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Róisín Murphy spills on Jessie Ware collab: ‘I couldn’t say no – she’s my mate and I love her’

Exclusive: "We laughed and we cried!" recalls Róisín of making the video to 'Freak Me Now' with Jessie

By Anna Wall & Jamie Tabberer

Jessie Ware and Roisin Murphy in recent press shots
Jessie Ware and Roisin Murphy (Images: Interscope/Nik Pate)

Róisín Murphy has revealed all about her upcoming collaboration with pop peer Jessie Ware.

The girls have teamed up for a new version of Jessie’s track ‘Freak Me Now’, taken from her critically-acclaimed 2023 album That! Feels! Good!

Moloko icon Róisín discussed the song in a recent interview with Attitude, ahead of the release of her latest solo album Hit Parade.

“We tried on millions of outfits – it was like a jumble sale!” – Róisín Murphy

“Jessie’s one of the most genuine, brilliant, talented people in the industry,” Róisín told us. “Funny, beautiful, she’s an amazing singer, a great songwriter, her heart’s in the right place about everything that she does.

“I’ve been asked to do stuff like this before and I’ve said no, but I couldn’t say no to Jessie. She’s my mate and I love her. We had a lot of fun on the video shoot. We tried on millions of outfits. It was like a jumble sale back there. We laughed and we cried.”

In our interview, Róisín also discussed self-directing this video for ‘Fader’ [below], her single from earlier this year.

“The whole day was just magic,” she reflected. “I had to be very focused during the day and so did everyone else. [They] probably thought ‘[I’ll] just turn up to the parade and Roísín will film it’ but it was a lot more complicated than that. We had to stop and start a lot, reset, and I had to always join at the same time if we were doing a different angle.

“Everybody had to be really patient and professional. I was amazed by that and even though I didn’t know that many people there personally, I did feel somehow that I was surrounded by care… That people cared about me. Just because I’m from the town [Arklow in Ireland], and to perform within that feeling of being cared for was very joyful.”

Róisín’s full interview will appear in issue 354 of Attitude, out 10 August 2023. Hit Parade is out 8 September.