James Morrison The Singer Here comes James Morrison, the new face with ‘probably the most gobsmacking, charismatic, rootsy soul voice to emerge from a white Englishman.’ Finish this article and probably you’ll start wondering is it his song, his lyric, his melody or he, himself that is captivating your heart. ‘I started singing when I was little and when I got to about 13, my uncle showed me some chords on the guitar, he wasn’t very good, you know, he only knew a little. And I got a guitar for my birthday. So I started singing and playing. I was getting books from the library to learn chords and listening to all my favourite records like Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison and listening to the radios. But I was really inconfident at first, I didn’t like playing in front of people, I was used to just do it on my own cos it’s what I liked to do. So I started to go busking to build up my confident. James was born in Rugby, the middle child of three. Papa was a rolling stone and left when James was young. With mum bedevilled by debts, depression and the strain of three kids, moving house became the norm – a series of fresh starts that never quite were. “The main reason we moved each time was because we were in so much debt. Then suddenly, we were gonna be kicked out of the house, so let’s move.” They upped sticks to Northampton when James was nine. And James and his family were different. “By six or seven, I was ironing my own clothes. My mum was too knackered from work. We were like little adults by the time we were ten. We had to take care of the house, cook dinner, take care of ourselves in the morning, get ourselves to school and back. Mum had issues from her upbringing, which probably led to issues she had with me, my brother and my sister. I’m very close to my brother and sister. We kept each other going.” One thing their household never lacked was good music. James’ mum, who’d sung in a band herself, had a collection that went from Pink Floyd and Van Morrison to Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. Maybe it started there – I just used to love great singers. That feeling of releasing something, that’s what I wanted to get into.” “Everybody has it hard growing up,” he says. “I’m not going to say I had it harder than anyone else. But most of the emotion in my singing has come from my upbringing. And the lyrics are heavily involved – I never wanted it to be a case of, oh, nice tune, but the lyrics are crap. Definitely it has always been my dream to become a singer. Not to get a deal or such, I mean obviously yes, you want to make an album, you want to be successful. But all my aim is just to be a singer. You know, I would’ve been happy at the time, playing gig in pubs and stuff. Because all I’ve ever wanted to do from the bottom of my heart is just sing. I wanted to sing, I wanted to play. I enjoyed playing in front of people and obviously you wanna do well. But I wasn’t searching for fame or stardom or whatever, I just wanted to play good music. I moved up to Derby after I’d been playing gigs for a few years cos I think moving upcountry means more gigs and I could earn a living from playing music, but I couldn’t get any. So instead, I had to do the jobs like cleaning hotel rooms and washing cars, you know, not very good jobs. Then I got fired cos I crushed a lot of vans. (laugh) The next day I was wandering through town wondering what I was gonna do. And I met a guy whom I met a year before and now he started his own studio and asked me if I had any songs to record and I did. He also had the business card of this guy who worked for Derby Council to set up events and stuff. So we went to see him and gave him the cd. He told me he had some contacts of the people in the music industry who might be interested in hearing my songs. I said ‘great’ but thought he ain’t a real guy. (smile) But a week later, Sony Music was offering me a ‘development deal’ which is not a record deal, just a small amount of money to help you develop your skill. But I just thought if I spent my own time writing my own songs, it would be okay. So I ran away and spent a year writing songs. Then there were some crews from the record labels from London, so I did the same thing, went in with my guitar and found that Polydor (now Universal Music) was really interested in what I was doing, from the passionate point of view, rather than a business mindset. So I signed to them in March last year and now I have my own album. I left school when I was 16 and carried it on into college cos I wanted to get some grades. Whatever happens and I still have something to fall back on. And I did music A level but didn’t even get a grade, I was that bad. It was all technical crap, you know. I could hear everything that was going on. I could hear a note and then play it on a piano, and get it right every time. But I was crap at the technical side. There are lots of musicians who doesn’t read notes, for example, my keyboard player who’s the best piano player I’ve ever seen, or just think of Stevie Wonder. Most of my inspirations are from other musicians, tunes that I liked, Motown songs. Van Morrisons, Cat Stevens, Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix. The rest is from life itself. From the people I’ve seen. It’s the way I feel now from how I’d been brought up. It’s a little bit of everything really. My life has changed tremendously. I’ve got an album out now. I’m having a job I enjoy for the first time in my life. I’m traveling to places I’ve never thought I’d go to. But I tried to put them out of my head cos I don’t wanna be spoiled. I’m just here writing songs that make me feel good that hopefully will make other people feel good. I’m aware of it but at the same time I tried to ignore it. And at the moment, my life is pretty good. (smile) People say my career is quick, but I’ll tell you it’s not easy and it’s a lot of hard work. A lot of people think it’s glamorous, well it is. In the sense that you can go to places, have nice meals, do the jobs that you enjoy. But without all that gloss and everything else, all you left is what music you make. And as long as you’re happy doing that, everything else will be good. This is just my first album and I don’t think of giving away everything I have. It’s only my first attempt to write songs, to make my own album, that’s me. I’m still 22 so I’ve got a lot of time to grow and learn.’