Basking in the Glow
Gavin James is saying goodbye to another stellar year by singing in front of thousands, to ring in 2019 as one of the world’s most talented songwriters
FTanya Sweeney OR a man who does a consummate by line in heartfelt melancholia, Gavin James makes for surprisingly uplifting and hilarious company. Then again, he has every reason to be in high spirits as 2018 draws to a close. Significantly, there has been the release of a well-received second album, Only Ticket Home, which the 27-year-old literally launched into the stratosphere with the help of two scientist friends — the album was sent on a fourhour journey through the clouds and 50 km into the air and travelled 1,000km away; a stunt that James undertook because he considers the album ‘out of this world.’
‘I was nervous about getting the album finished because I was nervous about not having any songs written,’ he admits. ‘I’d tell people, “oh no, it’s all finished in me head”, but I was sort of lying. I wrote the whole thing over Christmas and January — it turned out better that way’.
He’s not lying; whatever about the album’s rough and ready provenance, the end result is a glossy and uplifting work that’s equal parts lilting balladry and Springsteen-inspired rock, not least on the rousing single Hearts On Fire, which peaked in the Billboard Charts in the US at 21.
Yet James is still very much writing music with a bared heart, and raw emotion is writ large on the new album.
‘It’s a release when something bad happens,’ he observes. ‘I was writing about the girl I’m seeing now (his girlfriend of three years, Stefania) — I made various stupid moves a while ago and broke up with this amazing person. Three days after we did, I had to go, “I’m a dope, sorry about that, I won’t do it again.”
‘But because of it, I wrote a song in three days (Always). So we’ve made a deal; every time I need to write an album, she has to break up with me.’
In any case, fans are loving what they hear. Significant inroads have also been made in areas like Switzerland, Portugal and Brazil. In the case of the latter, it was a feted appearance on a local telenovela (soap opera), watched by some 200 million viewers, that has seen the Stoneybatter native lay claim to the fact that he’s big in Brazil.
YEAH it’s funny, Kodaline have a song about being big in Japan (‘Brand new Day’), don’t they?’ smiles James. As to how or why Brazilian fans have taken so enthusiastically to him, he adds: ‘Maybe they like the sadness. It’s very sunny over there, after all.’
The music hasn’t been lost in translation, but the man himself has, on occasion.
‘I think people struggle to understand me,’ he admits. ‘I talk way too fast. I tried to order a burrito in America a while ago and it was a disaster. I’m trying to get my Portuguese up, though.’
By now, James is a dab hand at the vagaries of touring, which is just as well as 2019 will see him take to the road on a sizeable Britain and Ireland tour, with dates around the world to follow later. In recent times, he has under taken a new philosophy: life on the road is a marathon, not a sprint.
‘My restraints have got much stronger in the last couple of years,’ he reveals. ‘I remember touring America with the Kodaline boys, and I definitely partied. Luckily though, I was only getting up on stage for 25 minutes (as the support act), but then there came the time where I had to play for an hour and a half (as the headliner) and it was impossible to keep partying and keep the voice going.
‘So for next year I’ve changed the (backstage) rider: it used to be 20 bottles of Heineken and then some Guinness and whiskey, but now it’s salad — all spinach and tuna and bottles of water. Not kale though. Kale is rotten. So I’ll be as fit as a fiddle.’
James will see out 2018 in spectacular style, headlining the 3 Countdown Concert on Dublin’s Custom Quay as part of the city’s official New Year’s Eve Festival with Hudson Taylor, Wild Youth and Inhaler.
‘I’ll be finished at about half 12, then will probably go to the pub for 50 pints,’ he laughs. He already has a hangover cure lined up in advance: ‘Spicy food tends to work for me,’ he reveals. ‘I stopped drinking Diet Coke a while ago, but a giant pint of that is good. And sleep, if I’m not too hungover to go back to sleep.’
