December 2001
In the past year, James Walsh has watched his band Starsailor top of musical charts around the world with their debut album, Love Is Here, produced by Steve Osbourne (who�s also handled U2, The Doves and New Order). In addition, Walsh performed at huge festivals (Glastonbury), aired on TV (�David Letterman� and �Top of the Pops�), had his words appear in major publications (like Rolling Stone, NME), and celebrated his 21st birthday.
He�s living the rock �n roll dream, but he�s not a very rock �n� roll kind of guy. In fact, you�re more likely to find him standing in a corner, hands in pockets and a beatific smile on his face, rather than guzzling lager, hitting on chicks, smoking cigarettes or doing any of those other stereotypical rock star things. It is this sort of gravitas that characterizes Starsailor perfectly, giving them credibility despite their newness and youth, and making it impossible to dismiss their talent and potential.
From his hotel room in San Francisco - �It�s lots of hills!� he comments, laughing - - Walsh talked about what a whirlwind life has been for him so far.
I�ve been reading a lot of articles about you since late last year when the buzz started, and what consistently floors me the wisdom and gravity that come across in your words and music. Sometimes it takes people a lifetime to realize what�s most important, but you seem so grounded already and it�s demonstrated in the priorities you have as band. Has it been hard to maintain this grounding now that Starsailor are a part of the big industry machine? What kinds of things have you refused to do to maintain your own integrity?
I think we try and find a balance between not doing the stuff that compromises us musically and artistically. But at the same time we try not to be really political and anti-establishment, because what you�ve got to realize is that 90% of journalists and TV people are pretty genuine people who love music as much as you do, so you�ve got to kind of appreciate that. It�s just sometimes when you�ll do a photo shoot or something and they�ll suggest that you wear sailor costumes� (Laughing) Stupid things like that that we�d refuse to do. The other thing is re-doing things for different markets - - I�m not really into that at all. I think if you�ve done something then that�s your vision and that�s what you want to put across. We�ve never re-recorded a song or anything because people thought it might sound better in this state or that country.
Now that you guys are working within circles of people who�ve been in the business for a while, have you taken a lot of advice from them and if so, what�s the best guidance you�ve been given?
We�ve been good mates with The Doves and they�ve always been supportive, just told us to keep writing and keep on our toes because the next album will come around quicker than you think and you need to be prepared for it with songs and ideas, writing in sound check and on the road. It�s really easy to just settle down and just keep playing this album for the next year - - which would be good fun, but it�s nice and exciting as well to have something even better in the back of your mind that you want to unleash when all this stuff is finished.
But how much has going through the motions of everything - - having to tour, having to make videos, having to go to parties, having to do interviews like this one - - affected your creativity? Was it easier to write songs two years ago when you didn�t have to do any of this?
I don�t think it�s affected it too much, really. I think playing night after night is when you get a lot better as a musician because you need to add different levels of intensity and experiment a little bit with the existing songs just to keep everything interesting. And I think I feel better as well that I know what I�m doing in essence is all right, whereas before I wasn�t too sure if what I was doing was worthy or whatever. If I know the sound that I make with my voice and the way that I play the guitar is all right�if I sat down and wrote something really quickly people would think, �Yeah, that�s pretty good,� because the elements are good. So I know if I sat down and really worked at something then I could come up with something really good. I don�t know if that makes any sense. (Laughs) It�s that justification that what you�re doing is relevant - - not so much being told that you�re the best or anything. Just to know that what you�re doing is relevant and that people are going to listen to it is the thing that gives you the confidence to keep improving and getting better.
What I get from your songwriting and singing is a sensibility I know a lot of people can share, which is the feeling of awkward kid not fitting in, just a real lack of self-esteem. But then you discover your talent and you engage in it as a way to build your confidence; ironically, the way it came about is because you had that angst in the first place so maybe if you get too confident it might go away, you know? Do you ever feel that if your head gets too big you�re going to lose it all?
Um, a little.... (Quiet pause) I�ll always have that sort of dissatisfaction. I�ve got to maintain it, that approach to your writing and everything, just try to keep your personal life precious and separate as well, writing about that as if you.... I don�t know.
