South African singer, songwriter, and record producer says he’s thrilled to be performing live again now that lockdown restrictions have been eased.
Loops is set to headline at the next Big Live Concert series by music app JOOX, on Sunday, October 11.
Although the show will be a virtual concert, Loops says he’s particularly excited about reuniting with his band and performing fan favourites and new songs he wrote during the lockdown.
“I’m excited about Sunday’s Big Live virtual concert for sure. It’s exciting to have the band back together and to be playing songs that I’ve never played before. I’ve written all these new songs so the band had to learn (them),” says Loops.
Though 2020 presented challenges, it also brought new opportunities for Loops. The award-winning singer signed a global deal with Universal Music.
On his new material, Loops said: “ ’By The Way’ was the first song that I wrote during the lockdown; it was a lockdown baby. It was right at the beginning of things, the world was already going crazy.
“The idea behind it is that we all are going to need to dig incredibly deep to not just survive this new world, but to thrive in the situation that we’re all in now.”
The 36-year-old muso has recently completed his third upcoming album but he’s still working on the title of the album.
“I don’t have a name for the album yet. A hotly contested aspect of my daily meandering is trying to figure out what I should call this album but unfortunately, I haven’t got a name yet, working on it still,” offers Loops.
The album is set to release in 2021.
“We wanted to launch the album this year but we had to hold it back because of Covid. So I really want to launch the album and be able to go and tour it, “he says.
He adds: “For this album I did a few songs with some really big people. I did a co-write on one of the songs with Ed Sheeran. It’s very important that I have the right team behind me for this stage.
“The first album I did independently – I might go back to being independent one day but, for now, it felt like the right time to bring a big team around this music and see if we can get it to travel further around the world.”
Loops met Ed Sheeran at a private party in 2019, when Sheeran was due to perform at FNB Stadium, Soweto, and the two got on like a house on fire.
“It happened very organically. We met each other out one night, we had a few drinks together, I went to one of his shows and then he invited me to come and work with him. It really was as simple as that, just two people connecting.
Reflecting on getting to work with the English singer, the muso says, “It was super cool! He’s a lovely man, it was an absolute honour to work with him. It nearly threw me off my feet the day that he wrote me an email and said, ‘do you want to come and join me in the studio for a couple of songs?’ It was just super exciting!”
Jeremy Loops’s Big Live Concert series by music app JOOX takes place on Sunday, October 11, at 5pm.