James Walsh

ISHTAR MUSIC AND LE MAD PRESENT
JAMES WALSH

le MAD - Geneva:
www.mad.coop




Tickets:
www.fnac.ch


After almost a decade with his enormous yet somehow tender, fragile voice fronting Starsailor, James Walsh has emerged as a singer-songwriter in his own right, with an acoustic guitar and some big, new tunes to travel wherever the road may take him.

“The great thing about the band is it’s a comfort thing,” he explains. “You know what the set is, you know what’s going to happen, and you know they’re there to back you up. With the acoustic stuff, there’s this whole new sense of freedom. You get stuck in that album-tour-promotion cycle. Now I can have beats on laptops, experiment with synthesizers or strings sections, write or work with all sorts of people in all sorts of different countries or environments. I feel much more like a singer-songwriter now, living it and breathing it.”

One minute Starsailor were unknown in Wigan, the next they were being hailed as “the new Coldplay” after only their second gig, and front covers of magazines like NME proclaimed propelled their debut album – featuring what would become James’s trademark lovelorn voice and epic songs – into the Top 10. They ended up selling over three million albums, and enjoying adventures like supporting U2 at the Stade de France, when 2004’s Four To The Floor was Number One in the country and seeing the stadium “go absolutely mad”, before watching U2 and ending up in Dublin, being offered advice by Bono.

After taking the difficult decision to put the band on extended hold, James has barely looked back. He’s toured with Sheryl Crow – playing to more mainstream but “tremendously appreciative” audiences than he ever did with Starsailor’s indie following; written with Suzanne Vega after inviting her to sing with him in New York and recording the Live At The Top Of The World EP with Norway’s Tromsø Chamber Orchestra in the closest major settlement to the North Pole. Working with an orchestra and world famous composer Bernt Simen Lund is a long way from Starsailor’s Wigan roots - “very cold” laughs James - but incredibly exciting. As a result of adventures like that, James admits, “songs have been pouring out of me.”

After collaborating with songwriter/producer Sacha Skarbek (Duffy/Adele), James has found an unlikely new career path as a provider of songs for other people. “That was the great thing about working with Sacha,” he says. “We really got on, and he’d say ‘I’ve got this girl coming in, do you wanna give us a hand?’ Thus, James has ended up in the unexpected position of songwriter for stars. He has enjoyed the new-found spontaneity of “writing a song in an afternoon and the next thing you know someone’s on TV singing it. It’s really exciting.” In 2011 James worked with Melanie C on her album ‘The Sea’, produced and work songs on X Factor 2012 winner Matt Cardle’s UK Top 5 Debut album ‘Letters’. He also has been working with Philadelphia’s Christina Perri and London based Eliza Doolittle.

But most importantly, this sense of rejuvenation has fired his own new music. Working with Skarbek, he’s been able to bring out the Randy Newman and Rufus Wainwright influences that – he chuckles – “the [Starsailor] lads weren’t very into”, acquiring a new maturity and a new sound, more sophisticated and raw at the same time. Playing with musicians often ten years his junior has resulted in a “mix of styles, quite raw heavy backing but with my voice and melodies over the top.

As well as writing for other people, James has embarked on working with films. He wrote and performed songs on the UK movie ‘Powder’ based on Kevin Sampson’s acclaimed novel.

Older, wiser – and a father - he’s looking forward to “doing something different for a while”, setting off in a different ship but touching people once again and making what promises to be a very adventurous solo album. What hasn’t changed has that voice - still wounded, still soaring, still bursting with hope and passion – and his belief in his own music.
“I’m in a position now where I feel like I’ve washed everything off and am starting again and there aren’t really any rules. It feels like I can do what I want now.”



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