Jacob Collier’s wacky home studio tour: “These Grammys here are not just useful for my ego, they’re also useful as agogo bells”
From five-string guitars to Panettone tins to his grandfather’s spoons, Collier’s music room is a kaleidoscope of eclectic instruments and mementos, each with its own story to tell.
Image: Valerie Terranova / Getty Images
Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier has offered a tour of his home studio which he describes as his “ultimate anchor”.
Located in his childhood home, the room is where a young Collier first learned to walk and where the multi-Grammy-winning musician created all of his albums.
“I’m sure at some point I’ll have a studio or studios in different parts of the world but this will always be the ultimate anchor ‘cause it’s where everything started,” he tells host Caleb Simpson.
Certainly one of the more colourful and peppy-looking studios we’ve seen, the room holds an impressive 70-odd musical instruments — or about 100 when you include “things that you can use to make sound”.
Highlights include an old Panettone tin Collier frequently hits and samples, and names as his “favourite”, a vintage typewriter, and a custom-made five-string acoustic guitar from Taylor.
When in doubt, one can also “ask the room for answers… it’s a wise room,” says Collier, who admits to spending most of his time in the room sitting in his chair at a desk that’s built from a set of old IKEA shelves.
A section of the desk has been specially designed to fit Collier’s treasured Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S49 MK1 MIDI keyboard: “These [the MK1s] have been discontinued, so whenever this one breaks or I spill tea on it — which I inevitably always do — I have to beg for any unused spares, which up until now they have [had],” he says.
During the tour, the musician also reveals how he puts his multiple Grammy award trophies to good, practical use in his daily life: “These Grammys here are not just useful for my ego, they’re also useful as agogo bells,” says Collier, before grabbing one and tapping on it with a stick.
“They all have slightly different notes but I have actually recorded with them quite a lot.”
Elsewhere, Collier also talks about the Audience Choir plugin he built that ended up being “really helpful” on his new album Djesse Vol. 4.
“One of the things I love doing in live performances is I love getting the audience to sing,” he says, “but not just like sing along but like sing chords and stuff so I built a plugin out of all the audiences.”
Watch the full studio tour below.
