But, as kids, we just had to cope as best we could. She'd often get stressed and she wasn't always in the best of moods. My mum was a single parent and that took its toll on her. 'There were some good times, but there were also bad times, mainly because we never had any money. She was very creative and used to sing in bands, so there were always musicians coming over to the house to play. I cooked my own meals and tidied the house. I was ironing my own clothes by the age of seven. 'It was hard, but we looked out for one another as best we could. I still got to see my dad, but I also remember missing him. 'It would have been worse had they stayed together - they were always arguing. 'My mum and dad were better off apart,' he says. Constantly on the move, the family lived in Northampton for six years before settling in Porth, Cornwall, when James was 14. Born in Rugby, his parents, Paul, and Susan, split up when James was four, leaving Susan to raise him and his two siblings as a single parent. The hardships of a tough, itinerant childhood have given Morrison a sensible perspective on pop fame. I've been thinking more deeply about things, and that should come across in the songs.'
'I tried to be more funky, but that didn't really work, so I went back to the approach I took on the first album, which was simply to write songs that I was proud of. The Motown pastiches have gone, but the overall production is still lavish. His rasping, bluesy vocals have lost none of their distinctive edge, but his songs are more varied this time around, relying less on traditional soul styles and more on a poppier, piano-based feel. 'It was gratifying to slow down and take it all in.' Morrison's new album, rather grandly titled Songs For You, Truths For Me, is a subtle step forward from Undiscovered. I sometimes don't believe that all this is happening to me, so I have to step outside it all. I think of James Morrison, the singer, as someone separate. He says: 'I wanted to do something totally ordinary. When he finally stepped off the promotional treadmill that had seen him sell two million copies of Undiscovered, score huge hits with You Give Me Something and Wonderful World and win a Brit as best British male, James felt the need to restore a little normality.īefore he began writing songs again, he went on a low key UK camping holiday with his sister, Hayley, and younger brother, Laurie. I didn't tell her that I was James Morrison, though.' 'I was walking through Victoria Station when a woman came up and asked me whether I was "that singer, the one out of Coldplay". 'I get the Chris Martin thing all the time,' he sighs. The Springsteen-esque curls that he sported on the cover of Undiscovered have given way to a shorter hairstyle that makes him look rather like another well-known British singer. If people keep buying my records, I'll keep on making music.'Ĭhatting over tea and croissants in a Hammersmith pub, James is remarkably down-to-earth. 'If my music career stopped tomorrow, I'd still be happy with my life. I'm very excited by it, but it also makes it easier to get on with other things. 'I'm getting ready to be a father, which is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me. 'I was very much a young lad when my first album came out.
'So much has happened since Undiscovered that I still find it hard to take in,' he says. James Morrison: Getting ready for a new album and a new baby
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