Originally a three-piece, Manchester’s James revealed their first EP seven years ago. And they’re now a seven-piece with a new album called Seven, strangely enough. Over the years their music has changed mainly due to varied instrumentation and styles but they have always been a pop band. Musicview asked vocalist Tim Booth and bassist Jim Glennie how their music has progressed since their previous album Gold Mother.
Tim : “Each one has been odd. We’ve experimented in this area and enjoyed it. This is what we found here and then we move on and records tend to react against the last one. So there’s a constant movement forward away from, and that seems to dictate our direction, but it doesn’t feel at all like now we’ve found our station.”
Jim : “That’s the last thing we want really. We want to move on and keep changing”
Tim : “Gold Mother, we felt had too much variety of sound and style. It was almost too disparate and it was like lots of real variety but it was almost too much. There’s wasn’t such a sense of whole as there is on this record where you feel it comes from the same tribe.”
Once a three-piece Manchester’s James have released five albums since their inception in 1985. With a new album Seven, the band is now a fully-fledged seven-piece and singer Tim Booth and bassist Jim Glennie related how the band dynamic has changed when talking to Musicview.
Tim : “It’s good because we’re much more flexible. We have trumpet and fiddle and the fiddle player plays guitar and drums. So, and the keyboard player plays about six instruments, so we can choose what sound we want. We aren’t stuck and that’s really nice.”
Jim : “There’s more colour in the sound now. When you want to hit people hard, you know, seven people whacking away, you’ve got seven people there, you’ve got the options.”
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