6th November 2023
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I recently got the fantastic opportunity to conduct an interview with Saul Davies from James before their upcoming tour; ‘Love is the Answer’, which will take place across April and July 2026.
I spoke to Saul all about what inspires both him and the band to continue doing what they love, what they’re excited to do next, and if they’re excited to play their upcoming Liverpool show on the 11th of April at the M&S Bank Arena.
It was a really good year! We had our first number one album, and alongside that we had the chance to do some amazing shows. We got to travel a lot, take our music to a lot of people, and so it was very gratifying. But alongside that, I think the year for me showed that the band was in a really good creative form. Business is one thing, and publicly what people see, but just as important is what’s going on internally within the band and all the rest of it, continuing writing songs and feeling like we’re in a good place. So it was a really significant year actually, and I think some of the momentum we created in 2025 is definitely going on into 2026. We’ve been at it a lot, you know? And it’s really good to work, I mean the most gratifying thing probably at the end of it all is sometimes, whether it’s a big number of people or not, is standing in front of our fans and making a noise – it’s a real privilege to do it actually.
Yeah, and I think we’re all pretty much the same, aren’t we?! When good things are happening in your life you just feel better about your life, don’t you? You know we’re just people at the end of the day, and we’re susceptible to all of the same fears and doubts that everybody is, really. I suppose the difference is for creatives is, as in when you make your living from doing a creative thing, in this case music, your life and work are so closely linked. You don’t really have a life outside of making music ‘cos that’s what your life is in a way, right? It’s great when you feel good, feeling sh*t is sh*t! (laughs)
With a lot of bands, there’s a constant battle to be heard, to get your music out in any way that makes sense. We’re fortunate as hell, you know, the band’s been going – this is officially our 46th year, right? So we’ve been doing this for so long that we’ve managed to pull people along with us. That’s why we are where we are, ‘cos we’ve created this bond with people.
Well, I think it was great! We’ve always had people that love us and are very passionate, almost obsessed by us, you know, small numbers are kind of obsessive. Our music is very passionate, kind of off-the-cuff and people really like that. The people that get it, get it, right?
I think the dial has slightly changed, and now people can look at us, people from your generation and go, “There’s elements of what they do I really love”, whether it’s our message or it might be a particular song, or just our attitudes, right? They think, “Oh, I like that, I get that actually, it’s cool, my values align with that”, and so I think we’re in a good place because people outside of our core foundation are beginning to recognise the value of what we do. So I think the response to our shows and to our records has been really, super positive. It’s really gratifying!
Yes, obviously in a way. I personally am quite wary, and I think amongst us, we all share the same fear – not fear – ‘cos there’s a thing about looking back, which you must do sometimes, but at the same time it can also be a trap. You can become quite nostalgic, and for a lot of bands who do definitive collections, it can be the end, almost drawing a line under that band and saying, “Well, we’re done now.” For us, it’s not at all that, I think we’ve got at least ten years if not more left in us! We’re writing a new record at the moment, for f*ck’s sake, and I think that it’s a nice opportunity for us and our fans to look back.
I mean, we’ve released close to 400 songs, and each one of us in the band would have a different idea of what a definitive “Best Of” should look like, right? I think it is cool to look back, where we are, looking back a little bit is not a bad thing, as long as we don’t become too nostalgic. I don’t think we will, because I don’t think that’s where we sit. I’m very proud of some of the songs that are on that record, that could’ve easily been “missed” to some extent. It’s ever-changing isn’t it, because who comes and listens to you, who hears by mistake a little thing in a TV show or something, and then suddenly join you at any point in your career! But I was surprised frankly, given that it’s a very beautiful product that we made. I love the artwork for it, the way that it was all put together, I think we as a band are very proud of it. It could have been a disaster, a f*cking cheese-fest, but I think we got it right. So I’m really proud of it.
