Jamie T Interview

Talking to Jamie T echoes his third album, ‘Carry On The Grudge’. He is reflective but direct, and wants to show that he has grown both personally and professionally during his time away from the public eye. While for us, his five-year break has been a couple too long and resulted in many questions wanting answered, for Jamie, it was really quite simple.

“I was home a lot of the time, writing, keeping busy. Nothing seemed to make its way to becoming an album for quite a long time, and if it wasn’t good enough to release, then I wouldn’t release it. After touring ‘Kings & Queens’, I wanted to take stock of things and stop playing live for a while, but I never stopped writing and trying to come up with new material. I was just taking a step back from touring and the public eye.”

This period of writing has given us an album that includes the soft, touching tracks of ‘Don’t You Find’ and ‘Limits Lie’, and the harder, stomping alternatives of ‘Zombie’ and ‘Trouble’. It’s this range of material that puts Jamie apart from everyone else, and has created an album of soul, reggae and punk that you can tell he’s pleased to be able to accomplish.

“When I was younger, I realised that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I didn’t care what people thought. I’ve always tried to stay true to that: use what you want, as long as you’re not pilfering people and doing it respectfully. It’s made me, as a musician, be able to put an acoustic song next to a fast one. I’m aware some musicians can’t get away from it, but it’s important to have a bit of both.”

However, there are many things that have changed in the last five years. With regards to the pressure Jamie felt upon his return, he explains that “after being out of the hamster wheel, at points it’s difficult, but this time I’m trying to get on with it rather than think about it”; he hopes that his songwriting has “moved on a bit” because “if I was still writing the same stuff as when I was 16, I’d be pretty bored”; he expresses that, as he gets older, he doesn’t want to be a “little Englander”; and he jokes that, following his comeback, people talk about his first two albums “as if they’re seminal records, but at the time I don’t remember journalists giving much of a shit about them!”

Whatever the critics thought, his fans were indisputably excited for his return, for when Jamie did finally announce a few UK shows in July 2014, it would be an understatement to say they went a little bit nuts. “We thought we’d do four shows and they sold out immediately, but we stupidly decided that the first show should be in Glasgow, which is a great place to play and we were playing full capacity clubs – great fun, but a little daunting. We got through it and that was the best way to do it, to throw yourself in the deep end. It’s been good but it has come with issues because I have a funny relationship with playing live – although I enjoy it I find it quite draining.”

I ask him to explain further, and he obliges: “Travelling is exhausting, my voice finds it quite hard, air-conditioned buses, and I suffer with quite bad anxiety at times and being exhausted makes that worse. I find it hard to step out on stage anyway, so I’m a bit more wary these days.

As a result, Jamie is touring much less for ‘Carry On The Grudge’ than his previous two records – “I wanna play the shows I wanna play and I don’t wanna be away forever” – but he is still fitting in an Australian tour in January, which he stresses he’s looking forward to due to fond memories and the high probability of good weather.

To make touring a little less traumatic, I can’t help but wonder what he takes with him on the road, besides hot water with honey and lemon. “Yeah, there is that stuff! My big thing is a fresh pair of socks and a fresh white t-shirt. I just think it’s a real morale booster. There’s nothing better than getting off stage hot and sweaty and putting your brand new socks on! The rest of the band looked at me like I was mad when I first did it, but after two shows suddenly everyone’s asking me for socks. Who looks like the season pro now, eh?”

Watch Jamie T ‘Don’t You Find’

By Charlotte Mellor
@cmellor_03

Get your ticket to Jamie T’s Australian Tour