Jessie Ware webchat: your questions answered on sweaty clubs, table manners and activism

Thank you. My meal would be Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, but started with my mum's chicken and matzo ball soup, and a side of chopped liver (don't knock it til you've tried it) and for pudding, cream on ice cream. Or tiramisu from this place in Streatham. Drink of choice - I know I'm gonna sound like a wanker - but I've got well into pet nat, a kind of natural sparkling wine. I know I know I know it's slightly pretentious, but it's been a thrill of mine during lockdown. And a dirty, filthy martini. And disc would probably be a toss up between Sade's Diamond Life, the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or Channel Orange by Frank Ocean. Or Hats by the Blue Nile.

I'm excited for the people we've got this week, boy oh boy. I really enjoyed meeting Stacey Dooley for the first time. I loved speaking to Russell Tovey. The most hysterical one was probably Alan Carr. He was so hysterical, I want to have him regularly come back.

I quite like to keep them separate. But never say never. I wrote the cookbook this year and I'm hopefully going to write another book at the end of the year - about food memory, nostalgia - and I think that writing and food is something that I can see being a way for me. Songwriting and food? I don't know. Kelis did it well. I don't know if I'd be able to do it well.

God, I really feel worried for theatre. I am trying to feel hopeful that my April tour will happen, I've sold out a night at Brixton. I have no idea. I've just got to try and be positive, I guess. I'm constantly trying to think of ways to present the record to people even if it's unorthodox. As for drive-in gigs... I'd do it to try it. I don't think it's ideal. If there was enough space between them you could have five in a car, have a little party. It's essentially like being in a living room at a festival. If that was doable, I'd do it. To be fair, I'll do anything as long as I can perform the record for people.

Mr Walsh! Thank you sir. Nice to hear from you, hope you're well.

One of my favourite books is I Know This Much Is True, and I saw that Mark Ruffalo is in the series, which I want to watch. Normal People, like every other millennial. I thought the adaptation was perfect. Podcasts... Dolly Parton's America is amazing. I've also really been enjoying listening to Queenie on Audible, I'm loving that. I really like Giri/Haji, a BBC Japanese-English drama that I thought was really beautifully done. Orthodox was incredible. My favourite thing recently is Dave, which my friend Benny Blanco features in. It's really good.

I've learned that there is an actual name for people that can't stand hearing people chew - misophonia. I've also learned that there's actually something about coriander - as Clara Amfo calls it, the devil's herb - that gives people a reaction so it tastes like soap. Those are the biggest surprises. Kiefer Sutherland said that regarding table manners, you're supposed to wait if it's cold, but if it's warm you're not supposed to wait until everyone's got their food.

I'd die. The offer for Adele to come on Table Manners is absolutely open and there, we would love to have Adele on. I feel like we'd probably get a takeaway curry... I don't know what we'd cook her! Maybe we'd lay on the old Friday night dinner for Adele.

Thank you very much, that's a big compliment. I think my LGBTQ+ following has allowed me to feel like I could have an element of fun on this record. My fans at my shows, I felt there was the need for more tempo. Absolutely that community has inspired this record partly, and I made it in anticipation to be able to play in front of my fans and have a lot of fun with them.

I went to the Hyde Park BLM protest last Saturday. There were amazing speakers - I was 11-year-olds speaking, a 19-year-old who organised it. I'm so impressed with these young activists. Somebody people should be following on Instagram is Imarn7170 - she is incredible. All the speakers were so brilliant. And I took my kid to the socially distanced Burgess Park one yesterday - I think it was Stand Up to Racism South London. We marched through Camberwell. I've been going to them on my own, but I thought it was important that my family came to the socially distanced one. I try and educate my son and daughter as much as possible about these injustices - she is three and a half. I think her being present and involved is important. But there's a pandemic - I understand why people would feel uncomfortable going. I feel it's necessary at the moment for me to attend.

Never say never! Sam Smith is such a great writer and singer. I'd love to be on a track with them.

