James Morrison interview

With five Top 10 Singles, two Number 1 albums and nearly 4 million sales under his belt, English singer James Morrison can now claim he’s a household name. Lisa Dunn caught up with the man himself to make him answer your questions!.

We had lots of saucy and rude questions for you from our followers, but they were a bit too much.

James: “Oh, really? Ah, I’m gutted. I love saucy questions! I never get a saucy question!”

There were marriage proposals, too!

“Oh, that, I always get; they wouldn’t wanna be married to me though (laughs)!”

Tell us about the transition you’re your first album, 2006’s ‘Undiscovered’, to your new album ‘The Awakening’.

“‘Undiscovered’ was my first album and I was very naive and young and wanted to write an album that would reflect me as a person subtly. I wanted to get my voice out there. I thought it would take at least three albums before I could get proper success. It spun me out when it did so well; I didn’t see that coming at all. To try and write the second was a lot harder for me.”

Typical sophomore album struggle, then?

“With the first one I did what I wanted to do and it went really well, but I didn’t know how I got there. I didn’t know what people liked so much. So I was quite confused when it came to [2008’s] ‘Songs For You, Truths For Me’. There was a lot of pressure from me and the record company. So it changed everything and it was less enjoyable. I felt I had to be a caricature version of myself. With the new album, I needed to go back to my real self. I forgot everything I learnt and started again. That’s why I called it ‘The Awakening’. I wanted to feel a fresh sense of waking up to the world and who I am as both an artist and a person.”

Looking at the Tweets we’ve been sent, fans really want to know more about ‘Beautiful Life’, ‘Forever’ and ‘All Around The World’ from your new album. Care to dish the dirt?

“‘Beautiful Life’ is a tongue-in-cheek song and all about convincing yourself everything is alright when it’s not! I was going through a bad time when it happened and was in LA so I wrote a song in the sunshine. I wanted one of those summery songs and it is kind of a joke song really and has an old school hip-hop beat on it. It’s good to have a song you can get people to sing to ‘It’s a beautiful life’.
“‘Forever’ is a song that I wanted to have a funky beat and to be theatrical and quite dark.  It’s saying that although you might treat me bad I will love you forever, it’s a simple little love song.  
“‘All Around The World’ is a song I wanted to sound like reggae or dub. It’s my take on it. I wanted it to be a dark song and for people to not lose hope with the world. It’s a stupid song really! But I loved it. It’s a little political, but I disguised it as a love song!”

You had a very successful, platinum selling collaboration with Nelly Furtado with ‘Broken Strings’. It still gets a lot of airplay to this day!

“It was never meant to be a duet, but I wrote it with Nina Woodford and Fraser T Smith, two great writers and they said ‘If this was a duet, who would you sing it with?’ and I said ‘I hate duets’, but I thought of people and wanted to pick someone who would have an interesting mix with my voice. Nelly had ‘Maneater’ out at the time and I remembered thinking how many styles of songs she had, yet she was still Nelly Furtado, she is always constistent and instantly recognisable. I never would have put my music with her, but it was for a one-off song.”

So you picked her?

“Yes, of course I did! I begged her! I seriously thought they would say ‘Who’s James Morrison? We don’t need to do this’, but she was well up for it.”

And now you have collaborated with Jessie J on your album track ‘Up’. Didn’t you just tell us you hated duets?

“Yeah man Jessie J! I’m well excited about that. I’ve never heard a singer sing the way that she does and in the way she carries herself. She’s a proper popstar, I’m just a singer. I try to write song that are personal and translate to other people. Jessie J is cooler than that; she has a lot of different fans. It’s good to connect myself with people but I didn’t want to force a popular singer on my song just so I can appeal to more people. It was about capturing someone who has a good enough voice to sing the song and pull it off in their own way. It’s interesting for me to work with someone like that. If I did something with Adele it would be natural and sound really nice, but working with someone like Jessie means it would be totally different.”

Tell us about the first gig you performed.

“Oh my god! It was at a rowing club in Newquay. I kept getting electric shocks off the mike; it was a bad gig when I was fifteen!”

First record you bought?

“The first was ‘Bad’ by Michael Jackson. I remember having that album and being in love with it. My first album was ‘Dangerous’. It’s one of my favourites, but really it would have to be Stevie Wonder.”

What’s on your iPod?

“Bob Marley, Citizen Cope, Urban Species, Sublime, Van Morrison, a lot of old school guys like Sam Cook, Otis Reading. Then Kings Of Leon and KT Tunstall.”

Guilty Pleasures?

“I don’t like a lot of dud-step stuff, but love Katy B’s ‘On A Mission’, I was obsessed with it. I love it. I like ‘phat’ kind of beats! Some of it’s good, some of it’s not so good, but that’s like any music.”

Would you like to sing a little something? Some artists have turned me down...

“Oh, no, do I have to sing?”

You Give Me Something would be great, thanks!

“Oh, no! (James starts to sing the song and makes me very happy). Oh, that’s so embarrassing!”

Thank you James!

The Awakening is out now. James has a sell-out November tour, but you can catch him on his new UK dates for Jan/Feb 2012. Tickets are already on sale.

28/01/12 Belfast, Ulster Hall
29/01/12 Dublin, Olympia
01/02/12 Manchester, O2 Apollo
03/02/12 Cambridge, Corn Exchange
04/02/12 Manchester, Guildhall
06/02/12 Leicester, De Montford Hall
07/02/12 Birmingham, O2 Academy
09/02/12 London, Hammersmith Apollo
10/02/12 London, Hammersmith Apollo
12/02/12 Southend, Cliffs Pavillion
13/02/12 Bristol, Colston Hall
15/02/12 Glasgow, O2 Academy
17/02/12 Leeds, O2 Academy
18/02/12 Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
19/02/12 Newcastle, O2 Academy