ALFIE JUKES

Born and raised in Brighton, Jukes got his start in musical theatre – first in school plays then in a theatre job at the Royal Shakespeare Company. “My mum put me in classes because I needed a place to get rid of all my energy,” he recalls, laughing. “So for most of my childhood, I thought theatre was what I was going to do… and then covid happened and it all disappeared.”

It was during lockdowns that Jukes found time to begin nurturing his latent songwriting skills. Little by little, his confidence grew and he began uploading covers to social media, connecting with his now-manager. Not long after that, he booked a support tour with the band Only the Poets: “Being on stage and that tangible connection with the audience, that’s the most important thing for me,” he says. There have been headline tours, too, drawing bigger and bigger crowds each time. In a few short years he has built an extraordinary following, with over a quarter of a million monthly listeners on Spotify and millions of views across his three previous EPs, most recently 2025’s All Dressed Up for Nothing.

“I think I’d be lying if I didn’t say I want this to be as big as it possibly can be,” Jukes says. “I’ve always thought about everything in terms of the live show, from festivals to venues, so that’s really important to me. And I think it’s important to have ambition and to be open about what you want to achieve.” The last few years, he continues, have been about “figuring shit out, basically – when it comes to the music, I’m so proud of everything that I’ve put out, but this project feels the most ‘me’ of anything I’ve ever done.”

We get the first glimpse of his gorgeous debut album with lead single “Edges of You”. Inspired by the hit coming-of-age musical Sing Street, Jukes set out to capture that same heady rush of infatuation: “Slowly it became about me and my girlfriend, about watching someone from afar and wanting to know them more,” he says. Enveloped by rousing acoustic guitars, he whisks you along on the journey as his devotion grows: “I’d tell a few lies if I had to/ Learn a new language to understand you/ I’d dye my hair or start a band/ I’d put the world in the palm of your hand.” The song soars and soars, sparkling with bright piano notes that evoke the wide-eyed nature of young love.

“You spend a lot of time filling in the gaps, when you first see that person you’re going to fall in love with,” Jukes says. “Your imagination has to do a lot of the work, so you have a version of someone… and then you’re diving in and you realise that the reality is so much better than you thought.”

The coming-of-age theme becomes a relatable throughline, as Jukes explores it from myriad perspectives. “Island” was influenced by his sister’s move away from home, and his mixed emotions as he watched one of his favourite people – his best friend – prepare to leave. “I’m on an island,” he sings, “of echoing silence/ And I can’t escape, when you’re miles away.” It’s astonishingly poignant, conjuring up the infinitesimal ways in which we can be reminded of someone we love. There’s an optimism in the buoyancy of the instrumentation: “Optimism and hope are words I keep coming back to, because it is that reassurance in knowing you’re not alone in the way you feel,” he says. “I think there’s something to be said about romanticising certain moments in life, the things that I think will resonate with a lot of people.”

On “Lighthouse”, meanwhile, he realises that, even in the most overwhelming of situations, he feels safe when his gaze lands on his partner. Delivered over soft strums of guitar, there’s something innately uplifting about it. “It’s about having that person who reassures you, and makes you feel secure,” he says. “Lighthouse” was kind of the breakthrough on the album, just landing on the visual of this guiding light.” As is Jukes’s way, he manages to make even the most personal of songs feel deeply relatable for anyone who has felt lost at sea in these fraught times.

Jukes worked on this album with a team of trusted collaborators, including Welsh songwriter Ifan Pritchard, songwriter/drummer Dan McDougall and producer Jules Oliver. He met Pritchard at a writing camp in Bangor: “He had this energy that I loved,” Jukes recalls, “so when we got back to England we set up a session – and the first song we wrote together was ‘Lucy When You Wake Up’.”

Featuring the kind of storytelling that really makes you sit up and pay attention, the single is an account of Jukes’s parents and how they fell in love. “My mum was already in a relationship,” Jukes explains, “and my dad pretty much fell in love with her the night they met. And he wrote her a letter, to say he’d be waiting for her.”

The story was a familiar one in the Jukes household, made more special when they were moving house and discovered the original letter in the attic. “I knew there was a song there,” Jukes said, “and this was exactly the one I wanted to make, told from my dad’s perspective.” It’s a stunning track, one that immediately sweeps you up into the romance of the two characters, and proof – if any further was needed – of just how special a talent Jukes is.

“I’ve spent the last three years working out what kind of music I want to make,” he acknowledges, “and this album is the culmination of that. It’s coming of age, it’s change, it’s first times…It’s me, as honest as I’ve ever been.”