“I was always obsessed with stretchy-faced character actors growing up - Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Dawn French, Will Ferrell - and always hoped I’d give it a go,” says Archie Henderson, the write and creator of the musical comedy character Jazz Emu. “The character of a self-indulgent musician came from wanting to find a semi-ironic outlet for the electropop songs I started writing in my bedroom in my early twenties.” He adds, as an aside: “I couldn’t quite face releasing anything earnest, and the character was a great mask for any sincerity.” The character and his music continued to grow during lockdown. “I wrote more and more comedy songs in the character as a way to entertain myself, and I hoped others, through a boring time. I got addicted to expanding the character and his world and didn’t stop.” Since then, Archie has worked to bring Jazz Emu to the stage and has sold out tours in Australia and at the Soho Theatre in London.

“The first time I remember touching an instrument was being taken to meet a saxophone teacher at the age of five,” recalls when asked about his earliest musical memory. “I was so desperate to be Lisa Simpson and play a baritone sax and had been begging my parents to start. They never explain in that show that it’s technically impossible for an eight-year-old, let alone a five-year-old – a baritone sax is the size of one. I was put on an alto, which was also, it turned out, too big for my tiny child hands. I was relegated to a plastic beginner’s clarinet, which felt awful in the hand and sounded even worse. I really knew I would be making music forever when I fell into a trance recording terrible emo guitar riffs on loop on my mum’s 8-track recorder at the age of 15.”

“All sorts,” says Archie when asked about where he draws inspiration from. “But when I started producing music on my computer, I was really trying to emulate RnB producers I was enjoying listening to in the mid-2010s like Jungle and Jai Paul, and big hitters from the olden days like Prince.” But it turns out inspiration is as unpredictable as his alter-ego. “Sadly, or maybe happily, my style was far too influenced by listening to stupid bands from the 60s and 70s like Scaffold, and old variety acts like Flanders & Swann, and Flight of The Conchords, and Paul McCartney whenever he’s being a cheeky whimsical guy. The result was, I guess, the monstrosity that is Jazz Emu’s particular concoction of goofy-RnB.”

The music evolves, though, and with more projects in the works, it’s back to the drawing board for the award-winning writer and musician. “More recently I’ve got into studying the genius of songwriters, especially Bowie, Kate Bush, and more Prince and McCartney obviously, to harvest their stylings and try and improve the shape of my songs.”

He’s set to take over the Town Hall stage with his new show ‘Knight Fever’ on Wednesday 12 March. “It’s been one of the biggest learnings of doing this project, just how precisely you have to craft an idea for the context or format in which it’s going to be received. I’ve written full songs, with classic pop structure, which work well for someone listening on Spotify while they make eggs, or onstage with a band and a standing audience.” He adds: “For these I’ll usually start with the musical idea first - a chorus melody and a beat which I’ll then find the funny idea to write over it. Other times I’ve made short funny songs from a single funny idea which I put to music.”

It seems to be an intricate balance, this process of combining music and comedy in the context of live performance. “As soon as you put either of these onstage in front of a seated comedy audience, they’re either not dense and gag-packed enough, or so dense and loud as to be unintelligible.” This thoughtfulness and craft, considering different approaches in writing music to fit the space, that shines through with Jazz Emu. “Live comedy songs need a different rhythm and structure completely, really - with more twists and turns and space for the audience inhale and then exhale through their mouth and/or nose depending on the joke’s success.”

His visual album, ‘Ego Death’ comes out in the new year. “It’s a 30-minute comedy concept album extravaganza starring some pretty amazing people including Harry Enfield and Alex Horne.” But, before that, he'll be coming to Town Hall on Wednesday 12 Marchbringing his comedy show with his live band, The Cosmique Perfectión. “It weaves my best and most catchiest songs into the silliest of narratives, about Jazz Emu’s ambition to finally become a Knight of the Realm at the hands of His Majesticity. It’s an extremely fun and sensorily stimulating experience.”

Interview by Lerah Barcenilla, Marketing & Communications Officer