Feeling the afterglow
> Gavin James shifted his perspective to create a brighter sound for his sophomore album
IRISH singer/ songwriter Gavin James was feeling ‘nervous’ in approaching the subject of love when he released the track off of his 2016 debut album, Bitter Pill. But the singer has since switched tones – from his jittery lyric ‘I won’t say I love you if you don’t’ in Nervous, to the brighter, more hopeful ‘If you love me, tell me so’ in Glow, the latest single from album number two, Only Ticket Home.
Shifting perspective from previous sad ballads, his sophomore album – which launched on Oct 26 – chronicles his absence while touring away from home, away from those he considers nearest and dearest.
Glow was one of the first tracks the musician – whose real name is Gavin Wigglesworth – recorded for the album which, according to him, helped set the tone for Only Ticket Home.
“It’s a much more upbeat track,” said James in a recent email interview.
“I was trying to go a different way with this record, and have a mix of tunes you can lose your mind and dance to, and also have a good think about.”
The music video for Glow certainly captures the celebratory vibe. It was shot in Dublin’s Temple Bar, the cultural centre of the city where James used to perform at bars and pubs lining the streets.
“It was where I learned how to play and where I spent most of my years grinding as a musician MICHAEL KEATON will play eccentric British-American information security entrepreneur John McAfee, with Seth Rogen as the journalist invited to tour his home on a remote Central American island in the upcoming King of the Jungle.
Most well known for the antivirus software that bears his name, McAfee was the subject of a 2012 Wired Magazine article by Joshua Davis that comprised a personal profile and an off-the-wall island home tour.
The Wired ebook John McAfee’s Last Stand – in which Davis describes McAfee’s unusual life in the small, coastal Central American country of Belize, and his years as a cocaine addict, spiritual guru and yoga expert – forms the basis of this dark comedy. Glow.
Calling Ralph an “amazing guy”, James said: “Mark absolutely smashed the mix for so much of the album”.
He added: “Glow is about not being afraid of falling for someone,” where the line ‘don’t let me go if you feel the glow’ is repeated in the hook.
He added that the song is also about “trying not to get caught up with all the things that don’t matter in a relationship, like work and stress, and just simply realising how much you love that person instead of being afraid of it”.
The singer also said that he had put a lot less production in this album, “and it sounds a little more like me”.
As James puts it: “A little rawness is always good.”