I'm Chanté, and you're watching my show, Anything Goes.
Today's guest is the brilliant Jack Remmington,
a.k.a. one half of the viral X Factor duo Jack and Joel.
Join us as we discuss his tone deaf childhood,
the trick to winning X Factor
and how a feud with Piers Morgan showed him his authentic self.
Welcome to Anything Goes with me, Chanté Joseph.
Today, I am joined by one of my most favorite people on social media.
Nobody does memes, gifs, videos,
TikTok
quite like this person.
Today, I'm joined with
stop laughing
Jack Remmington, people.
Hello, friend.
[Jack] Hello.
How are you doing?
All things considered, I'm well.
We need to talk about the music.
[Jack] Yeah.
How did you get into it?
I was tone deaf growing up.
My mum and dad were like, not that they were like, "Oh, it's so disappointing that you can't sing."
But, you know, it's always nice to be able to hold a tune.
And then my dad is like, "It's funny because when you were growing up, like, you actually really weren't a very good singer."
I don't know what it was.
And then when I got to secondary school,
I was the only boy in the choir.
Okay.
So rather than like, giving me a male, like a third,
because obviously there's like soprano, alto, and then like a boy's part.
Rather than bothering with that, I think the choir music teacher was quite lazy, to be honest.
So I just got all the solos.
And I think that's like the pivotal moment for me of like A singing thing and B, the like
this.
So it was great.
So I think that was the first point where I was like
I was so lucky because I was allowed to just sing loads.
[Chanté] Yeah.
And then like built confidence, obviously, just doing that.
But also it was mostly like year elevens and sixth formers that were in the musicals.
But then there was like
little shrieky old me in like year seven and eight.
So I was like hanging out with people that were older.
Yeah.
Because I was doing like, you know,
we did Bugsy Malone
actual High School Musical: The Musical.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, my days. Who were you?
Ryan, obviously.
[Chanté] Okay.
The gay one.
[Jack] But you know how he like
he changes his hat every scene in the film,
but we didn't have a very big wardrobe budget.
So they were like, "You need to bring in as many of your own clothes as possible and we'll try and fit it around."
[Chanté] Yeah.
But I was going through that tragic period in year eight where all
well I say all boys,
boys like me of wearing cardigans.
So every different scene I was in a different cardigan.
Oh my days.
And that was in year eight and then yeah I guess just like always enjoyed singing
never thought it would be something I'd do as a career.
And then I ended up joining an a cappella group when I got to uni.
Yes.
We had some success with that.
We did a mash up of some Shakira songs
and it ended up going viral.
She saw it, shared it.
So that helped.
We did like a lot of kind of promo for it and then
we did a cover of All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey.
She saw that, shared that.
And Joel, the guy that I sing with now, was in that group with me.
So we were just like, "Oh, maybe this is something that we could do."
So more than one boy this time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then started singing as us too.
And we started doing some YouTube videos while at uni together
and then we just got asked to audition for the X Factor.
We need to hear about what your experience was like.
Primarily, I'm definitely grateful and thankful that I did the show.
100 percent like it's opened up a lot of doors,
if nothing else,
just for the fact that I've made so many good friends from it.
But what I've mentioned to you before was that I think
I expected to go on the show with Joel
and for us to be kind of nurtured
and we had Simon as our mentor.
And so you think, oh you know, mentor like
Simon Cowell?
Yeah. Talk you through whatever.
And really, I think all of these kind of shows want you to have done the legwork first,
which is not necessarily a bad thing.
I just wish I'd known this.
Because we could have got more out of it.
And what I mean by that is like
our YouTube channel was us singing and harmonizing.
Joel would make backing tracks because he's really good with that music tech and stuff,
or we'd do a cappella. So no backing tracks.
Joel also plays guitar and piano.
So all these things that we tried to show off
and I think because every round of the show we did something different,
like first audition, boot camp, blah, blah, blah.
I think had we just stuck to one thing,
it would have worked a lot better because every round they were like,
"Oh no, I wish you'd done more. What you did the first time."
We were like, "Well, we're trying to show you that we've got this diverse."
That you've got range.
Yeah. And I think on a show like that, they want you to just go in and be like,
"Right, I am the next Adele or I'm the next, you know, Boyzone." I mean, not Boyzone, who knows Boyzone nowadays.
[Jack] But you know what, you know what I mean.
Like, they want you to just have this identity that works.
And that's what worked the best for the people that did well on my season.
I don't know what it's like with other judges because Simon's so busy
that we never really saw him. It was very much the music team being like,
"Oh, Simon said this last night." and relayed it to us.
