JAMES BLUNT Pop Troubadour Goes Looking for Trouble—And Discovers Electricity

JAN/FEB 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A Andrew Zaeh JAMES BLUNT Pop troubadour goes looking for trouble—and discovers electricity JAMES BLUNT’S FIRST TWO ALBUMS, important thing for a songwriter to do. It’s I get it now, and I’m relaxed about those Back to Bedlam and All the Lost Souls, important to experience life moments, both things. I focus on what I know and love, catapulted him to stardom with hits like shallow and deep. Then I met Steve Robson, which is to make good music. “You’re Beautiful” and “1973.” Those discs who became my co-writer and producer. also cast him in the guise of sensitive pop We went out for a beer and ended up in You’re close to Elton John, correct? crooner. With his new album, Some Kind of the studio, where we wrote “Dangerous.” It I’ve been very lucky that he has helped me Trouble, the former British Army offi cer shakes sounded exciting and upbeat. That was the from the start. He took me out on tour and free of his balladeer reputation and unleashes stepping stone to everything else. still calls me up to point me in the right an upbeat collection of electric pop rockers. direction, or to say a good word. He’s been Blunt, 35, spoke with us about changing his You’ve said the record captures the through the wars himself, and he’s come out musical direction, rediscovering the electric mood of the ’80s. How so? of them as an incredibly generous person. guitar and the impact of a famous mentor. I didn’t necessarily mean the music of the He’s the fi rst to admit he’s made mistakes, ’80s, although I can hear hints of ’80s guitar but he’s also learned from them. And he’s Why is the record so upbeat? bands in some songs. I was referring to still making fantastic music. That was something that happened naturally, the sense of optimism that existed in that and something that happened more for decade. In the Western world, there was a Your college thesis was titled The myself than for my audience. Having made belief we could achieve anything by working Commodifi cation of Image: Production two melancholy albums, I wouldn’t have together. Since then, especially in Britain, a of a Pop Idol. enjoyed making another. I wanted to take sense of cynicism has taken hold. I still feel Yes. (laughs) You could tell even then what a different perspective on life, and take a a kinship with teenage optimism. And I wanted for a career. But “pop idol” meant different approach musically as well. This because I come from an Army background, something different back then. It wasn’t like time around I wrote on electric guitar, which I recognize that “no” is not a useful word. American Idol, which has altered people’s is what I learned to play on. I wrote the earlier perception of the phrase. I was fascinated albums on an acoustic. Instead of being a Has that training come in handy? by the music business’s obsession with troubadour, this time I wrote as if I were the It helped me to remain levelheaded when I selling a brand or an image. But I was frontman for a band. began to get some attention. To be thrown also disenchanted by that, which is why into an industry that’s not always focused I write songs that really mean something Was any one song a touchstone? on the purity of the music, but instead to me. I want my songs to be open and “Dangerous.” I had stepped away from music sometimes on money, image and fashion, honest and true. and was just hanging out with friends—an didn’t come naturally to me. It took time, but –Russell Hall ‘I focus on what I know and love, which is to make good music.’ 6666 M mag 9.indd 66 2/22/11 11:13:24 PM.

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