The Thames, They Are A Changin’

“Drunk and being sick, I feel like shit, I gotta quit/ I hope I haven’t missed the last train, gonna be stuck in Hampton Wick.”
 
There’s lots more where that came from on Jamie T’s latest long-play, Kings and Queens – a detailed catalogue of the ups and downs of boozing in the suburbs, set to upbeat indie-pop guitars.
But the none-too-serious tone on the 23-year-old’s sophomore album belies a formidable work ethic. Kings and Queens is the third record Treays has put out this year – he released EPs in June and in August and, he tells Hot Press, there’s more to come before Christmas.
“I’ve got some EPs I want to release later this year. And I really want to keep on writing. When I start writing songs I tend to write for about a month – like constantly – and then stop. I’m kind of slowing down now, but in a nice way. So I’ll write, like, a song a week,” he says.
The persona in Jamie T’s songs, it seems, is 100% Jamie T. He says: “I just do whatever I like. I get into a type of music and I’ll write a song that’s a type of music. I put it all together and make albums out of it. I suppose that’s the simplest way of putting it.”
Influences?
“Fucking everything, man. Anything that hits the stereo that I like. Say, earlier, I was listening to Nick Cave’s soundtracks to The Proposition and Jesse James’ Assassination of Robert Ford, you know? I love stuff like that and then to be crazy and to be wild and to suggest I’m versatile, I also like a little bit of hip-hop occasionally. Cos I’m just crazy like that.”
Treays left school at 16. He had started learning drums two years previously, moving onto bass duties next in various bands. When he tours, it’s with his mates, under the moniker Jamie T and The Pacemakers. He plays it cool when asked how he’s taken to the life of a major-label star. But the gigs, apparently, are going pretty well.
“I find it exciting at times, but tiring at times. I generally enjoy it. I think I would definitely miss it if I weren’t doing it now. We enjoy playing the songs and we’ve got a great, loyal fan base and we all have a good time, you know? We’re all together, innit?
“We have played in Dublin before, I can’t remember the name of the venue. It’s in a place like a pub and it’s across the road from a restaurant that has a big neon sign saying ‘Get in Here’.”
Ah, the Eddie Rocket’s across the road from Whelan’s. Hot Press knows it like the back of its hand.
“I just thought that sign was amazing. ‘Get in Here’ – ok! Advertising that orders you to go in.”
Did you go in?
“No, I didn’t actually.”