James Morrison

‘I’ve got demons trying to get to me…’ When James Morrison broke onto the scene as a soulful singer-songwriter in 2006 even he couldn’t have predicted that he would become the template that allowed a wave of likeminded musicians to enter the field. Now, almost ten years on, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra and James Bay are all crowding the charts, following the same format; one guy with a great, soulful voice and a guitar. They’ve all cited him as an influence but does Morrison take some credit for paving the way? “I don’t really see it like that, I was just lucky to be one of the first”. Despite his self-deprecation and humble nature, he really was the first to take that format and not only make it work but also became an overnight success story. Pop gems like ‘You Give Me Something’ from his first record ‘Undiscovered’, made him anything but and he won the 2007 BRIT Award for Best Male when he was still just 21 years old. He was also told by the veteran soul producer Jerry Wexler that his raspy, gravelly voice, the product of a childhood illness, had its "own thumbprint" and was so distinctive that “once heard, never forgotten”. Since then, other artists have spoken about their admiration for him; Gary Barlow was his label mate on Polydor in 2006 (before Morrison moved to Island Records in 2011). Barlow has said: “He continually writes and performs world class songs and it's been an absolute joy watching his career go from strength to strength.” Others also confessed the profound influence he has on them, John Newman being one of those, saying “James Morrison was one of the first UK artists I looked to when I was becoming a singer myself. His voice is simply incredible and I made a point of seeing him live every time he came to Leeds...I’m actually not sure, even with all his success, he’s ever had the full credit for his talent.” More recently, James Bay said of Morrison, “James is one of my earliest inspirations. Amongst everything that was going on in pop music, to suddenly hear a voice that delicate, that soulful and that powerful behind just an acoustic guitar was everything I'd been waiting for.” The singer-songwriter has now sold 4.5 million copies of his three albums, performed four world tours including sold-out shows to thousands at London’s Hyde Park, supporting both Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder and appeared on Herbie Hancock’s Grammy-winning album ‘The Imagination Project’.   2008’s ‘Songs for You, Truths for Me’ brought with it a string of Top Ten singles, including the phenomenally catchy ‘Broken Strings’ with Nelly Furtado, with his last album, 2011’s ‘Awakening’ shooting straight to number one, selling over one million copies worldwide. But in spite of his phenomenal success, the singer-songwriter from Rugby, Warwickshire has never really been able to appreciate how well he’s done. He has a tendency to depression, although he strives to ignore it. “Most of the time I am upbeat and positive but making [this] album has tormented me.” he says. The original plan for the latest album, ‘Higher Than Here’, which went straight in to Number seven in the Official UK Albums Chart back in October 2015, was to take a totally new direction. Morrison wrote about 70 songs before having a rethink. “I wanted it to be less traditional band music. I wanted to make a modern record but not lose the heritage of what I’ve been trying to do, so at the start I forgot everything and about six months after that I just felt like it had no heart to it and so I started again.” The songs on the latest album create a subtle balance between revealing Morrison’s pain and difficulties in his personal life and that soundtrack to those lazy Sunday mornings that, despite the tendency towards dark subject matter, will make you dance, smile and reflect. A perfect example of this is in the first single due to be released from the album, ‘Demons’. The upbeat track is written about how you should resist the little voices in your head trying to take you down and has a surprisingly high-pitched chorus for the traditionally gravel-voiced singer. "I like that universal aspect that everyone has things about themselves or their life that they don't like and I think admitting that openly is a good thing. I hope it’ll help people feel like it’s not such a bad thing to have things they feel down about." When he scrapped those 70 songs and started from scratch, Morrison allowed the events that had happened in the last couple of years to seep into his music. ‘The Awakening', his most critically acclaimed record to date, was, in part, a reflection on his father’s death and life since then hasn’t got much better... “My life definitely got more complicated. I lost a brother, I lost my nephew.” He pauses, breaking eye contact. “I felt like everything, all the negative things were getting on top of me. It took me a while and the only thing that got me through that really was being a dad.” Several tracks on the album were written with long-time collaborator Eg White (Adele, Sam Smith), who has worked with Morrison since his debut. “He’s just really good. I like his vibe and we get on,” says Morrison, who says the album evolved into a pep talk to himself. “It’s like me trying to persuade myself that there’s still a chance that the world can be alright,” he explains, “I don’t like too much depressing music, it’s too full-on, but I didn’t want it to be lightweight, that’s why it’s taken me such a long time, because I was trying to get a positive feeling but deal with the negative in an honest way.” “I really love that song,” James smiles as he talks about ‘Just Like A Child’, I was sitting in a hotel room and I must have been thinking of Elsie (his daughter) and the way she’s always falling over. She’ll really hurt herself but then she’ll just get up again, not bothered. I wanted to write about not losing that risk-taking that you have when you’re a kid. That’s the point I was trying to make in the song; try to live the life you want to live. I haven’t messed with it too much. Even on the album it’s the demo, we kept it on there. I kept it like that because it just captured something that I don’t think I could have captured again.” On 'Naked With You’ the line: “you say that I’ve got nothing left to give but I say when you’ve got nothing that’s when you start to live,” is all about complete honesty between two people says James. “I wanted this song to be something you could play around a campfire on a scrappy guitar, it’s all about what you see is what you get.” He wrote it with three other collaborators, including Kid Harpoon (Florence + The Machine, Calvin Harris), “He reminded me of my brother, who passed away,” says Morrison. “It was weird. He looked  just like him, it was actually quite comforting. He had all the facial expressions of my brother too.”‘Heaven to a Fool’ is about Morrison’s relationship with his dad. He worked on it with Malay, two-time Grammy Award winning producer who’s worked with John Legend, Frank Ocean and Andre 3000. “It kind of came by itself,” explains Morrison. “Malay started playing the Mellotron and It felt very dark and broody. It was during that time when everything was quite stressful and I started to think about my dad. I started out writing about my dad saying sorry, like the kids are the Heaven and he’s the fool and then it kind of became disguised as a relationship song. I always try to put a nugget of something personal in there so I can relate to it. The strings made me feel like a loss, so that’s why I called it “Heaven to a Fool” because it’s like you don’t realise it was good until it’s gone, but I was also thinking of a big hippy picture, like the world is Heaven and we’re fools because we don’t look after it. So it’s kind of all of that.” ‘I Need You Tonight’ is probably the most commercial track on the album; it’s big, ballsy and robust. “When they tracked it up I felt immediately that is was very different for me; I’ve never done something that’s that big. You know, soulful but big in its sound.” Over the years Morrison has often remarked on how he had a difficult relationship with his parents. His father’s alcoholism and mother’s depression got in the way, but now there’s a song about his mother he thinks she’ll like. ‘Too late for Lullabies’ is all about forgiving the past. “My mum has taught me to find a strength, despite having so many weaknesses in life - it’s one of the most important aspects of who I am and I love her for that." “Now I’ve got older I feel like I have a responsibility to try and say something truthful that’s not too hurtful,” he jokes. “But it is a nice song. It’s me saying I forgive you, I don’t hold any grudges. It’s one of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written and I like the way the verse spits out like an old James Brown song, it reminds me of a lot of music from old that I love.” By going back to where he started James has created a collection of his most honest, powerful, insightful and triumphant songs to date, best summed-up in the chorus to the lead single from his new album: ‘I’ve got demons trying to get to me…But they’ll never take me down’ (lyric taken from ‘Demons’ by James Morrison) -- Ends