James Morrison: You Have To Be Yourself

The British singer and songwriter is satisfied with himself and his new album whether it met other people’s expectations or nor.

James Morrison is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist whom the public noticed in 2006 when he sang “You Give Me Something”. Recently he issued his second album entitled “Songs for You, Truths for Me”. He spoke with Alen Balen for the Backstage show on Plavi Radio.

Hi James - Do you like doing interviews?

I don’t mind.  I don’t mind, I’ve loosened off a little bit more. I just think, I just treat it like a normal conversation, you know.  But, sometimes you do an interview and they’re like ‘Hey mate, how’s it going?  Shall we start?’  And I’m like, ‘Yeah,…’  and they’re like ‘Hello.  This is….’ and just turn into someone else.  So it can be weird, it can be weird sometimes. 

You’ve been getting good reviews for the new album.

Yeah, yeah, I mean the reception I’ve been hearing so far, yeah it’s really good, it’s really, it’s doing ok in the chart and yeah man, I’m always kind of pleasantly surprised when it does well you know.   I expect kind of people to I don’t know, not hate it, but I always expect criticism you know, so it’s good when it’s always positive yeah.

You said you always expect criticism – why?

I think just because you know, I’m a singer songwriter, there’s a lot of singer songwriters and some people just hate singer songwriters don’t they, you know.  I mean sometimes I can listen to a great band and I can see why people, you know, would rather listen to a great band than just to a singer songwriter.  But yeah, you know, it’s what I’ve been given and I just use it and then try and enjoy it and not take it too seriously you know, and try and make some good tunes at the same time.  Yeah, I’m proud of what, who I am and what I do you know, but yeah, there’s always gonna people that kind of don’t like it, and I always wanna try my best to sway them into liking it so….  You gotta realise what you are, and kind of, and use the good things about what you are to your advantage.  And try not to think about… you know you can over-think it and not get it right that way as well you know, if you think you want something completely different and go for a completely different sound and it doesn’t work because you’ve over thought it, that’s just as bad as doing exactly the same as your first album, you know, like repeating what you’ve done.  So, it’s just getting the balance between doing what you’re comfortable doing and what people recognise you for and just trying to push the boundaries of what you can get away with musically as well, so I think, I’ve tried my best to do that on this album.  And it is different, you know there will be some tunes on there and people are like, ‘is that James Morrison?’ you know, but I’m really pleased with it.

Congratulations on becoming a father recently – should we be expecting songs about babies from now on?

Might be yeah!  There’s probably a good chance there’ll be some tunes about my baby girl yeah.  Yeah, I started singing this thing to her the other day, like, (SINGS) You’re always crying, you’re always crying to me!  I just kind of, yeah, I try not to overpower her with singing too much to be honest.  She’s a… I play her a lot of music though, you know, and you know there’s plenty of time for her to get used to my singing voice.  I sang to her quite a lot when she was inside my missus, so hopefully she’ll recognise it.  In general, it’s good to have that musical part of your brain unlocked, you know.  There’s a lot of people, I mean, everyone’s got that part in their brain that understands music, it’s just whether it gets used or not you know.  I just really wanted to make sure whatever happens, whether she’s a singer or not or a musician or not, as long as she knows what good music is and she can hear great songs, then that’s what I want her to do.

And did your singing stop your baby from crying?

On the day that she was born I started singing like, (SINGS) Isn’t she lovely.  And she started crying, and I was like, ‘ha ha ha, ‘cos she hates it!’  But no, she was early so you know, that’s probably why she was crying. But yeah, I think it’s good to you know, give them a little bit of a tune before they go to sleep.  I used to like it when my mum used to sing to me.  So yeah.

Your tour starts in November – did you have October off to help at home?

Well it’s more to kind of get the fans or anyone that’s still you know, liked my old record to kind of get to know this one a little bit before I start touring again next year.  But yeah, it’d be nice to get a little bit of time off, but yeah, it’s mainly for kind of getting people’s ears warmed up to the tour that I’ll be doing next year basically.  Trying to conserve myself, look after myself, you know, be a responsible dad.  But yeah, I mean gigging’s my way of life, you know, my way of earning money and where I enjoy myself and feel I’m doing something meaningful.  And I’ll gig as long as I can gig man, like you know, I think if I was a kid, I woulda loved it if I had a parent who was on tour and used to do gigs and show me to meet people.  Yeah, I woulda loved it, so I think it should be good fun.

What subjects have you been writing about?

I think, I just use things in general, you know, people and situations around me you know.  And personal things that I can relate to or just be creative with lyric writing, you know, and just play on the words, you know.  It’s all kind of subconscious really, you just kind of have fun with it.

That track we just heard featured Nelly Furtado and I believe you’ve also met Stevie Wonder. Are there any other artists you’ve met that you get on with? 

There’s been a few people you know.  I mean I worked with Ryan Tedder from One Republic, he was a really cool guy you know, I got on with him great.  I mean I get on with a lot of people that I meet you know, I met one of my biggest idols along with Stevie Wonder, Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam you know.   And he was amazing.  He allowed me to sing on a couple of tracks with him, that was an amazing…. I mean things like that are more important to me than hanging out with cool clicky people.  I mean I met the Pussycat Dolls yesterday and I met Juliet Lewis, and you do meet like random kind of stars you know.  But after a while you just realise that we’re all just people you know, and yeah, a lot of them are really talented and they deserve to be where they are.  But still you know, they were just normal people and it’s just good to kind of when you meet people that have got such a big persona, that you realise they are just or aren’t you know, they’re just a normal person at the end of the day.  You can just see how I’m really bad with small talk. I end up swearing a lot when I’m running out of things to say.  Like yeah, when I met the Pussycat Dolls I started swearing all over the shop. But maybe that’s because they were dressed in like tights and you know, Moulin rouge gear.  I was like all a bit testosterone-y.  But no, I’m just really bad with small talk. But yeah, you know like I’ve met Will Young and he was like ‘hey James, nice to meet you, I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.’  And I was like, ‘Yeah.  Nice to meet you.  Have a good one.’  It was like, I didn’t know what to say!  But yeah, I’m not very good with stuff like that.  I kind of get tongue-tied.

Do you get starstruck?

Oh wow man.  Quite a few people.  Like Rod Stewart when I met Rod Stewart.  Ray Lamontagne.  He’s a brilliant guy you know, and I love his voice, when I met him I was the same.  I mean I always get a little bit starstruck if I know who they are you know.  Like oh so and so, this is you know.   When I had to meet the Pussycat Dolls I knew who they were you know, and obviously you know, they’re like four, five beautiful woman and I’m just like a nervous twitchy little you know… so it was really difficult for me to relax around people like that.  But yeah, there’s been a few people that I’ve met and they’re always people that I respect you know.  They’re the ones that make me get star struck.