VIVA Chats Swing Music and Summer with Britain’s Got Talent Stars, Jack Pack

The Britain’s Got Talent 2015 semi-finals have officially kicked off, and following their success last year, swing group Jack Pack have been hard at work ever since. VIVA caught up with the cheeky chaps – Martin McCafferty, Alfie Palmer, Andrew Bourne and Sean Ryder Wolf – ahead of their debut performance on Britain’s Got Talent and discussed their whirlwind year, the new album, and how to put their signature Jack Pack style into performances.

Martin, as the newest member of the band, how did you find joining Jack Pack?Martin: It’s been an absolute nightmare, Rebekah! No, I’ve been working with the guys since August. Before that, I was actually studying to be a primary school teacher, and I was on my final year when I got the call. I basically dropped everything to come over… I moved to London, lived with Alfie for a while and tortured him for a few weeks… but it’s been fantastic. I was obviously a little apprehensive joining a group that had already been established, but now we’re pretty much like brothers… it’s hard to describe it.Andrew: Martin’s a very talented boy. He’s got the ability of taking a little bit of flack, from us- and he gives it back as well, so I think that’s important!

So it’s just like you were always a member of the band then?
Martin: I kind of came in just at the point before we signed the record contract, so we were all duly invested in the goal of that time. Since then, we’ve obviously all been doing out thing and getting the album ready and getting everything together.

Congratulations are in order because you’ve just been signed on by Simon at SyCo. How did you feel when the record company approached you?
Andrew: We were over the moon! Being signed to SyCo is such a massive thing, they’re an incredible label, so having the back of Simon Cowell is just amazing.
Martin: It’s like having Simon Cowell as your boss really!
Alfie: We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve all kind of worked together on this project, so it’s not like we’ve been told what we’re doing. We’ve all got a bit of experience between us.
Martin: It’s been a kind of collaboration between us, the label and our producers. It’s been great.

Simon has said he’s always wanted to work on this type of swing record, so what do you think he saw in you guys that made him bite the bullet and finally go for it?
Andrew: I think it was our love for the music and obviously, we’re unbelievably talented… handsome…
No, I think we definitely have a passion for the genre. Although we’re that little bit older and stuff now, we all still have the same goals and we all still want the same thing, so we work incredibly hard. We’re with each other pretty much every day, so I think that’s what he saw.
Sean: I think from the show as well, we wanted to really shake some personality into the performances. I think Simon used the word, ‘swagger’, which was our aim. That’s what we like about the Rat Pack era, it’s not just about standing there and singing, when they’re on stage, they’re having a laugh and they’re putting on a show for people, which is exactly what we all want to do.

Sometimes with swing music, it’s easy to go down the route of almost being too smooth, and maybe too polished, but I think you guys have something unique because you’ve thrown in a bit of character?
Andrew: We’re definitely not that! Thanks though, Rebekah… thanks…
Martin: When we’re up there, we try and make sure all of our personalities come across and I think we are very different, but at the same time we complement each other, so it’s great to get that across.

With regards to social media, it looks like you’ve got quite a big fan-base behind you already. You can pretty much see the story of how you’ve built the album that’s coming together.
Martin: Yeah, it’s been great this week because we’ve been feeding out teasers, song titles, album names and so on. There’s been a great bit of excitement and hype behind all of that.
Alfie: We’ve had some great support since the show though. We’ve been lucky enough to have that staying with us and supporting us since day one and, you know, the reaction from all of the viewers has been amazing. We’re really excited to let everyone see that we’ve been working really hard.

What can you tell us about the album with regards to song choice and genre?
Andrew: It’s a contemporary twist on the ‘big band’ Rat Pack sound.
Sean: It’s still got a very traditional feel to it with the whole orchestra, but with the help of the producers we’ve been sure it has that Jack Pack twist to it.
Martin: I think we’ve managed to make that genre a bit more edgy.

Can you confirm that the six time Grammy Award winner, Randy Newman has given you the song ‘Forever’ to work on as well?
Martin: Yeah! He’s basically written a track called ‘Forever’, which has never been recorded before, so this will be a Jack Pack original on the album. I mean, we couldn’t feel any more privileged than to have his talent on the album, you know?

And he’s worked on Monster’s Inc and Toy Story?
Andrew: So I’ve got two small children and I’ve heard a lot of his stuff. Monster’s Inc has actually got a great soundtrack.
Alfie: He pretty much just loves to watch cartoons.
Andrew: It’s great, he’s pretty much music royalty really. Everyone that we’ve told about the song has sort of taken a step back because they’re so impressed.
Martin: He’s had a lot of good things to say about what we’ve done with it so far.

Are you looking forward to going back to Britain’s Got Talent then?
Andrew: We literally can’t wait, obviously it’s going to be a totally different phenomenon this time round. As we’re not contestants there isn’t the same kind of pressure, but it’s obviously a really big deal. It’s slightly nerve wracking stuff.
Martin: I’ll be popping my BGT cherry…
Alfie: I think the last time, because we were competing, the pressure was on us, you know, it was just us and our management, you know, we worked so hard and we’d all given up so much to kind of be in that position.  We’re very, very grateful to have got where we did, but this time round, there’s a whole record label banking on us… so there is still the pressure there, but we’re well prepared and we’re all feeling in a great place about it. We’re looking forward to it. I think most of all, after all of the work we’ve been putting into the album, we’re really excited about getting it out there!
Martin: Especially with the track we’ll be doing, people wouldn’t necessarily think it would be on the album as well, so we’re packing a punch with our first statement.

Well VIVA’s really looking forwarded to watching the performance! It sounds like you guys have pretty much stood the test of time. Obviously you got so far in Britain’s Got Talent, but it’s amazing how much the public are already behind you. It seems like they genuinely can’t wait for the album to come out?
JP: Thank you! Yeah!
Martin: Well we hope very much so too!
Andrew: Being able to listen to it now, we have a complete album. From that fan support we get, as you say, from social media and all that, we kind of feel like we have a responsibility to make the album the best we can, and to make the BGT performance the best that we can. So there is that pressure to make everyone proud.

And do you have any plans for the summer? Any other big performances coming up?
Martin: Yeah, we have loads of festivals coming up and things.
Alfie: Yeah, I’ve got a trip to Center Parcs!
Andrew: We’ve got Proms in the Park, which we’re very, very pleased about! There’s loads of events coming up, and you know, Britain’s Got Talent will be a great projection of what we have coming up.

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