Press Conference Recap: Jacob Collier Finds an End of a Beginning on ‘Djesse Vol. 4’

Multi-instrumentalist and certified music nerd Jacob Collier sat down with Afterglow and others to talk about the excitement, fear, and hope he feels ahead of the fourth volume of his album series Djesse.

Written by William Beachum

Photo courtesy of Olivia Richardson

Jacob Collier’s “your favorite musician’s favorite musician” acclaim precedes him, with 12 Grammy nominations and six wins under his belt at the ripe age of 29. While most magazines will refer to him as a musical genius, he began as a kid who sought fame by filming himself playing instruments like the double bass, harpejji, and mandolin in his bedroom.

Collier got his fame by releasing reharmonized versions of classics like “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Pure Imagination.” These covers showcased Collier’s breadth of musical knowledge, using timeless classics to deliver complex musical ideas towards the largest audience possible. From the start, Collier has focused on making the complicated, muddled, yet bountiful world of music theory for all audiences. 

Because of this talent, Collier has found himself situated as a teacher, with videos of him instructing complex musical concepts in layman’s terms going viral on platforms like WIRED and TED. Reflecting on how this role has impacted him personally, he said, “You don’t realize if you understand something until someone asks you if you understand it.” Collier has simplified musical concepts like swing percentage and microtones so others could, in his own words, “be given them to play with.” Collier practices a refreshing lack of musical gatekeeping due to his belief that “if he learns something and then understands, there’s no reason for him to hold onto it.” 

His respect for his violinist and composer mother, Susie Collier, is the “fundamental source of his faith in himself.” When Collier was a child, she instilled a sense of self-trust and self-belief in him and spoke to him as an equal. He shares that he used to “watch students walk in and take violin lessons with her and they’d arrive very tired and then leave light as a feather.” Watching her lead and listening to her wisdom taught him about the concept of trust and how to implant it in others. He’s now continued to introduce that sense of trust in collaborators, friends, relationships, and now audiences. 

Over the course of the last six years — along with teaching music, collaborating with artists like SZA and Lizzy Mcalpine, and touring the world — Jacob Collier has released four parts of his album series, Djesse. The name choice goes back to Collier thinking that the word sounded like the verbal pronunciation of his initials. Djesse formed as one massive album until it broke into two albums, then three, then four. Collier initially tried to make all four volumes in one year but has since decided to space the project out over six years. This approach to an album release cycle shows the care and intention with which Collier creates his music. By respecting the music enough and giving it time to grow, Collier has crafted a world that listeners can get lost in.

Djesse has no particular story because Collier didn’t start out with one in mind: He purely wanted to find himself through a metaphysical exploration. By journeying through a large number of sonic worlds, he evolved throughout the four volumes from orchestral to acoustic to digital to what he calls now a “human album” due to the presence of 100,000 voices on certain songs on this fourth volume. The British music geek got 100,000 voices on the album because he recorded audiences on the 100 shows he performed on his 2022 tour. At these shows, the musician divided the audience into segments and then gave each a starting note. After setting up, he gave the audiences a simple vocal direction of up or down, and then they would just “figure it out,” tapping into Collier’s “hive mind,” a spiritual sense of understanding. He recorded these voices and put them on the album to create a sense of community with his audience and to imitate the grandiosity of humanity. 

From Shawn Mendes to Stormzy, Djesse manages a wide range of collaborators. Collier says his job as a collaborator is to “scale his universe to be compatible with somebody else’s without reducing that scale.” He finds that “the more space he takes up, the more space there is for people to be comfortable and confident.”

Two concepts mainly fascinate Collier on Djesse: “home” and “joy.” He has intentionally tried to break down his idea of home and expand upon his belief in joy.

Collier expands the idea of home from his childhood room to a global scale. “The room I’ve lived in since I was 1 or 2, I’ve created so much in there, that was physically home for me for a long time–it’s where I created my first album In My Room. With Djesse, I wanted to physically travel the world and metaphorically push down the walls of my room. I want to transform the idea of home into something more global but something more internal.” These words from Collier don’t feel hollow because of the global perspectives he introduces throughout the album. He has included the voices of audiences from around the globe, as well as collaborated with audiences from around the globe. He includes musical voices spanning from India’s Varijashree Venugopal playing flute on “A Rock Somewhere” to Colombia’s Camillo dropping an incredible reggaeton dance-y performance on “Mi Corazón.”

Collier emphasized that Djesse showcases a specific, personal ideal of joy. 

“Joy is a big word for me that I often feel is misunderstood. Joy doesn’t come from being glad or stoked or happy, but it comes from being alive. I like how dynamic that can be, being at one’s full dynamic range, being able to absorb and receive any frequency of emotion in life and roll with that, it feels like catharsis. It’s a joyous record,” Collier explained. With the conclusion of the Djesse album series, Collier is not ending on a happy note but rather a joyous one. At the end of his six-year exploration, he has discovered a newfound appreciation for humanity and music that will guide his future career with a sense of intention and hope.

Jacob Collier’s passion and love for music is incredibly infectious. When the artist speaks, his love and appreciation for music and the people who make it seeps through every part of his delivery. In this press conference, interviewers could see Collier in his natural habitat, speaking honestly about his love for music and the ideals that guide him. This sense of connection flows throughout Collier’s presence as a teacher and a musician, which listeners can experience on Thursday, Feb. 29th, when Djesse Vol. 4 is released.