How Pauli Lovejoy is helping to make ‘Saturday Night Live UK’ magical: “It belongs to the people”
As one of the biggest influencing forces in the UK music scene, and a definitive creative who has collaborated with the likes of Harry Styles, Florence + The Machine, and more, Pauli Lovejoy is no stranger to the spontaneity and energy of live performance.
Now, as the musical director of Saturday Night Live UK, you might expect this new venture to bring its own distinctive set of challenges. While there certainly are hurdles to overcome, Lovejoy explains how both worlds are fairly similar in principle, hinging heavily on energy, feeling and – as Lovejoy puts it – “dialogue”.
The uncertainty with SNL UK – from the outside world, not so much Lovejoy themself – flowered from a range of different threads, like what, exactly, SNL would bring to a UK audience, whose attitude towards bringing the American flagship show overseas was lukewarm, at best, alongside making something feel culturally fresh but also quintessentially British in principle. According to Lovejoy, it’s a “big responsibility” because “there’s a lot of debate about what Britishness is”.
However, this type of challenge meant that there was lots of scope to create something meaningful, and which resonates among the public not just because it’s fun, playful, and often funny, but because it also holds up a mirror to society at large. Such reflection is shaped by the one thing SNL has always thrived on – spontaneity – alongside crafting an openness where the show represents all corners of its own culture.
And for Lovejoy, it helped that both concepts – the energy of a more intimate studio setting compared to larger audiences – already existed in the same operational mindset. “The setting can be different, the environment can be different,” says Lovejoy. “You can be in the studio, or you can be in front of 100,000 people, but it’s always about feeling. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about this project, working across so many different mediums, comedy, the music, the lighting, people, the staging – everyone is working based on feeling.”
“And when sketches come together, and you’re hearing them for the first time, the response is immediate,” Lovejoy adds. “It’s all based on feelings, like, ‘Are you laughing? Is it actually funny?’ And I think that’s what’s changed my outlook on how I approach the whole process and the project, [it’s] all based on giving and taking and just feeling the response. People like that – let’s do more of it. People don’t really like that – OK, let’s pivot. It’s a dialogue between us and the audience. So in terms of being different to my usual setting, it is, but it’s also exactly the same.”
Since its launch on British television screens in March, SNL UK has delivered an impressive musical offering, featuring the likes of Wolf Alice, Wet Leg, Kasabian, and Jorja Smith, with Foo Fighters set to appear on April 25th. SNL creator Lorne Michaels remains the UK’s executive producer, and Tina Fey kicked off the inaugural episode as its first host on home soil. But as we’ve seen, the show has already established its own identity with a musical element rooted firmly in British culture.
Of course, taking on such a major project comes with high expectations, and Lovejoy was tasked with helping to assemble a band that leads the show’s musical direction with live title theme and sketch music, and energising the live audience. Aware of the challenges of live television, Lovejoy travelled to New York to seek advice from Eli Brueggemann, co-musical director at SNL in America, about what to expect of a show with such a vast legacy. During said meeting, they were faced with the kicker that nobody wants to hear at the start of a new job: “Prepare for everything to not work”.
“What does that even mean?” Lovejoy jokes. “How do you prepare for everything to not work? I didn’t understand what he meant until I got on the floor. Week one, we were putting the show together, and it was like: Let’s change this song. Let’s make this song faster. Let’s throw this thing down. Let’s change the key. Let’s get rid of this thing altogether. And you just roll with it. And you make the best situation out of every single scenario. There’s never a moment where you look back, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that could have been, should have been.’ It just always works.”
A major aspect of executing this vision effectively is working with a band that shares the same attitude, mindset, and vision, and one that is willing to improvise and experiment whenever the need arises. As Lovejoy puts it, having everyone “down to clown” is crucial, which is also something that even one of the youngest members – their bassist, Arthur Franks – embraces, even though it can be challenging to step beyond the traditional expectations of a typical gig.
And for Lovejoy, that’s the joy of it: not relying on structures, expectations, or even the usual roles it becomes tempting to step into when trying to deliver in a live studio setting. “It’s all about having a foundation of confidence, but then not leaning on it,” says Lovejoy. “Just do and just fly. And most of the time, you’re flying by the seat of your pants, but you just get on with it. And that’s what makes the show so magic.”
