It’s been a bit of a surreal year for Plymouth-born troubadour Jamie Lawson. Having broken through with YouTube heartbreaker ‘Wasn’t Expecting That’, the young singer/songwriter quickly found himself embraced by an enamoured Irish public. His overnight success and lyrical sincerity has left audiences compelled, while his powerful voice marks him out as a particularly engaging talent.
A regular fixture on these shores, Jamie has made Ireland his second home over the past six months, regularly gigging in any venue or music store that will have him and building up a loyal fanbase along the way. His latest step up the ladder is to record a beautiful and sobering acoustic version of emotional track ‘The Last Time’, exclusively for Hot Press.
“I recorded it in my bedroom in London, just last Wednesday, in the two hours I had free. I’m quite chuffed with how it came out to be honest! I didn’t have to do too many takes, but I had to do the vocals a couple of times because planes kept flying over and my house isn’t really soundproofed, and there was also a few vans driving past so sometimes they’d interrupt me in the middle of a line and I’d have to stop and re-record!
“I think this new version gets to the point a bit more. There’s a kind of sheen on the album, and this is much more stripped back and direct, and definitely more reflective of the intention in which the song was written. I was really glad to get another shot at it.
“With the original recording, I wanted to try a few different things at the time, and I love the finished track, I think it’s really strong, but I also love the fact that I can just strip it back and it can just be me, a guitar and a piano. It gives a more ‘one-on-one’ feel to it.
“For me it’s a song that has become a lot more personal as time has gone on. Even when I play a gig with a full band, I play that song solo. Like I said, it’s a ‘one-on-one’ kind of song. It’s odd because certain songs really take off and go a lot further with a band, and yet other songs where you think it might have the same effect, it doesn’t. If anything it cancels it out, and ‘The Last Time’ is definitely a song where less is more.”
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