Acclaimed British Artist James Morrison

Acclaimed British Artist James Morrison Returns To U.S. With Single "Wonderful World," and Tour

By Jonathan Widran

James Morrison

A year ago, when James Morrison released his critically-acclaimed debut and its infectious first single “You Give Me Something” in his native U.K., he was a newcomer on Europe’s singer/songwriter scene, fully living up to the album’s title Undiscovered. That all changed in a matter of months, as the collection spent two weeks at #1 on the U.K. album chart, scored two Top 10 U.K. singles (including “Wonderful World”), and reached the Top 5 on the album charts in the Netherlands and New Zealand, and went Top 20 in Norway, Ireland, Germany and Australia. “You Give Me Something,” which became a Top 5 U.K. single, also hit #1 in New Zealand.

Global sales of Undiscovered to date are currently over 2.4 million, and his numerous concert appearances include performing twice in front of British Royalty. He played for Prince Charles at the 2006 Royal Variety Performance, and at the beginning of July sang his two biggest hits at the Concert For Diana at Wembley Stadium before Princes William and Harry and an audience of 60,000 people. Millions more watched on TV worldwide.

Then propelled by its high-profile presence at Starbucks outlets in the U.S., the album hit the States in mid-March amidst a media blitz that included Morrison’s first national TV appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and an acoustic performance on the Today show. Undiscovered (on Interscope Records) debuted on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart at #24, and to date has sold just under 100,000 copies. And currently (July), Morrison has returned to the U.S. to headline a show at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, before embarking on a three-week East Coast tour opening for John Mayer.

“I grew up listening to and loving so much American music, artists like Otis Redding and Al Green,” he says, “songs where the singer would sing with real soul like they really believed what they were singing about. So while my music may have an English quality because I was born in Rugby (Warwickshire, England), I think over time it will connect bigger with American audiences. The U.S. is a big country for any foreign artist to conquer, but I like working my arse off for stuff rather than having things handed to me. The main thing is that like those artists I most admire, including guys like Cat Stevens and Van Morrison, I try to be honest in my singing. I wanted to write songs that would get to people, that have a pop element instead of being dreary. If I sing with passion and hope, people will pick up on it and like it. They’ll hear the real emotion in my music.”

Signed by Polydor in March 2005, Morrison hooked up with a handful of top producers who have been responsible for other major hit albums of the past two years. Martin Terefe produced K.T. Tunstall’s Eye To the Telescope, Jimmy Hogarth helmed James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam and Corinne Bailey Rae’s self titled debut, and Steve Robson’s credits include Tina Turner and LeAnn Rimes. Hogarth and Robson co-wrote several songs apiece with the singer. Morrison was particularly fond of Terefe, who he says helped bring out his best as both a singer and songwriter.

“I met a lot of writers and producers through the label, and I tended to stick with the ones I liked,” says Morrison. “Martin knows how to make real music, with sort of that underground vibe, and I was a fan of the album he did with K.T. He came in with the attitude of, let’s make the record you really need to make. Usually, my best songwriting comes when I’m in a certain mood, and I take that mood and try to capture it in a song. I usually start off with my guitar and hum a tune to it, try to work out something palatable, and then the lyrics will come. With ‘This Boy’ and ‘Wonderful World,’ the lyrics and music hit me at the same time. Sometimes I expressly try to stay away from relationships, but I was in one when I wrote some of these tunes, so ‘You Give Me Something’ and ‘The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore’ c0too early and I wasn’t confident enough in myself as a songwriter. I preferred to go off and hone my craft, so I went away for a year and lived on the government dole for a while, got a new manager and lived this crazy life where I stayed in London during the week and Darby on the weekends. Later, when the calls started coming from companies like EMI and Virgin, I felt I had five good songs to come in with.”

With the success of Undiscovered, the singer (who turns 23 in August) has performed before thousands in some of the world’s biggest stadiums and arenas. But he still fondly recalls the days in his mid-teens, when he was busking (street-performing) in the Cornwall village of Porth, singing his heart out on cover tunes for anyone passing by who would stop to listen.

“The funny thing now is that, while I get to do my own songs, I play the same as I did back then,” Morrison says, “singing with my heart on my sleeve and putting everything I have into the performance. In a way, busking is more rewarding because you do that knowing not everyone is going to like it and people from all walks of life are stopping to listen, rather than fans of a particular artist I may be playing with.

“I consider myself very lucky,” he adds, “although I truly believe that luck is about being prepared for an opportunity, and then you have to work very hard to succeed from that point. Even if people say you have talent, it’s still a very hard road. The main thing I say to people who are struggling the same way I did is that they have to believe in what they’re doing and not do it for any other reason than it makes them happy. My favorite part of all this is knowing I’m still that normal little kid from Rugby, born in a sh*t town with no prospects. But now I get to do what I love for a living, without acting like a pop star. I can travel the world but still be myself and retain some measure of dignity.”