The Long Road To Becoming Jamie T

"I've done Falls Festival on New Year's Eve before, and it was one of the best New Year's Eves I've ever had," says Jamie Treays. Forever known as Jamie T, the Englishman will finish up an eventful year in Australia; one which has found both a new LP, Trick, and his 30th birthday. "I don't feel very old, but in music, I am," says Treays. "My first record came out when I was 19. I was signed when I was 18. I've been touring since I was 17. And I've been playing live shows since I was 14. So, I've been around for a while. It's rare that you get to hang around this long, to get to a fourth record."

That fourth record, Trick, has, Treays thinks, a "real English feel" to it. Its "dark and oppressive" songs summon "a claustrophobic summer", whilst drawing inspiration from the Englishmen who inspired him as he was coming up. On Drone Strike, that means he's back rapping; the song inspired by Dizzee Rascal's debut Boy In Da Corner.

"We had a lot of battles with people at record labels wanting us to do things that we didn't want to do."

"Dizzee's a big inspiration for me: if it wasn't for Dizzee Rascal, I think many solo artists like myself wouldn't've broken through," says Treays. "I was listening to people like him who I loved when I was younger, and people I think of as my contemporaries. Obviously The Clash I've been a big fan of since I was really young. Oasis I was listening to. And I was really inspired by bands of my age group, like Foals, Slaves, Arctic Monkeys; bands I'd grown up alongside of."

After taking a half-decade between his second and third albums — 2009's Kings & Queens and 2014's Carry On The Grudge — this time there was no break; with an EP, 2015's Magnolia Melancholia, in the interim. "In the five years before the last record, I stopped making music for about a year," says Treays. "I found it difficult afterwards, trying to pick the proverbial ball up again. It's hard to get yourself up to a songwriting level if you stop writing. So, this time, I just kept pushing."

At this point of his career, Treays says he's afforded the freedom to make records how and when he wants. He's a staple of the UK charts (his first three albums all debuted in the top five), and, at 30, he's no longer being feted as some potential pop-star. "No one really messes with us anymore," says Treays. "We had a lot of battles with people at record labels wanting us to do things that we didn't want to do. When you first get into music, people don't know who you are, so they want to push the limits of what you're willing to do. It's a hard battle, at that age, to be taken seriously, to convince other people that you know what you're talking about, what's best for you. Now, we don't have that. People respect what we do."