James Vincent McMorrow is "bullish" about new album

James Vincent McMorrow was on top form in Hogan's this morning, clearly eager to get his second album out into the world after a solid year working on it. Though there is no concrete release date yet confirmed, the follow-up to 2010's hugely successful Early In The Morning should be with us early in 2014.

Speaking at Guinness' launch of Arthur's Day 2013, McMorrow said of the forthcoming record:

"I was working on it solidly for a year. I came off touring and went straight into the process. I’ve a studio in Dublin so I was working there for five, six months. I had it all worked out with 10 songs and then wanted to go somewhere else and do it again. I just felt this instinct to go somewhere.

"So I went to Texas and made the record there. Whole new bunch of equipment, whole new process. I felt like I wanted it to have some sort of catalytic sense about it. Not a comfortable thing; being in my studio, using my equipment. Making something that had an unknown quantity to it and see what happens."

The Dublin singer-songwriter says there will be a few surprises in store this time around, as the album allowed him to fully realise his artistic vision. The practical restrictions of the first are a thing of the past.

"I’m quite bullish about it. I wanted to make something I'd want to listen to. Not in a narcissistic way , I just want to sit and listen to my music. I listen to the first record, I’m incredibly proud of it. But it was made in circumstances where I didn’t have a lot of money. I wanted to make a record and I did make a record but… I listen back to it and think, ‘that part I would change, this thing I would do’.

"There is nothing about this record that I would change. It’s exactly what I wanted to make and what I would have made with the first record if I’d had more confidence in the process.

"I just love it. I genuinely sound really silly when I talk about it. It makes me really happy to listen to it. I listened to it on the plane back from New York last week and it was a moment. It’s always a moment for me."

He was also keen to stress that he's never associated himself with 'folk' music.

"I think the idea of repeating yourself is really boring. The world we live in, people put labels and ideas on things. I played a guitar to begin with because that was what I had, I had to play the songs live. And all of a sudden you’re a folk musician. You kinda play into that because that’s what people are saying you are. There’s a desperate, weird sense of trying to categorise things. I succumbed to that to a certain extent because it’s ‘oh, you think it’s that? Ok, I’m not going to tell you what I think’. Because what I think is a ridiculous thing.

"I’m not a folk musician. I’d no desire to be a folk musician. I’m a singer and a songwriter, I love making music. I love being in a studio and creating sounds. Whatever comes into my head. I’m a hip hop guy, people don’t know that about me. I’ve listened to R&B and hip hop almost exclusively since the age of 18. I listened to hip hop and speed metal, that was it!

"That's my world. Not that I made a speed metal record but I wanted to do things that resonated with me. So all the equipment I have, all my old drum machines. My old Korg Triton, which was The Neptunes’ keyboard from the late ‘90s, I just use that. My engineer is incredible and introduced me to all of these sounds. I would tell him I wanted 15 mandolins to sound like a waterfall and he would help me do that. That’s kinda what we did. I went with it. I hope people will like it."

As for Arthur's Day, having spent the past several years touring the world, McMorrow says that any show on Irish soil is a special one.

"There’s that nostalgic sense of coming back to Ireland. I did tour completely out of the country for a year and a half. We came back for shows and stuff but it was like coming into another city. Staying in hotels in Dublin is bizarre to me!

"This will be my first proper show in a year. I’ve been making the record for almost a year so I’m literally coming back by doing this."

There will be new material on September 26, but McMorrow will also make sure to play the songs punters will all know and love.

"It’s not my show. It’s not my audience sitting down. So we want to make it as good for that audience as possible. I’m not stuck up like that... Well, I’m pretty stuck up my own arse most of the time! But I’m not going to make everybody sit and be quiet. It’s a good opportunity to play some fun songs and play some old songs.

"Keep it lively, I guess, is my instinct."

James Vincent McMorrow plays Arthur's Day on Thursday September 26. Stay with hotpress.com for the full video interview with James very shortly.