RAG’N’BONE MAN

HE’S THE MAN WITH THE BIG VOICE – NOW THE UK ARTIST IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM

Back in 2016, Rory Graham, aka Rag’n’Bone Man, made his mark thanks to the release of his moody ballad ‘Human’. The track, and his debut studio album of the same name, were huge. Hits including ‘Skin’ and ‘Giant’ followed and to top off a stellar couple of years, Rag’n’Bone Man welcomed his son Reuben (with ex-wife Beth Rouy) in 2017. By anyone’s standards, it was a crazy time. “It was all a bit mad really,” the 36-year-old tells WHO. “It’s been the busiest couple of years of my life.”

However, Rag’n’Bone Man went with the flow when fame arrived. “I didn’t get much time to think about [fame] initially,” he adds. “But in hindsight, it made me realise that while I can deal with pressure, I really missed home a lot!”

As he approached his second album, Life by Misadventure, the singer deliberately steered clear of creating Human 2.0. “I had to draw a hard line under that album,” he says. “Nobody wants to hear two albums that are the same.”The key differences between the two works? “I’ve grown so much in the past five years and this new album reveals my confidence at writing emotional songs.”

Those tracks include recent singles ‘All You Ever Wanted’ and his stunning collaboration with Pink on ‘Anywhere Away From Here’. But it’s the album’s hit ‘Fireflies’ that is probably his most personal work yet. He wrote the song for his son. “Becoming a dad made me more open and emotional and, in turn, it did the same for me as a songwriter,” he says. That’s not to say he doesn’t love listening to a good bit of pop, too. “We’ve all played a bit of [boy band] Westlife in the kitchen at 1am,” he laughs.

(Life by Misadventure is out May 7)