When he was last here Jack Peñate was, by his own admission, a kid. A south London bedroom-boy-with-acoustic-guitar. He ducked, he dived, he played many shows in the UK and a rare few in the US, rockin’ the scenesters. And rockin’ the charts: his debut album, 2007’s Matinée, went gold in the UK; the single, "Torn On The Platform", entered the UK charts at Number 7 and he was even on the cover of the NME. Good stuff, but not great stuff. Not stirring, take-your-head-off stuff. Jack knew this. But the truth didn’t hurt; it liberated him.
So for his second album Jack decided to rip it up and start again. Totally start again. Total honesty, absolute vision, complete control.
The result is Everything Is New, a soul record. Recorded over twelve intense months in producer Paul Epworth's (Bloc Party, Friendly Fires) own west London home studio, Everything Is New is a giant musical leap forward from this 24 year old Londoner’s acclaimed debut album.
Everything Is New is a technicolour record full of experimentation and possibility. Featuring the blissed-out house grooves of first single “Tonight’s Today” and swaggering soul of anthemic new single “Be The One”, the album fuses Peñate’s wide-eyed pop songwriting with the music he’s always loved and lived, successfully bringing Brazilian Tropicala, Krautrock, New Orleans marching bands, Bashment, Afrobeat, lo-fi Hop Hop, Gospel, Reggaeton and Phily Soul into the mix over a nine track record that delights and surprises at every turn.
In many ways, Jack Peñate is Lily Allen minus the sarcasm and the party frocks. The South Londoner's music is slick, radio-ready pop, but its heart is rooted in the Two-Tone ska revival and the more soulful end of '80s pop, along the lines of the Style Council and the Housemartins. Add in Peñate's striking vocal resemblance to the young Billy Bragg and he's like the post-millennial equivalent to the U.K. student discos of two decades previously. Jack Fabian Peñate was born in Blackheath, a fairly posh London suburb, on September 9, 1984. While still in his teens, Peñate formed a band called Jack's Basement, which also featured his schoolmate Felix White, later lead guitarist for neo-Brit-pop act the Maccabees. When that group broke up as its members went off to different universities, Peñate began a solo career, backed by bassist Joel Porter and drummer Alex Robins. While developing a strong live following due in large part to his frenetic on-stage dancing, Peñate signed with the Young Turks label and released his debut single, "Second, Minute or Hour" (each of the 1,000 limited-edition vinyl copies containing a Polaroid self-portrait of the artist), in the fall of 2006. The single's favorable buzz allowed Peñate to jump to the larger indie XL Recordings for 2007's Matinee and 2009's Be the One. Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Penate,_Jack/Biography/
Jack Fabian Peí±ate (; born 2 September 1984, Blackheath, London) is an English musician and singer-songwriter signed to XL Recordings.
Jack Peí±ate attended St. Olave's Preparatory School, New Eltham until he left to attend Alleyn's School until he was 18 years of age. His grandfather was Mervyn Peake, author of the Gormenghast books.
Peí±ate made his way up the ranks of the club and bar scene of London before he was signed by record label XL Recordings. He released his first promo single in October 2006, "Second Minute or Hour" along with its b-side track, "Got My Favourite". This single was released by the record label Young Turks, as a 1000-only limited 7 inch, each containing a different Polaroid photograph, taken of Peí±ate. And in April 2007 he released the "Spit At Stars EP". In addition to the title track, this featured "My Yvonne", "Cold Thin Line" and a cover of Darondo Pulliam and Al Turner's "Didn't I". The CD edition of the EP also included the first song he ever wrote, "Jack Of All Trades", which he wrote with his band at school called "Jack's Basement". He has appeared on XFM radio's "Xposure" and his first two singles were both Single of the Week on BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's show.
On 10 August 2007, he announced that his album would be released on 1 October and be titled Matinée. However, on 7 September, this date was pushed back to 8 October, because more time was needed to "finish off all the bits of artwork for the inside cover and because my neck is playing up again." Peí±ate also stated that "I've been told it's now in production so hopefully there won't be any more delays."
Despite much pre-album publicity, the album met with mixed reviews including a 5/10 from the NME who had featured Peí±ate on their cover in a previous month. However, the album did debut at number seven in the UK album charts.
On 3 January 2009, XFM played a new track by Peñate called "Tonight's Today", the song ended up being the first single from his second album Everything Is New.
On 24 August 2009, Peñate released his new single "Pull My Heart Away". This single was also available for free single of the week download on the Australian iTunes. He has also announced an autumn tour that will take him to cities including Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, and Manchester.
At Peí±ate's concerts, it is customary that audience members enter the stage while the song "Torn On The Platform" is performed. One such stage invasion at the Oxford Zodiac on 22 April 2007 resulted in a fan stealing Peñate's distortion pedal. After he'd realised it was missing he proclaimed, "D'you know what? Whoever's got it... keep it! Just make sure you play a Telecaster through it and not a Gibson!"
