Jarryd James Has No Back-Up Plan

"Jarryd James reminds us that getting to a gig in time to catch all supports is worthwhile... don't say we didn't alert you to James' star potential." That's an excerpt from this scribe's review of James' show on 27 February at Margaret Court Arena during his national run of dates supporting Angus & Julia Stone. There was a section in the show where James' keys player took over from him mid-song, replacing James on the stool without missing a note so that James could strap on his guitar and return to the mic. The Brisbane-bred singer/songwriter/producer chuckles, "Yeah, we had to practice that a coupla times. That was at the end of Undone, actually."

Undone is a standout track from James' stunning upcoming debut album. "I wrote that with Pip Norman in Melbourne," he illuminates. "I went down to his joint — that was probably, like, a year ago now, maybe even close to a year-and-a-half ago — I didn't have a manager or anything, I was literally just writing for the sake of writing. And I went to his place, and we had four days, and we wrote three songs; one of them being Undone."

"I'm eating a combination of pistachios, cashews and macadamia nuts, and they're quite delightful."

James can be heard chewing throughout our chat. "I'm eating a combination of pistachios, cashews and macadamia nuts, and they're quite delightful," he offers.

So that was three songs penned in four days!? "We had this, like, weird frenzy of making music and it was actually amazing," James acknowledges. "You don't really get that all the time." There's also a duet with Julia Stone on his upcoming long-player, which began its life "sometime in February". "We'd been on the tour and we'd been trying to write," James elaborates, "we tried to write in Melbourne when we were there, but we didn't get the time. So after the tour had finished, we were both in Sydney on the same day and we jumped into the studio there and just wrote [Regardless] in, like, half a day."

James met Stone years ago, "but only really briefly", then played "a random support" with the sibling duo "in about October last year, just a one-off show in Canberra of all places". "And then they invited me to do a whole tour, so they were really good to me, actually. Very kind. They're kind of some of my favourite people now and we've hung out in a few different random countries since then. It's been fun."

He's worked with multiple producers on Thirty One, but James defends, "I really only worked with three actual producers on this album... Compared to some other albums that you see out there, in this genre, that's not really that many." So James worked with Norman "down in Melbourne and then Joel Little, of course, in LA and then, also in LA, Malay and, yeah! The rest I've sort of done myself and then worked with my mate Matty Corby".

"I only worked with them because we connect as people and we're on the same page musically," James opines, "and there's nothing worse than a writing session where things are forced — I just can't do that. All these people that I work with, they're people that I can happily hang out with, either with or without making music. So, you know, it's fun." When asked what happens if he's not "on the same page musically" with a collaborator/producer, James allows, "It can be the most awkward thing, 'cause I've done sessions in the past where I go in and I don't know them — haven't met them before — and it hasn't worked, and it's pretty sucky." So does he just say he's going to the bathroom and then never returns if all's not going to plan? James laughs, "Oh, I just run away. [Pauses] Nah... I'm normally quite honest. I just say, like, "I'm not really feeling it today," or something like that. Then you just go have a beer, haha.

"In my experience, I've never had people [where] we're not getting along; it's just musically some people think very differently to me. But I've been lucky! I haven't had too many of those."

His vocal phrasing is particularly impressive on this set and James is excited to hear this. "Thank you. That's, like, the coolest compliment ever. I do put a lot of thought into that stuff, it's kind of equally as important as melodies to me." He listens to a lot of hip hop and singles out Earl Sweatshirt as "very brilliant". "He's super-young, but he's super-impressive; like, the way he strings phrases together is amazing for such a young dude." We discuss Jay-Z and his habit of chasing the beat with his rhymes and James admits, "I do enjoy the whole really late, back-of-the beat sort of rap and I always sing late as well."

"There's nothing worse than a writing session where things are forced — I just can't do that."

They've "just sorted out US visas" and James describes his current band as "pretty permanent". "We just played our first US shows as a crew this month [August]," he enthuses, saying these initial shows went "really, really well". While targeting different territories, such as The States "could be scary" for some, James counters, "But I don't see it that way. I'm just really pumped about it, 'cause I am quite proud of my music. And I don't say that in a [laughs], like, cocky way, but I'm always really excited to play it to people in new places just to see what they think of it."

For someone who's already such an accomplished performer, it's surprising to hear James "was pretty late to the table as far as performing in front of anyone". "I was always super-shy when I was a kid," he stresses. "I don't think I sung in front of anyone until I was about 20 and then I sorta started writing music and, yeah!... It was this weird thing, like, I kinda knew that I could do this with my life but I had no idea how [laughs], 'cause I just had big problems with being in front of crowds. And I don't like being around a lot of people, I'm a bit weird like that."

Interestingly enough, James has never doubted he can carve out a successful career with his music. "I've never had a back-up plan for myself," he reveals. "I don't have any qualifications. I have no formal education apart from high school but, yeah! I just never allowed myself any other options, really.

"It'll all spring from the music anyway so I think if I focus on that — and just try to make the best music that I can and always keep it really honest — the rest will follow. And if the music is good enough then it will make its own waves and we'll see what happens."