have told me to say anything, I would have believed them!
So can you speak Japanese now?
No. I can’t remember any of it.
Jem's new album Down to Earth is in shops now. See www.jem-music.net for more
information and free downloads
Photography by Shaun Fitzpatrick
Hair and make-up by Kamigata, High Street, Llandaff, Cardiff. 029 2056 9920