Meant To Be

For James Vincent McMorrow, music has always been a solitary experience. From beginnings of self-taught guitar at school, the Irish singer has gone on to create a haunting debut that he wrote, recorded and played entirely by himself. The process took place over six months of isolation, where some days only one or two song lines would present themselves to McMorrow in the quiet.

Released two years ago in Ireland, Early In The Morning spent over a year in the charts, peaking at 23 and his stripped back cover of Steve Winwood's Higher Love reached 21 in the UK and has over two million hits on YouTube. It's been a big turnaround for the self-proclaimed introvert, but McMorrow attributes this success to be the result of passion and good old-fashioned hard work.

“I always felt like if you put your head down and worked you'd at least have a chance at it, so I got frustrated with people who just wanted to talk about it. So that's what started me working by myself... I had to teach myself all these other instruments and I had to learn how to record,” says McMorrow. “And it all just came from there. I never felt like I needed to add other musicians to the mix, I was just sitting in a house working by myself because I could.”

Much has been made about the house by the Irish sea where McMorrow recorded the album. Surrounded by the classics from modern-American authors and an array of instruments, McMorrow explains his seaside sojourn was a happy accident that's turned into a big part of the album's mythology.

“It could have been anywhere – on top of a mountain, downtown Brooklyn – it wasn't that I needed to be at one with nature. I had no money at all; someone offered me a house so I took it. I needed to be there for a period of time because it takes me a while to write and record and I needed somewhere that was quiet, so the house was a complete blessing. The album is reflective of where it was recorded, so it was incredibly fortuitous and meant to be, but no, not thought out,” says McMorrow.

After wrapping recording, McMorrow released the album without a label in 2010. While it slowly gathered steam at home he was off touring the UK and the US. Months later he returned to find Early In The Morning had exploded in Ireland and the usually reserved musician was thrust into the spotlight.

“When I came back to Ireland, people everywhere knew of the album and who I was. I'm actually quite quiet; I keep to myself, so it was quite jarring initially. It's really surreal, but dream come true for me, because you always want to be acknowledged for what you do in your place of birth.”

This success opened the doors to the European festival circuit, where McMorrow received a swag of glowing reviews. Though the loner counts wading through the Glastonbury crowd in his wellies as a total nightmare, performing to all the muddy faces a day later was more the stuff of dreams.

“Going out amongst the crowd always kind of terrifies me, but in the shows themselves, that doesn't affect me. It's strange, I'm quite shy, but when I'm on stage a whole different aspect comes out,“ says McMorrow. “Music's quite an introspective thing – you're creating something that's personal, but then you have to go and play that live. Well, unless you're Enya. You make the record and then you want to try and connect that with people, I want it to be an experience that means something to them. Once you realise that's part of it, you go to that place in your mind where it makes sense and you can do it and enjoy it rather than just get through it.”