We didn't have that one on one thing of him being like,
"Let me impart some words of wisdom."
Do you think there is
because people always say like they think it's fixed, they think it's fixed.
Do you think producers know who is going to win at the end or do they?
No. I mean, obviously, because it's
they legally can't because they're dealing with like public votes when people have spent money.
Right.
You can't actually fix it, but you can do little things that influence.
So, for instance, like a lot people at home will,
whatever Simon says, they're just like,
"Oh, like I believe because he knows what he's talking about."
What you don't see at home is that at the
after a performance
when the persons finished and there's like five minutes before the audience kind of dies down
and it pans to the judges on the live shows to get their feedback,
if Simon wants it to look like that person did really well,
he'll stand up, turn to the audience in the studio and go like this.
And so for the acts that he wanted to do really well, it was like this rapturous applause in the audience,
because obviously everyone kind of does what Simon says.
So at home you're like,
"Oh, even if I thought that was a bit rubbish, like, clearly, I don't know what I'm talking because I wasn't in the room. I'm not Simon."
Whatever, people are led by that, I think quite a lot.
[Chanté] Yeah.
We have to talk about dating and what it is like dating as somebody who is quite hyper visible.
The weirdest thing for me with dating stuff is like every so often
I'll get people who follow me on Twitter or particularly if I'm traveling.
So if I'm not in London.
[Chanté] Yeah.
I'm somewhere else and I come up on someone's Tinder or whatever,
I've had messages be like,
"I don't know who you think you are impersonating Jack Remmington."
And I'm literally like, I'm primarily flattered because I'm like,
imagine they think that someone has the time to impersonate me when actually like I would also like to go on a date.
Do you know what I mean? Like it's allowed.
But then I'm not I'm not going to sit there and beg for their approval to be like, "No, no, no, it's me. Look here's me with the newspaper from today."
Yeah, exactly.
So I think that sometimes which more than anything I just find it's funny, but also like cute.
Because I'm like, imagine you thinking that I'm like a personality enough that someone would want to impersonate.
[Chanté] Yeah.
The main thing is I would like to go into a scenario where someone
this sounds so like
as if I think I'm Leonardo DiCaprio,
but bare with
of like someone who just doesn't know who you are.
So you can go in, and be like "Hi. I'm this."
And you get to tell people exactly what you want to tell them about you
rather than them have,
them having this idea, sometimes they're like
"Oh my God I love your Twitter so much."
And I'm like, that's great. And I genuinely appreciate that.
[Chanté] Yeah.
But like dating wise,
you therefore I don't know how much you know of me.
I'm quite open on social media, so I feel like I've already and that's my fault.
I'm obviously not blaming anyone else for that.
Yeah, yeah.
But I feel like I've kind of then.
I don't know how much of my heart I've opened up that you already know about before,
Do you know what I mean?
So then, them asking questions or me wanting to have a conversation and them knowing what the answers are because.
Exactly.
Do you know what I mean?
And I also because you're quite like, you know, positive and energetic
and I'm sure people are always expecting you to be like that as well.
Do you feel like you have time to switch off or if you're quiet, people are like, "What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?"
[Jack] Yeah.
I am relatively energetic and I am quite a positive person, so I don't feel too much pressure to keep that up because it is actually me.
I'm lucky enough that I just feel like if I want to post something daft on my Instagram story, I will.
If I want to say a ridiculous tweet that in five minutes I'm going to delete because I processed the thought and then removed it from the Twitter sphere.
I'm going to do that. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah exactly.
So I do feel like I'm relatively representative of
Yeah, yeah.
What I put out social media.
You do use your platform to like be political though.
Yeah.
[Chanté] Which, I really love.
And what has the reaction been to that?
I now probably couldn't go into a position where you have to be completely apolitical.
[Chanté] Yeah.
Because it's like "Okay, well he can be apolitical now but we all know what is actual thought."
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
In a way that like Phil and Holly and those kind of people, have to be very careful about their own personal views.
I wouldn't feel kind of correct in sharing just like airy fairy kind of stuff,
Yeah exactly.
[Jack] like I want to actually get my opinion out there
and also the whole political thing.
Like, a lot of the time it isn't political.
When I was like disseminating a lot of Black Lives Matter stuff,
obviously we know that, you know, like that's not a political side.
That's just life.
I don't worry about it too much because I just think I'm being completely genuine
with what I want to share and what my opinions are.
And, you know, I do think people should use whatever platform, however big or small it is as best they can.
