Another New Album, Another New Style; The Man's GoT Ideas

WARNING: Story contains a spoiler for anyone moving so slow that they have yet to watch the GoT season finale.

Everyone has a theory about the Game Of Thrones endgame - even James Vincent McMorrow, the Irish avant-pop singer-songwriter. "I fucking love that show," McMorrow enthuses. In fact, the Dubliner has a stake in HBO's fantasy franchise: his unearthly cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game soundtracked the season six trailer.

Being "more of a nocturnal person," McMorrow is conducting interviews near-midnight from his studio for 2017's second Australian tour - this time behind May's "surprise" album, True Care. That morning, he watched the latest Game Of Thrones finale - and was "pretty psyched" to see Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (portrayed by fellow Dubliner Aidan Gillen) "get popped". "I did not care for him as a character," McMorrow chuckles. Who does he predict will secure the Iron Throne, then? "It's actually completely impossible to know," McMorrow, on a roll, responds. "I feel like it's someone that we just don't expect at all… You'd think the obvious ones - like Jon [Snow]. But I think it's gonna be someone really strange. I could see Arya [Stark] in that position, 'cause she's one of the more interesting characters in the show." That McMorrow has an opportunity to catch any telly is remarkable. After all, he's presented four distinct albums in seven years.

McMorrow is a music super-fan - today name-dropping such acts as Neil Young, Metallica and Gucci Mane. ("I don't give a shit about genres.") He debuted as a guitar-strumming folkie with 2010's Early In The Morning. Last year McMorrow, having "expanded" into synth 'n' B on 2014's Post Tropical, issued We Move. For the first time, he liaised with outside producers - notably Drake cohort Nineteen85. Now McMorrow has followed with the low-key True Care; "Something that was really simple and pure and honest." Again working solitarily, he applied lessons learnt from We Move - experimenting with sampling.

Typically, a label will hold onto an album for months - frustrating the restive performer. "The meaning behind it changes and, not diminishes, but it certainly becomes more subdued - and the context changes." But, taking his cue from that urban disrupter Drake, McMorrow decided to stealth-release True Care. He didn't develop a promotional strategy for the album - or "construct a narrative." Crucially, McMorrow wanted to tour True Care while it "felt fresh". Ironically, True Care thematises temporality. Sonically textured, it's McMorrow's most obviously 'post-genre' LP - albeit more Prince than Bon Iver. (He touts all his music as "indefinable".)

Aside from supporting London Grammar in Brisbane, McMorrow will perform two-part club shows in Sydney and Melbourne. "We're going to play True Care from front-to-back - and then we're gonna come back out and do a full second set. It's kind of an unusual format. The way I've been describing it to people is like I'm opening for myself, but not in a narcissistic way [laughs]… It's a cool position to be in because you get to walk out there and expectations are ill-defined - your job is to impress people; to win people over. The way I've been thinking about True Care is the same way."