This past Friday March 18, we had the privilege of sitting down with Irish singer-songwriter Gavin James before he performed at The Observatory North Park, where he opened for Ben Rector. James gave us the scoop on the making of his new album, his favorite song off the album, and a bit of his musical past.
“I had an idea of what the track [list] should’ve been and I was just happy with the songs I had,” said James about the completion of his newly released album, Bitter Pill. “I had been playing the songs for a while around Ireland and Europe. The songs on there are the ones that I like best.”
James faced a couple challenges while making his album. “Last year was my first time traveling a lot. Especially over here in the states—I did tours with Sam Smith and Tori Kelly and then it took me ages to finish [the album] cause I was always here or in Europe or somewhere,” said James. “So I’d get home to Dublin for a day and I’d go to London for the night, record for four hours, and then come back over [to the states] or go back to Europe.”
“[Bitter Pill] was the last song that I had written,” said James on how he chose his album title. “It capsulized the whole record pretty much cause it was the end of a relationship. Not about one person in particular, but it capsulated the end of it. Also it sounded cooler than the rest of the songs.”
Bitter Pill was recorded over the duration of a year, mostly in London and a little bit in LA.
While James was on tour with Sam Smith and Tori Kelly last year, he is currently the opening act for singer-songwriter Ben Rector’s The Brand New tour and will be headlining his own European tour beginning March 31.
“It was never really my dream to be a singer,” James said. “I just wanted to do music in general. I started off playing guitar more so then singing and then I got picked out of my band to sing… and I did it for years, since I was 14.”
At that age, James was in a three piece rock band. “I sounded like a sheep though,” James jokes about his voice. “I had this like weird quiver in my voice every time I would sing. It was really, really strange. I did it for years and from that I learned how to use my voice more and from there I learned that I liked singing.”
James took about two months of guitar lessons when he was younger before he stopped for a while because his fingers were sore. Eventually he decided to try learning again. “I learned from books and stuff because I didn’t have a computer. I learned Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendricks and loads of old school stuff.”
And the inspiration behind his music? “Most [inspiration comes] just from stuff that happens in my life pretty much,” said James. “I try to be as honest as possible in this album cause I think that there is no point in doing it otherwise.”
He says his favorite song off Bitter Pill is “Nervous” because “it’s a very strange song. It doesn’t have any chorus really,” said James. “It kind of just goes the same melody throughout the whole song, which is what I kinda like.”
While “Nervous” may be his favorite song off the album, James says his favorite song to perform is “Coming Home.” As for songs that aren’t his own, James said his favorite song to sing is “Georgia” by Ray Charles.
“At the moment…I’m listening to a lot of Paul Simon and getting back into him,” said James of his current favorite artists. “[I’ve been listening to] a lot of Hozier and Irish bands, a lot of Irish bands. There is this new band called The Academic, they’re really good.”
If he could collaborate with any artist, dead or alive, he says it would be Sam Cooke. “I love Sam Cooke and I just want to hear him sing as well. I would love to just be in the room with him,” said James.
James also says that America is his favorite place he’s been able to travel to so far. “When you’re learning music and you’re trying to get out there in Ireland or anywhere really, America is such a far away place,” James said. “In music terms, it’s so big and hard to get here, so definitely over here has been my favorite. I haven’t been to a couple of places that I want to go, I would love to go to Thailand or somewhere like that.
Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado is his favorite venue he’s been able to play at. “It is epic, that is definitely my favorite place.”
James admits he still gets nervous before playing any show. When asked if he has any pre-show rituals, he says he just does a bit of dancing and some jumping jacks. “The [jumping jacks] get rid of my nerves pretty much,” said James. “Warming up, I kinda just do trumpet noises. Nothing crazy, I don’t have to meditate or anything. I’ll be too chill—I’m already very chilled out anyway so if I meditated then i’d be asleep.
After our interview, we left James to prepare for the show. We waited around for the start of the show in the pit of the venue, which seats about 1,200. During his set, James performed a handful of his own songs, including “Bitter Pill” and “For You.” James even played his own rendition of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and joked to the crowd that it must be the saddest rendition out there of the song. Mid-way through his set, he was able to make his way off stage and to the middle of the pit, where he sang and played guitar with no microphone or amp. He ended off the night with “Say Hello,” which had everyone smiling and on their feet.
If you haven’t already, you can purchase Gavin James’ album Bitter Pill on iTunes or stream him on Spotify.