Expanding Horizons While Getting Closer To Himself Than Ever Before

Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow is challenging himself by opening up — and letting go. McMorrow, who broke out with 2010's folky Early In The Morning, recently presented the avant R&B We Move — his most individualistic, and liberated, album. This time, the usually autonomous Dubliner liaised with external producers — chief among them Canada's Nineteen85, whom he befriended two years prior. Down with Drake, Nineteen85 has studio credits for the mega-hits Hold On, We're Going Home, Hotline Bling and One Dance.

"Sharing information like that can kinda lead to that becoming the dominating conversation point from time to time."

McMorrow approached such exchanges as a chance to learn, and to grow. Still, collaborating necessitated "humility". "I think it is difficult when you come from a background of just being very used to taking care of everything yourself," McMorrow ponders. "The idea of including people didn't feel very natural to me at first but, at the same time, [it] was also a kind of imperative for me. Life should be about expanding your horizons."

McMorrow recognises that the R&B orientation of numbers like the falsetto-sung Rising Water has surprised fans. "On paper, it can raise some eyebrows." Yet this exploration began with 2014's Bon Iver-y second LP, Post Tropical. McMorrow then discovered a mutual love of Timbaland and The Neptunes with Nineteen85. Extraordinarily, he provided backing vocals on Drizzy's Views. However, McMorrow, increasingly post-genre, has also lately teamed with trop house DJ Kygo on his I'm In Love.

Themes of anxiety, depression and disclosure pervade today's urban music. McMorrow wrote about his suffering from teenage anorexia and bulimia in the otherwise oblique We Move track I Lie Awake Every Night. "It's there for everybody to see within any press releases," he shares. "I made a conscious decision to put it there — in spite of my more guarded self and in spite of other people saying to me that I probably shouldn't, because sharing information like that can kinda lead to that becoming the dominating conversation point from time to time. But that was the point of it: this record was about me truly doing something different — not even different, but closer to me. When people talk about this record and say it's so different, the reality is this is the closest thing to me as a person and as a musician and as a music lover as I've ever done. If I wanna fully inhabit that sort of belief system with this record, then a huge part of that was honesty and not shying away from things just because they're uncomfortable for me."

Last performing in Australia exclusively at 2016's Splendour In The Grass, McMorrow and band are returning for national dates. Spanning his album trilogy, McMorrow's new show has "a lovely flow". Ironically, despite his soulful turn, McMorrow is "constantly playing guitars". "The show has been really revelatory for me," he says. "Sonically I think we're existing on a level that we've never existed on before… I'm not a bragger so, if I say that I feel like it's infinitely better, hopefully that resonates with people!"