I do love that one. Another 80s romcom moment for me. I remember very vividly writing that with Starsmith and James Newman. It was about me feeling really frustrated that my husband and I had lost a bit of our spark and enthusiasm for each other. It was a bit of a plea for us to make a bit more of an effort. We'd had our first child, we were tired, we'd forgotten a bit about each other.

Oh my god, I am just waiting for the call, babe. Her recent singles are fucking amazing, she is so good. She is such a star and such an artist. I feel like I should always be a bit more Róisín.

Incredibly peaceful, quiet, respectful. It's all an act, basically. NO IT'S NOT A FUCKING ACT! It's probably even louder. That's us holding back and with an edit, mate. We usually do our bickering before the people arrive, I like to think. I like to think we hold it down somewhat when we have the guest. If it's an American they usually think it's quite cute and quaint when we say fuck.

Oh my god, what a man. We wrote that song years ago. I think it was actually before my second record came out. It just never left me. I loved it. So yes, it was an absolutely pleasure to watch him work and hear him sing. I adore him. The reason that we brought it back for the third record was cos Hugo White was such a huge fan of the Blue Nile. I think it was scratching this itch of being so madly in love with him and the band. But I don't know when his next record's coming. Mid-Air is such a beautiful record. He's very gentle and sweet.

Probably if it does quite well and the label want to make money! I don't know! If there's an appetite for it, I guess? I quite like the demand for more music more regularly because it takes the stress, the pressure of the album away. Then you have to go away - why can't you keep making music and giving it to people when they want?

I think it's a blessing and a curse on all of them - there may be less pressure on an independent to reach a wider audience and that has been something I have struggled with wanting to satisfy cos I've never felt I am necessarily a pop artist. But then things seem to cost so much in the industry, whether it's photo shoots and things like that, I think having potentially more generous financial support of a major, I can't complain at all.

Thank you. Deep cuts... I love Kind Of Sometimes Maybe... I never listen to my own music at all. Finish What We Started from the last record, I felt like it was from the end of an 80s coming of age teen film. Last of the True Believers that I did with Paul Buchanan and Hugo White from the Maccabees produced it. Stay Awake, Wait For Me - I just like the groove of it. I'm basically saying that I think Glasshouse was very underrated!

Absolutely. Although you're initially confined to a beat - or inspired by one - it was so freeing. I used to adore doing PAs of my SBTRKT tunes or Disclosure's remix of Running. I love the fact that there's a direction for people to dance or feel the music in a different way if you're potentially writing something less dancey. I like that call to action.

Ideal night out - the sweatiest of tiniest clubs. Everyone locked together with a host of DJs and it going on all night and hopefully being within walking distance. Socially distanced clubbing sounds as awful as a silent disco.

I'm looking it up... if it was Disney, I'd say Moana, which I thought was Pixar. But if we're going proper Pixar, I think Up. It's heartbreaking but it's wonderful.

I think the beauty of this particular record is that I can essentially play with a DJ and backing singers if I want, or I could make it a full band. There's a big scope of how I can do it. That was the thing that was frustrating with the setup of the last record - I was having to say no to shows cos I couldn't afford to do it. I like the freeness of this, it's malleable, being able to perform this live - whether that's over the internet for you guys with a backing track. I think it'll be an interesting task that I'm very willing to undertake, how to integrate the slow moments of my other records and music that people have enjoyed of mine before. I think it'll be an exciting task but I think it'll have to be a moment within the show.

I mean, just to clarify, which I'm sure my mum is watching this now, she never said to pack it in - I got it wrong. She said, "it was your bloody tour manager, I would never tell you to pack it in." So I'm in constant trouble cos my mum just berates me. What brought me back - those two weeks with James Ford and Shungudzo and Danny Parker where we made music and it just felt effortless and joyful.

As for influences, I got there through pure fantasy and desire! I needed to feel like I was almost reacting to the opposite of how I was living my life, however much I adore my life. I wanted to pretend that I could write about strangers meeting in clubs, the freeness of that, and it being escapist and fantasy-led. I'd never really explored flirtation through music and it was actually really, really fun and quite addictive. It feels almost like cheating but it's not, it's letting your mind go elsewhere.