To the untrained eye, James is a natural fit for the big stage, yet in that regard, all is not what it seems. ‘I’m always nervous about 25 minutes before a gig.’ he admits. ‘People talk to me and I’m so nervous my brain can’t function and I can’t talk. They must think, “what a eejit”. But then after I’m buzzing, and legging it around the place.’ The first time he took over the 13,500-capacity 3Arena stage was ‘surreal’. ‘Oddly, I wasn’t nervous before that one, but after the gig I got really nervous,’ he says. ‘Seeing 13,500 people pretty much singing your songs — I’d never had that before.
‘I really lost my mind though when I got to play with Ed Sheeran at Croke Park,’ he adds. ‘I was losing my mind, in fact. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a sportsperson or a musician, that’s the place you want to be.’
Ed Sheeran aside, James has been something of a go-to guy as a tour support for pop’s biggest names. Niall Horan famously brought him on his first ever US tour as a solo artist, and Sam Smith and Kodaline are also partial to having him around.
It turns out that James is very much of the thinking that when it comes to bagging the big support slots, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
‘I asked Niall about touring in the pub,’ he says. ‘I said, ‘if you’re ever doing a tour, give us a shout’, and he was true to his word. Same with Ed Sheeran — I shouted across the bar in Whelan’s to him. Niall’s tour was lovely as he was doing all these beautiful venues, and the crowd were really young, and really excited,’ he continues.
‘Like, screaming their heads off. Every night I walked out on stage people would scream, but then they’re quickly realise that Niall isn’t a ginger and it was me. He’s the nicest man and properly looked after us on tour,’ he adds. ‘We had great craic — you quickly forget he’s one of the world’s biggest pop stars.’
It’s all a far cry from James’ early years as a jobbing musician. Much like Ed Sheeran before him, he put the hard yards in first at open mic nights in Temple Bar just after he left school.
‘There were a lot of moments where I wanted to quit, because I’d been doing it for a while, from about 17 to 21,’ he recalls. ‘They were often three-hour gigs on a Sunday — at one point I was doing 14 gigs a week. They’re a great way to learn though, it’s the definition of the old-school grind.
Trying to find my voice that way was the best thing I ever did. Look at other musicians like Bruce Springsteen — he had ten years of doing a similar circuit in New Jersey. If I’d had a big song on the radio at 17 or so, I probably would have been an idiot. I wouldn’t have had to learn how to make people listen to you.’
By the time he caught a break later in life, he notes, he had very much grown a backbone.
‘When you get any backlash or if something didn’t go well, it helps to remember that in the industry, there’s more good than bad,’ he reasons.
As for the odd Twitter spat: ‘I love it!’ he laughs. ‘The more hate you get, the better you’re doing. You’re obviously hitting more people with your music than you need to. If someone calls me a name on Twitter, I’m hardly going to be pistols at dawn about it.’
Slow and steady certainly won the race, and after starting out on a small independent label, Believe, James finally signed to Capitol Records in the US in 2015, home to Disclosure, Katy Perry, Emeli Sande, and of course, the Beatles. ‘It’s amazing, having a big monster label like that plugging your stuff,’ he says.
The Beatles weren’t too far from mind either when the singer recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios in London; an opportunity that James still describes as ‘mad’.
‘I even got to play on the Penny Lane piano,’ he recalls, ‘I’d watched a documentary about Abbey Road the night before, and then I wished I hadn’t because I kept recognising the different mics that John Lennon had been using and freaking out a bit. I felt the piano thing was a bit wasted on me: I’m brutal at piano.’
Career longevity is certainly James’ aim: ‘I don’t intend on taking a break for two years or anything like that,’ he asserts.
As for the one golden rule he will take on the road with him next year: ‘Napping is very, very important on tour, and I’m unreal at it,’ he says. ‘I just love playing songs, travelling around the world and having all these major pinch me moments.’ ÷ GAVIN James’ album Only Ticket Home is out now. To see his Irish tour dates for 2019, see gavinjamesmusic.com