Paying the mortgage! (laughs)
No, well, partly! As in, you know, we all have bills to pay right, it’s a job! But no, ‘cos we’re really lucky. I think when you’re young and you’re in a band and you have any kind of success, any success – like you come out of a bedroom and play to 50 people, that’s a f*cking huge success isn’t it? Then you’re playing, headlining stuff, on Top of the Pops back in the day. You go, “My god, how can this happen to us”, right? A lot of it’s kinda luck, there’s some amazing bands, amazing musicians who don’t get anywhere because they didn’t have that little bit of luck, let’s call it. That’s the mystery of the music industry, these amazing artists who for whatever reason never got anywhere, into the light.
As you get older you recognise it’s a privilege, people invest a lot in you. You become aware of the fact that there’s responsibility in that, actually. You’re driven to by the requirement to make music, to be creative. That’s very difficult to escape, like no one in the industry retires. You might retire as a teacher, but not as a musician. We’re creative people so that requirement to do creative things never really goes away.
It can be quite a fearful place as you get older, thinking “Will people still like us?” and there’s nothing worse than when you go see a band and someone says “We’re gonna play our new song now”, and everyone goes to the bar. Over the years we’ve been reminded about how we do or don’t play certain things, and keep making new music, so we’ve gathered an audience around us who demand that from us. People who come to James shows don’t want just hits, they want new stuff.
That’s what keeps us going, you know?
I think following on from what has just been said, I think it’s ‘cos you have a requirement, you feel it within yourself, individually and collectively, you’ve still got something to say.
When me, Tim, Jim and Mark get together, and we set up our gear and we just make a f*cking unholy racket, and out of those unholy rackets we record. We can piece together bits that work and kinda make art, that’s where our songs come from. We love that process.
We do like 6, 8 hours a day, jam for an hour at a time, we don’t know what we’re gonna do. It’s super stressful and challenging, but unbelievably enlivening when you make a noise that sounds coherent between you, right? Sometimes I think the communication between us is better through music that it is verbally! (laughs) It’s quite weird, but that’s a big driver of why we do it, because we actually really enjoy that time of what is essentially our job.
We’re already well into that process now, and at the end of the month we have a week scheduled to do what will be our final writing session in a house for a week up in the mountains in Yorkshire.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll start to listen to what we’ve done and go, “there’s a song there”, “there’s an amazing melody here”, “wow what a great beat we’ve created”, and then start to make our record so, it’s cool! That has an internal logic to itself, it’s quite difficult to stop.
I’ve not spent as much time as I would like in Liverpool. I was actually born in Liverpool in 1965 in Whiston General Hospital, but I don’t know it very well. Whenever I go back to Liverpool it’s usually because we’ve got a gig there. I love playing in Liverpool, I think it’s really special. I get a little pang of like, “Oh, I’m from here”, again, I don’t know it but nevertheless there is a connection there.
Generally we’re regarded as a Manchester band, but what I like about us, what I like about James is Liverpool has taken on James as almost kind of one of their own. I love that about it. That “Mo Salah, Mo Salah, Mo Salah!” is James, right? That’s “Sit Down”, you know?
They’ve very much taken us under their wing and every time we play in Liverpool the shows are f*cking amazing, I love it! I’m overjoyed to be going to Liverpool this time because oftentimes when these tours come along we play Manchester, we might play Leeds, but it’s very difficult to then go play in Liverpool because there are a limited number of people that want to see James.
I’m really happy this time that we’re getting to do Liverpool and Manchester and Leeds together, it’s great! It’s gonna be noisy and it’s a different vibe there, it’s great I love it!
Definitely yeah!
There’s something about music in Liverpool, it’s ongoing, it’s f*cking everywhere! It’s really cool.
People are bound together by football, and music, humour. Music is one of the things that binds people together in Liverpool.
Oh yeah, a lot! I think we’re really ambitious, as in we want to get our music to even more people, get more places to go and play. I kind of feel that there is ambition within the ranks, I suppose creatively to continue making music, better, new music all the time. And I guess commercially to get that music to people and be, in a sense, more visibly successful, right?
We’re far from done yet! That would be the thing for me, is that we’re far from done as a band, and I think this year we’ll be very much about riding the wave of momentum that we have created for the last couple of years.
I think it’s just an ongoing process really, as at some point I think something mad might happen to our band! Mad things do keep happening to us really, so somebody up there likes us, you know! It’s alright! (laughs)
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