It feels like my career’s back in my hands, and it feels great...
JAMES MORRISON REFLECTS ON LIFE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AS HE READIES HIS GREATEST HITS ALBUM. ALEX GREEN FINDS OUT MORE
“I’M STARTING to learn how to roll with the punches,” says James Morrison from the high-ceiling attic of his family home near Gloucester.
“I love the creating aspect of it [making music]. I am getting better at enjoying that part of it, rather than having to have the end result be a hit.”
The 37-year-old, who shot to fame with his debut single You Give Me Something in 2006, looks relaxed as he discusses the pitfalls of major label stardom and the place he finds himself in now.
“It just strips you of all the love of it,” he explains. “You’re constantly waiting for that end result of a gold disk or a chart position. That’s what the record company want. And that’s what they make you think that you need.”
Sixteen years later, as he prepares to release a greatest hits album, James feels he has the answer.
“That is kind of what you need. But really you just want to feel good about what you’re doing, and feel good about yourself.
“And I feel like I’m doing that, even though the greatest hits is normally to cap off a career.
“It’s allowed me to start the next part of my career – and I feel really excited about that.”
The husky-voiced singer-songwriter, who was raised between Warwickshire and Cornwall, has used the pandemic pause as a chance to revisit his back catalogue.
Instead of simply re-releasing his best-known songs, he re-recorded them at Metropolis Studios in London with his touring band.
“Before I made it, I wasn’t keen on the idea at all,” he admits.
“I felt like even just saying out loud that I’ve got a greatest hits... it’s weird to me.”
However, James felt more encouraged after revisiting similar collections by Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Al Green.
“Even though it is to a lot of people the sign of the end of a career, to me it was more like putting a cap on it – and commemorating the five albums I’ve done. And being able to segue into the next part of my career.”
The last decade was a challenging one for James. His father died in 2010 following a battle with alcoholism and following the release of his 2015 album Higher Than Here, he was dropped by his record label.
Later, he and his partner Gill went through the trauma of their daughter being born prematurely.
All of this changed James, who says: “That moment in my career was a really important moment in terms of me feeling like I’m in control of my s*** again.
“The fact the record label dropped me, instead of it being this massive thing that I tried to avoid for so long, it was a weight off my shoulders. It was like, ‘Finally’.
“I’ve got notoriety so people know who I am, so I don’t necessarily have to sign to a big label. Having smaller labels look after me has been better for me as an artist.
“Maybe not commercially but in terms of how I feel about the music and how I am rolling as an artist, it feels so much better.
“And in turn it has allowed me to take ownership over my career again, instead of it being in the record company’s hands.
“It feels like it’s back in my hands again – and it feels great.”
During his early years in the spotlight, James ploughed the furrow of the pop balladeer, collaborating with the likes of Nelly Furtado on Broken Strings and writing for others. He admits he was afraid to explore his true love: soul music.
“Now that I’m a little bit older – not that I’m going to make older-sounding music – but I don’t think I’m going to be trying to write pop hits anymore. It’s about trying to keep the songs meaningful.
“I want to own the space that I’m in, rather than feel slightly embarrassed. But maybe that’s just being a male singer-songwriter.”
James took these lessons into the studio as he “refreshed” his old hits, from Broken Strings to Wonderful World and You Give Me Something.
“I was taking what I had learned from life.
“There’s a few extra sections I have put in a few of the songs and I have stripped away a lot of the brass and stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be there. I allowed the songs to breathe a bit more.”
It was 2007 when a shaggy-haired James won the BRIT Award for best male. Just over a year before he had been busking with his guitar in Cornwall.
James has now had enough time between him and that win to assess its significance.
“At the time, I couldn’t have cared less really, which sounds really ungrateful,” he says with a sharp laugh. “But I suppose I did care, it was just that I didn’t expect to win it.
“I expected a longer, more arduous journey to get a onemillion-selling album.
“I just wanted to fulfil 100,000 sales so I could get to my next contract and fulfil my record deal.
“That was all I was concerned about, was trying to make it last and use the opportunity and make sure that it didn’t go horribly wrong because of lack of effort, or lack of thought.
“Now I see it as a cool thing. But it’s not defining. It’s not a defining thing. Without that award, I’d still have felt good about what I did at that time.”
James is more proud of the intervening years, saying: “I’m more proud of how I handled the whole fame thing. I’m still quite an easygoing guy. I can go to the pub, I can have a pint and I can talk to people – and they know full well who I am. And there’s people who don’t have a clue who I am.
“I don’t carry it around with me like a badge of honour. If I can get away with not talking about me being James Morrison, then I try.”
James hopes to be back in the studio by the end of summer recording new music.
“A mixture between melancholy and sounding upbeat,” he muses.
■ James Morrison’s Greatest Hits is released on Friday and he tours the UK in March and April