Yeah, and being apolitical is still being political, like not choosing a side is choosing a side.
And having the luxury of doing that.
Exactly. It's choosing the side of the oppressor as opposed to the oppressed.
You know, someone's got to do it. Do you know what I mean?
There's no point of having a platform if you're not ever going to address these major issues because then you're just complicit. Do you know what I mean?
And I do have this worry.
The biggest thing for me was like earlier this year, I had a big spat with Piers Morgan.
Oh, my God, we got to talk about that.
About the like Love Island stuff.
And it ended up him being like,
"I'm going to get lawyers involved."
Yeah.
Blocking me.
And that was the point where I was like, "Sh*t. Okay."
that, for instance, maybe means like there's a slight ITV bridge that's burned because, you know, that kind of thing.
But then I'm just like, I can't live my life just not wanting to speak out on stuff.
Like.
I feel like the Internet, like democratizes, like content and stuff like that.
If you're entertaining, you're engaging. People will flock to you.
Right.
And then brands will have no choice but to work with you,
like, like in the interest of like profit, like you can't continuously blacklist people.
No.
I also feel like we're living in such a politicized world.
Like I felt very apolitical growing up.
And that's partly probably from privilege.
Partly, though, also I think we weren't anywhere near as polarized politically,
internationally as well ten years ago compared to what we are now.
Now, it's almost harder to be like I'm not having an opinion.
And so then you're like, well, then that's an active political place you're putting yourself.
Exactly.
Whereas before it was just "Don't really know, don't really care, c'est la vie, whatever."
But it's not.
Yeah, it's not.
It's actually been really fun chatting to you, but it's been very serious.
Yeah.
And so I feel like we need to sing it out.
We need to do some karaoke.
You ready?
And I'm not ready. But c'mon yeah.
Cardi B, this is for you, honey.
We're going to be recreating WAP to some wonderful ballads.
My voice is terrible.
Jack's voice is great, but together it's going to sound mediocre.
And that's all we can ask for at this moment.
So let's go.
[To the tune of Adele - Hello] Wh*res, in this house.
[To the tune of Adele - Hello] There's some wh*res, in this house.
[To the tune of Adele - Hello] Bring a bucket and a mop.
[To the tune of Cece Peniston - Finally] Gobble me, swallow me, drip down the side of me.
[To the tune of Cece Peniston - Finally] Quick, jump out 'fore you let it get inside of me.
[To the tune of Cece Peniston - Finally] I tell him where to put it, never tell him where I'm 'bout to be.
[To the tune of Cece Peniston - Finally] I'll run down on him 'fore I have a running me
Ay ay ay ay.
[To the tune of Lizzo - Truth Hurts] Look, I need a hard hitter, I need a deep stroker.
[To the tune of Lizzo - Truth Hurts] I need a Henny drinker, I need a weed smoker
[To the tune of Lizzo - Truth Hurts] Not a garden snake, I need a king cobra with a hook in it, hope it lean over.
[To the tune of Lizzo - Truth Hurts] He got some money, then that's where I'm headed P*ssy A1, just like his credit
No, no, no.
Oh.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] Gobble me, swallow me, drip down the side of me.
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] Quick, jump out 'fore you let it get inside of me
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] I tell him where to put it, never tell him where I'm 'bout to be
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] Now
Woah.
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] get your boots
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] boots
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] and get your coat
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] coat.
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] For this wet-*ss p*ssy
[To the tune of Jordin Sparks - No Air] p*ssy
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] I let him taste it, now he diabetic
Oh ho ho.
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] I don't wanna spit, I wanna gulp
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] I wanna gag, I wanna choke
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] I want you to touch that lil' dangly thing that swing in the back of my throat
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] Yeah, yeah, yeah
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] you fucking with some wet-*ss p*ssy
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] bring a bucket and a mop
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] For this wet-*ss p*ssy
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] Give me everything you got for this wet-*ss p*ssy
[To the tune of ABBA - Take A Chance On Me] Now from the top, make it drop that's some wet-*ss p*ssy
Right.
You smashed it.
It's been a pleasure.
[Jack] Yeah it has.
You are just a ball of positivity and energy
And warmth.
You are literally,
I'm a radiator.
You are literally the sun.
But that's why we love you.
So thank you so much and just, you know, sharing and just enjoying this moment.
Like, subscribe, share.
Thank you.
♪Chanté and Jack in the Camberwell Studios♪
♪are bidding you farewell today.♪
That was sick and I made it up.
That was really good.