The
Magic Lantern

TOUR DIARY DAY 2: A travel day started with getting the car fixed in a brummie garage, which could have been mundane but I have feeling that this tour isn’t going to turn out that way. As I started apologising to the mechanic for having so much music stuff in the boot, his face lit up as he asked if we were musicians. I said we were and that we needed to get back on the road to head to Manchester for a gig. What followed is a perfect example of not underestimating people or letting the scene dictate the character. 

So it turns out that our mechanic’s big hobby is singing in musicals. With a fine light baritone voice he sang a few snatches of song and we discussed the importance of warming up, before he quoted us a very reasonable price for a replacement tyre. His next audition is in December. Good luck pal!

While we waited for the car to be fixed I had a small emotional breakdown in the post office while Gus discussed the racist front cover of the Daily Mail (apparently all people who use their phones while driving are polish) with the newsagent. Gus restored his calm with coffee and I had some soup and an emergency midday nap, before our singing mechanic called to say the car was fixed. 

We hit the road and despite great clumps of mid-week traffic we contented ourselves listening to lots of music and the thought of some of Gus’s mum’s home brew when we arrived. Arrive we did, upon which we were fed vegan curry, beer and entreated to complete a puzzle before we left. Gus and his mum being the rockstars they are promptly headed off to see some New York rock band tear the paint of the walls of Gullivers, while I saved myself for tonight’s gig, which we are preparing ourselves for by drinking strong coffee and tackling the tricky grassy bits of the puzzle (it all looks the same!!). Mikey Kenny from Liverpool will be joining us tonight to play his beautiful tunes while he will also join Gus’s quartet alongside with top bananas John Ellis on keys and Sarah Dale on cello. See us there or wish us well! x

The day started auspiciously as we ran into Sam Amidon, Leo Abrahams and Shahzad Ismaily outside Gus’s house loading the car. They greeted us like the old friends I wished we were and we set out towards Birmingham, the nations second city and our first port of call.

I’m so excited to be heading out on the road next week with Alabaster dePlume. It’s going to be great to see old friends and make new ones and most especially to play the new songs every night. Looking further ahead, the studio date in December looms large and in truth I can feel the nerves starting, but that is what it’s all about. To confront the moment head on!

In the meantime, I’ve just discovered (I know, I know) Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens and it’s fair to say that it’s been breaking me into tiny pieces. It’s as devastating as it is beautiful and I can’t get enough of it. To be listening to it on the verge of recording my own album is to look up at Everest from a the bottom of a long tunnel, burrowed below base camp – inspiring, daunting and above all, hugely motivating. I urge you will all the little pieces I have left, to listen to this album. It may change your life, or at the very least, make you think about it anew.

Hope to see you out on the road.

Jamie x

So last nights gig supporting the Smoke Fairies in Nantwich was a curious affair. It started a little ominously as I somehow lost my bank card on the way up and arrived a little flustered. Playing in the very old Crown Hotel – one of the oldest surviving buildings in this old roman market town, built on salt mining – there was alas nowhere to get changed or practice, nor time to get something to eat so I explored the pleasingly uneven floors and found myself in a small and all pink janitors closet. It had a bit of a David Lynch vibe to it which only contributed to the sense that I had come a long way to parts unknown. So focusing all my energy (see concentration face) I went out and played to the very nice Words & Music Festival audience. I don’t know quite how it went down, perhaps the chat was a little much, but I gave it everything and met some great people after the show.

The Smoke Fairies played a rocking show, all noir-y blues rock with harmonised vocals and serious faces. The crowd loved it and brought them on for two encores. They did roaring trade at the merch stand as I rather enviously looked on, and we managed to have a tiny and slightly awkward chat about how they hadn’t heard my set, but their manager and I realised we both know the Smugglers record lot and that was cool.

Chris and Annie very kindly put me up, we talked owls, ate cheese on toast, slept for 6 hours and then they dropped me back at the train station to climb into the iron horse for another early morning journey south.

Big thanks to Nigel Stonier and Thea Gilmore who organise Words & Music Festival for inviting me and all the super friendly volunteers who make these kind of events what they are. Onwards!

I’m really excited to have been asked to support the Smoke Fairies this evening at Words & Music Festival in Nantwich. Check them out below.

Inspiration comes in many forms. Another day I’d like to talk about the many small things, found in curious places, that give me pause for thought or make me sit up and think. I spend a lot of time looking at the sky for instance. My flat is quite high up and the angle of the windows means that when you’re sat down or when I’m lying in bed, all I can see are  the clouds, ever changing or the quality of the light and how it changes with the seasons. The weather feels close. But more of that anon.

In the midst of trying of working with the amazing musicians who’ll be recording with me in December, while we get arrangements together and talk about sounds, I’m also listening to lots of music that’s coming out now. Not so much to take things from it as to firmly ground myself in the context of my musical surroundings. Into this landscape this album will come.

Undoubtedly Bon Iver has a huge part to play in shaping those hills, and with his new album, has brought together a lot of different sound worlds into one fractured, at times jarring, but never less than beautiful whole. This song in particular encapsulates the best of it- a gospel a capella ballad – strange and raw – all processed through a harmonically filtered vocoder. Man and machine meet. This could only have been released now. You should listen to it.

Friends,

I am ready to make this third album now, rehearsals with line up who’ll be joining me are thrillingly underway and the studio is booked – the foothills have been reached, final preparations for the big climb begun! As part of the workout, it was great to play as a band for the first time at Smugglers Festival. In the meantime, lots has been going on. I was touched to be asked to sing with the Roundhouse Choir again (having sung with them at the BBC Folk Awards back in ) to join Jamie Cullum at the BBC Proms in August, it was quite an experience – you can watch a little of it here.

But the big news I wanted to share is that I’m delighted to announce that ahead of going into the studio in December, I’ll be playing a series of solo concerts showcasing all these new songs across the country, starting tomorrow evening at Kings Place in London where I’ll be supporting the wonderful Emilia Martenssson and her new Elda Trio as they release their debut album – I’m really touched that they have covered one of my songs ‘Winter’ on their new record. There are still a few tickets left.

Then after two lovely shows in October supporting Benjin for his album launch and helping the Green Party in Norwich to raise some funds with Mari Joyce, I’ll be hitting the open road in November with the singular talent of Alabaster Deplume. We’ll be heading back to lots of my favourite places, sharing stages with some old friends – SiNK, FaceOmeter, Mikey Kenney, Ditte Elly – and looking forward to making new friends along the way. Please spread the word and hope to see you at a show on the journey.

Finally, just before going into the studio with the new band, I’ll be playing probably my last solo show for a while at Rich Mix on 2 December supporting the amazing Vula Viel. It will be a big one for lots of reasons and tickets are already selling fast so please get in early and get yours now!

The Magic Lantern – Autumn Tour Dates

September
22 – Kings Place (Hall 2), LONDON w/Elda Trio

October 
8 – St Mary’s Old Church, LONDON w/Benjin
19 – Bicycle Shop, NORWICH w/Mari Joyce

November Tour w/Alabaster deplume
1 – Waterstones, High St, BIRMINGHAM w/FaceOmeter
3 – The Klondyke, MANCHESTER w/Mikey Kenney
5 – St Stephen’s, Stockbridge, EDINBURGH w/SiNK
7 – The Cumberland Arms, NEWCASTLE w/Ditte Elly
8 – The Prince Albert, STROUD
9 – The Lighthouse, DEAL
10 – The Talking Drum, MARGATE

December
2 – Rich Mix, LONDON w/Vula Viel

Big love and more updates on the record to come! Jamie x

Poster by Raimund Wong