Ahead of Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2026 ( 29th April – 4th May), I chatted with 5 artists who are featured in the free programme and, in my mind, are ones you should definitely check out as well. In this Behind the Music special it’s the turn of singer-songwriter Eve Buckley, who will be playing the Free Stage, Montpellier Gardens, 3.15pm, Sunday 3rd May.

Hi Eve, thanks so much for taking the time to chat, before we get into the main questions, how do you feel about being involved in the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and what are you doing in the lead up to it?
I am beyond excited to be heading to Cheltenham Jazz Festival. It will be the first time I’ve played there and the line up is like my dream line up so it’s gonna be mad to be alongside those artists! I’m currently in rehearsals with my band so it’s all very exciting!

 

You’ve released two different versions of your EP ‘Some Kind of Solace’. Did the contrasting settings reveal anything about the tracks that you didn’t realise before?
I think it was just an interesting process to revisit songs I wrote 3 or 4 years ago as a different version of myself. I find new meanings in the songs every time I play them live and I think stripping them down to their foundations always feels very vulnerable.

 

What do you feel about how the music industry supports emerging solo artists, particularly in the jazz scene?
I think there’s some incredible solo artists that are killing it at the moment within the realm I’m in like Nectar Woode, Emma-Jean Thackray, Rosie Frater-Taylor. And by pushing through, they’re paving the way for everyone else in the scene so it’s a lovely thing to see!

There is a great sense of your tracks being recorded as a continuous live take. Is this the case and if not, what is your recording process like?
When I first started I it recording the EP, ‘Big Shot’ was recorded over quite a long period of time and was more a process of overdubbing and layering loads of parts. But there’s certain songs that feel as if they need to be recorded as naturally as possible with the band in a live take like in ‘Ingrained’. So the process entirely depends on the nature of the song and the sound I want.

 

It’s not all about streams, but why do you think ‘Big Shot’ and ‘Peace of Mind’ have had such appeal and will their success inform your future releases?
I think with the way I released them they flowed quite nicely together in terms of their sound but apart from that it’s hard to know why certain songs take off! For me it’s something I don’t like to focus on, and I prefer to just make music I’m proud of and hope that people can find some connection to it.

 

Which of your tracks took on the biggest development from inception to final recording?
It would have to be ‘Big Shot’, a lot of work by my producer Alex Williams went into arranging that one! For example, the intro began with just my vocals and the chords when I wrote it but the way it’s arranged now to have such impact wouldn’t exist without Alex!

 

And a sneaky bonus question: Out of the artists you’ve supported, who would you love to release a collaboration with?
It would have to be Alice Kim – I supported at Brudenell Social Club last year and she’s such an incredible songwriter and vocalist!

 

Thanks Eve Buckley for chatting with Listen to Discover

Remember you can catch Eve Buckley playing the Free Stage, Montpellier Gardens, 3.15pm, Sunday 3rd May.