If you haven’t heard of him already then you definitely will be in the next few months. James TW is British singer-songwriter and young talent who has killing the game lately with his incredible vocals and acoustic sounds. The nineteen year old who is definitely on the rise has got people in love with his smooth indie voice with the release of his latest single ‘Ex’ in February, which was the perfect follow up to his debut EP ‘First Impressions’ which he released last April. James, who started out on YouTube covering the likes of John Mayor, Bon Iver and Ed Sheeran, was discovered by Shawn Mendes and ended up supporting him on his tour last year. And this year, James is back on the road with Shawn, supporting him on his 2017 illuminate tour. I had the privilege of attending one of the tour dates and neither James or Shawn disappointed. Both of their vocals and guitar playing were absolutely on point and they certainly managed to illuminate the whole arena as they brought the energy and got the crowd going crazy.
So here is what happened when I sat down yesterday with James before the show to chat about music, tour and Ellen!
Was there anything in particular that inspired the single (‘EX’)?
I was kind of doing a week of writing, and trying different ideas, and usually when I go into a session I’ll have the concepts that I want to write about already in my phone and already kind of giving us a goal to shoot for and this song wasn’t really like that. This song kind of came around whilst in the session, suddenly we had this ex concept and it was so simple. I remember it seeming almost too simple to write a song about, but no it grew on us a lot.
Do you tend to find that your songwriting is quite methodical or does it just happen in the spur of the moment?
It’s very spur of the moment! I wish I could just say, ‘you know what, I’m going to write a song right now’, but you have to be in the mood for it and have to have the juices flowing so it’s very spur of the moment.
What would you say is the song you’re most proud of having written so far?
So far, it’s probably ‘When You Love Someone’ which was a song I wrote about someone else’s life and not my own. I think mainly for that reason because it was the first song that I released that it wasn’t about me and it’s so much easier to write about yourself because […] if you can write more than a songs worth that’s kind of what I’m looking for, enough lyrics to fill a song and really have depth. And that’s very difficult to do when you’re in someone else’s shoes and that was the first time I was able to do it.
Listen below for the full interview and hear us chat in depth!
James TW is definitely an artist to keep an eye on in the next coming year, and make sure to keep an ear out for more music coming soon and catch him performing at various arenas with Shawn Mendes on the 2017 illuminate world tour and at various festivals and concerts throughout the year!
Post By Stevie Carter
BUSK MUSIC 