James Vincent McMorrow - Steven (single)
Having only released his fifth album ‘Grapefruit Season’ last September, fans may well have been surprised to hear that James Vincent McMorrow had a new album ‘The Less I Knew’ set to be released in June 2022. For the first time, the Platinum-selling, 4x Choice Prize nominated singer-songwriter recorded almost everything on this album himself, and this new approach is streamlined, aiming to minimise the gaps between creation and release “so that you still feel the electricity” of his inspiration.
The process started when James drove into his hometown of Malahide last autumn. Episodes of his old life flashed into his memory. And it made him question his future: could he go back to living a simpler life by the ocean? His mind was made up on the drive back. “You can’t revisit the past, or at least I can’t,” he affirms. “I’m not the same as I was back then, and the place isn’t the same. The idea of walking the same streets felt fucked up to me.”
Those thoughts inspired the album’s lead single ‘Steven’, which is named in honour of James' cousin, who died very young. He was a budding guitarist, which impressed young James and subconsciously influenced his future path as a musician. In a song that’s intimate, affecting, immediately addictive and with a beguiling beauty that matches its melancholy mood, James unlocks specific memories of “houses I used to hang out in, the people who lived there, and the wasp nest outside my bedroom window that I never thought to deal with.”
James decided to re-work the original with his signature touch and ended up with a beautiful acoustic ballad layered with guitars and piano. Vocal heavy with emotions, this track is raw, evocative, haunting. It often takes a dramatic or even a tragic event for a powerful song like this to be born. It resonates with the listeners even more because they can feel the emotions, relate to the story.
"Then when i’d see you later
You’d tell me I’m your favourite
Tell me we’re the same but
You still think i can’t be saved"