Jess goes back to the future

“I’d probably just totally cry,” says the rising Halifax singer/songwriter who today releases her version of the smash hit Beatles track ‘From Me To You’ as a single.

“I think he’s just such a cool guy and I am a massive fan. I’d love to meet him and for him to hear my version,” says the 20-year-old former North Halifax Grammar School pupil who is turning heads in the music industry and working hard towards her first albumto be released next year with her London publishers A&G Songs.

Jess who spends an increasing amount of time with her production team in the capital has put her stamp on the love song which was penned by Lennon and McCartney on the back of a tour bus and which subsequently went to number one in the charts for seven weeks from May 1963.

In some charts it was The Beatles’ very first number one. (Please Please Me had already made it to number one in other charts at the time).

Jess’s version however is a radical one, a deconstruction, slower and more melancholy - the perfect vehicle to showcase her sparkling vocals and also re-emphasise the song’s heartfelt lyrics.

Added to that is astroke of genius. A 22-piece orchestra that gives this version depth and also nods towards the later period of Beatles music.

“If you look at the lyrics they are really sentimental and lend themselves to this version. It is totally different to the original,” says Jess, who when she’s not in London lives at home in Bradshaw with mum and dad Sally and Mark and her younger sister Charlotte.

“It is a really short song, which you don’t realise, but it was great fun to work on it. It did feel like you had heard it before even though it’s completely different, which I think is why people are really enjoying it so much.

“I love it and I hope it does well,” she adds.

It’s a milestone for Jess who admits it’s taken time to get used to her new life, though she’s now completely in the pace and groove of London living.

“You see I am a homegirl through and through and I really love Halifax and coming home to see all my friends and family. I suppose I spend 40 per cent of time away now.”

Jess started to pen songs from her early teens and at first performed them without any backing.

It was only when she was 16 she got her first guitar and began teaching herself to play. She began gigging locally to start with.

“I remember losing my plectrum inside the guitar on my first gig. That caused a laugh.”

But it’s all far removed from her life now. One in which she collaborates with some of the music industry’s outstanding names including Steve Chrisanthou, Sara Eker and Nick Southwood. And where her music is regularly played by Clare Balding on her BBC Radio 2 show.

But life has not been without its gambles. Before her career took off Jess made the decision to turn down a place at Sheffield Hallam University studying graphic design.

It is something she admits she can fall back on if needs be but for now her only thoughts are for her music career.

“I just love to play, write and create music and even if things don’t work out I will not stop making music.

“And if things go well I would love one day to tour the world, meet amazing people and collaborate with them and write hundreds and hundreds of albums,” she says. The very first is 95 per cent complete, so watch out for it in 2016.

The single is now available from Amazon, iTunes and major music channels.