Chatting with… James Arthur

Last saturday, we sat down for a chat with James Arthur after his show at Oporto (review coming soon). We talked about pretty much everything: shows, his new album, new songs, colaborations, fans! He still recorded two messages, one for his fans, and other for B-Side N’Crowd!
B-Side N’Crowd: How did you feel about coming back to Portugal? Yesterday you were in Coimbra, now Porto, how did it feel?

James Arthur: I really like Portugal I’ve had so much fun at any time I’ve been here so I was really happy to come back because I had such a great experience the first time I was here and I seem to have a lot of fans here. It was just a whole in whole a really good experience the both of times I’ve been here especially tonight the crowd were specially great.

BSNC: The “Story so far” is your new tour, you’re starting it soon. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

JA: So basically, I’m just going to be going back to when I first started to write songs and make music and just kinda take the UK fans through the journey that I’ve been on in terms of all the different genres of music that I’ve explored over the years. It’s the songs from when I was 15, 16 to now. Like the song you’ve heard tonight, “Promise”, is one of the new songs, it’s basically like a catalog of material from years.

BSNC: You’ve been doing a few covers, lately. How do you do them so well?

JA: I’ve always enjoyed interpreting other people’s songs, sometimes I feel like some artists, they don’t put enough emotion on the thing that they’re saying, you know? Some of the lyrics that some artists write they won’t put the right inflexion or the right intonation in each word like really mean each word and I think maybe I just bring out the right emotion into the songs.

BSNC: What about your new album? Is promise going to be there?

JA: I don’t know, it’s just one of many, many songs I’ve been writing for the new album. When I sign the new record deal – which is going to be very soon – then myself and the record label, we will decide which are the best songs.

BSNC: Are you still recording or you’re still deciding?

JA: I’m still writing everyday so, there could like a hundred and fifty two hundred songs to choose from, so we’ll see what comes out.

BSNC: What’s the Story so far for James Arthur?

JA: For me, I’ve been in a hell of a journey, I’ve been up, I’ve been down and I’ve been right, right down. I struggled with being recognized for a little while and now I’m comfortable with whom I am, so I just got into a place where I’m ready to make music again – the music that I want to make – like the music I used to like to make when I was younger and I’m letting anybody tell me what to do. So I guess it’s a milestone and I want to express that to people, that I’m in a place where it’s just begun and that’s just the start and that’s the story so far and there’s a lot to come in the future.

BSNC: Until today, what was the best venue that you’ve ever played?

JA: I mean, this is in the Top 5 because there was so many people here – the only thing that could be bigger than this is like, Wembley Stadium, where there’s like 80 000 people – but this is 40 000 people, it’s crazy! It’s amazing everywhere I go, but especially when I come to places like this and I don’t expect people to know the words to songs of my album and people singing along to Suicide, or to Supposed, Recovery.

BSNC: Let’s talk about colaborations. I know you’ve been talking – a few time back – about doing some colaborations. Dead or alive, who would like to collaborate with?

JA: Lauryn Hill, Kurt Cobain. I’ve always loved to be in a Kanye West song or a Eminem song, that would be cool! My idols are people like Lauryn Hill and Nirvana and people like that.

BSNC: You promised, a year or two ago, a collaboration with Josh Francechi [from You Me At Six], when is it coming?

JA: It’s a possibility, he’s one of my good friends, so, I mean, You Me At Six are one of my favoutite bands and we’ve always talked about it and said like: “Let’s feature each other’s albums” and we both just have been busy, I guess – They tour a lot – I guess when we’re not that busy, we’ll get together and maybe write something!

BSNC: You have a lot of fans and you have a nice relationship with them, do you have any funny stories that you can share?

JA: The funny thing about my fans is that I can something on Twitter and I will, like, get a million messages about that one little thing that I said. They’re very funny, they pick up on everything!