The fact that Lovejoy already knows what it means to thrive in the moment, specifically when it comes to live music, means that they instinctively know how to translate feeling into something that the audience can readily receive viscerally and emotionally. It’s part and parcel of having so much experience with big teams filled with musical masterminds and, of course, being a musician too, but it’s also a crucial part of enjoying music for what it truly is: art.
“I always remind my band that we play music,” says Lovejoy. “We don’t work music, we don’t exercise music, we play music. So when we get on that stage, it’s a playground. It’s the most fun thing in the world. When you’re on your guitar, that’s a swing. When you’re on the drums, that’s a slide. There’s no wrong way of doing art. And I think when you get into that mindset, you really can get into a flow state, and you just know that at the very worst, you’re gonna have a good time.”
That principle of what art truly is and means is a central component of SNL – and now SNL UK – and also what gives it its edge, but only because each aspect operates in tandem to craft something truly worth watching and being a part of. By nature, the show is full of surprises, which can be both daunting and serendipitous, but for Lovejoy, it’s lightning in a bottle that comes with its own sense of community.
“This stuff can’t be done in a silo; it can’t be done just at the rehearsal stage. It needs to be performed,” adds. “Art needs to be shared. So, the response of the people is what blows my mind. We’ve got a singer called Louise, and when she gets going, sometimes the crowd really get into it before the show, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that.’ And that’s what makes it so good. It’s when I’m expecting something to work. That’s generally what they say”.
“Expectation is the thief of all joy. So I’m enjoying the unexpected.”
Pauli Lovejoy
Ensuring that the show holds up a mirror to British society in a musical sense has also been at the forefront of Lovejoy’s mind, specifically with this core principle in mind that art, in this context, serves a broader purpose – or, as Lovejoy puts it, “Nothing belongs to us, belongs to the people” – has been crucial to making the tone and identity of the show as welcoming as possible, as well as ensuring the audience are “primed” and “ready to be entertained”.
“I love music, it’s something I really love, and there’s not a piece of music I could listen to and not enjoy,” says Lovejoy. “I think filtering that and being able to channel it in a way to create a playlist and a program that makes sense for the audience has been quite challenging and rewarding. The one thing stepping into this that I really wanted to do, and really wanted to highlight, was my identity as a Black British person from London.”
For Lovejoy, building the show’s sound doesn’t fall on the shoulders of any singular person or team either: it’s gathered from the experience of living in the city and absorbing everything around them. Although it can be a challenge to keep “your eyes and ears” open at every turn – especially in an industry so fast-paced – bringing these experiences to the show’s musical element is key to becoming a true reflection of everyday Britishness.
“What does music sound like to me? It’s the melting pot of music I hear every single day on my journey to Wood Lane,” says Lovejoy. “If I hear a kid on the back of the bus listening to grime, or I’m listening and see a kid with their AirPods too loud blasting Charli XCX, or a car whizzes by with the windows down playing Turkish psychedelic funk, it’s all of that. That’s exactly what British music is to me. It’s that full spectrum, the melting pot of Great Britain.”
According to Lovejoy, that’s what makes not only Britain great, but the music in the show great, too. “That’s the thing I really wanted to come across in the way we put the music together and the way we presented it,” they explain, adding that their way of “putting my stamp” on the show is to make it “feel welcoming”.
“I want people to come into that space and see themselves,” Lovejoy adds, “I want to be a mirror, so they walk in and think, ‘Oh, that sounds like me, that looks like me, that feels like something I recognise.’ The last thing I want to do is alienate anyone. I want it to be as much consolidation as possible.”
This behind-the-scenes process is built on that familiar philosophy of absorbing culture, alongside an awareness that communities beyond London – “up north” and across the UK – also “need to be represented”. With all of these moving parts in motion, Lovejoy is helping to ensure that the show stays both poised for change and rooted in what’s real.
And beneath all of that, the north star remains clear: it’s about having fun. Or, as Lovejoy jests, “It’s everything and nothing at the same time.”
Saturday Night Live UK airs on Saturdays at 10pm on Sky and streaming service NOW.
