Gavin James is one relaxed cat.
“I never worry about anything. If I was more laidback, I’d fall a lot. The one thing I struggle with is that I talk really fast.”
No kidding. Gavin James has had his hot water with a slice of lemon, and he’s super hyper. He’s excited to talk about his killer past year, his music and his upcoming world tour. The young Dubliner (he is still a sprightly 24) earned his stripes playing in the notoriously touristy Temple Bar district for a few years after leaving school.
He started out in rock bands, only toning down his style when he picked up the acoustic guitar to better appeal to pub audiences. “That’s how I got into the singer-songwriter kind of vibe,” James explains.
It was difficult starting out; no one was too interested in hearing anything but cover songs. He had to work hard to capture the crowd’s attention for long enough that they would indulge a Gavin James original. His voice has changed too since his early days.
In fact, it is the opposite of when he was starting out. “I didn’t have any high range when I was younger, but now I do, which is kind of weird. I was listening to this demo I had when I was like, 15, and I sound like an old man.”
While his voice may have changed and people now pay good money to hear songs he penned himself, some other things remain the same. James comes from a tight-knit music community. He still tours with musicians he played with in Temple Bar pubs and attributes a lot of his songwriting learning curve to open-mic nights.
Gavin describes the Irish music scene as being incredibly generous and collaborative. “There’s no dog eat dog vibe at all,” he explains. “I think that the nicer you are to people, the way you act around people, always benefits you in the best way.”
It was the open-mic nights in particular that helped him fine-tune his musical approach. “I still pop in every so often, just to try out the new songs. I never really try them out at gigs, just in case! I always try to do that at open-mic nights. At least I’ll know. Some people will just tell me, 'you’re shite!'. But it’s fine,” he jokes.
His debut album is called 'Bitter Pill', and true to the name it's full of regret. The title song, in his own words, has a sappy backstory. He started seeing a girl, but broke off the relationship because he was on tour and travelling for more than seven months. When he came home, he tried to rekindle the romance, but his girl was having none of it. He wrote the song to work through the way he had “totally f*cked up”.
He wrote quite a few songs about that particular girl, but 'Bitter Pill' was the last. He never did win the mysterious girl back. This week James is bringing his relationship woes down under. “Australian audiences can expect a lot of banter. I tend to ramble on. It’s always different every night,” James says.
“My songs are kind of melancholy and some of them are kind of fast. I have to put in a little bit of banter in between to lighten the mood. It’s an emotional roller coaster, that’s what I do. That’s what I’m aiming for,” he says with a laugh.
Gavin James Shows
Thu 22 Sep - Black Bear Lodge (Brisbane)Fri 23 Sep - Plan B (Sydney)
Sat 24 Sep - Ding Dong Lounge (Melbourne)
Sun 25 Sep - The Boston (Perth)