Do you write more about things that have actually happened to you or things that you hear about that have happened to other people?
Mostly things that have happened to me, feelings that I�ve had, but on a couple of occasions I�ve written about things that have happened to other people.
What do you say to people who comment, "Oh, he�s just a 20-year-old kid - - what could he possibly know about heartbreak and desolation or even joy and happiness? You�re too young to sing about stuff like that!"
I wouldn�t know what to say, really - I suppose I�d apologize for doing
it if you don�t want me to! (Laughs) It�s weird because people say all
those things, like �What do you think you�re doing?� and it�s like, well,
I just sit in my room and whatever comes into my head I just bring them
out, and if enough people like them, you can�t just keep them to yourself.
What are you gonna do - - write these songs and have everyone wanting to
listen to them and finding inspiration in them but say, �Oh, no, I�m not
gonna play these songs until I�m 31 because it won�t make sense till then!�?
(Laughs) I think that because I�m so full of angst or whatever - so full
of emotion - - the songs come out just pure with feeling. It isn�t an intelligence
thing; I�m not trying to be clever. I don�t think of it as poetry because
it wouldn�t make sense without the heartfelt vocals. And what I�m singing
is important. The lyrics have got to have meaning and the song�s got to
have feeling as well.
When I say angst it can be good angst, too, because God knows there�s
plenty of joyousness in your songs.
It�s relief as well. I think people misconstrue sad lyrics as, �You must�ve written them when you were feeling really depressed�� But most of them were written a few weeks after something�s happened, when you�re getting over it and looking to something, looking to the future.
When you�ve got hope.
Yes, hope.
The artists who have influenced you are pretty eclectic and impressive and I�m wondering how you came to be aware of them.
Ithink one of the turning points for me was when my brother recorded the Neil Young MTV "Unplugged" performance from the TV. My brother is eight years older than me and he was starting to get into things like that. I remember Neil Young sat at this massive organ - - almost like in a church, a proper big pipe organ - - playing "Like a Hurricane" and it just took me aback that someone could have that sort of impact. And he just sat there getting on with it and hardly spoke between songs. His modesty was really fascinating to me because all the music videos I�d ever liked were things like U2, with Bono kind of gallivanting around the stage and giving it all that star treatment - - which I think is amazing; U2 were one of my early influences. But to see someone have the same impact just sitting down at an organ and hardly saying a word was just that much more inspiring because I could relate to it more. After Neil Young I went out and got Crosby, Stills and Nash albums, and everybody just kind of wove into each other, I guess. It�s really easy to discover new music by listening to one musician who worked with a lot of others - - you just keep going that way.
You�re really good at taking the qualities that you like from your influences and turning all that into something that�s very much all your own. Purists might say that it�s a bad thing to kind of pick apart and put back together again, so with that here�s a deep, philosophical question: Do you feel it�s an artist�s responsibility to revolutionize their art and did you decide to be a musician with that ideal in mind? Saying, I�m going to kind of start off with what I�ve heard but aim to do something that nobody�s ever heard before...
I think your music inevitably gets more and more original as you go along, but you should never be too conscious at trying to sound different because that sort of thing always just comes out of nowhere. Like you said, it�s a progression, really. The Beatles started off by kind of sounding like a lot of their contemporaries on the really early albums like A Hard Day�s Night and Beatles For Sale, then progressed to something like Sgt. Pepper�s. And it wasn�t that they sat in the studio making Sgt. Pepper�s thinking, �Right now we�re going to make an album which is going to invent a new form of music!� They thought, �Let�s have some fun here and sort of do something new.� There�s still elements of what they were doing before in there as well, so I don�t know...I�m probably rambling. (Laughs)
No, I get it - it�s more important to you to do what you want to do rather than worry bout what everyone else thinks.
Yeah! It�s like soul music. All those artists, if you think of it in straight musical terms, are kind of hard to differentiate, but when you think about way they sing about the same troubles and things, you know what it�s about then.
You mentioned the Beatles and performed a bit of �Let It Be� during your recent show at the Troubadour. How did George Harrison�s passing affect you?
I think George Harrison encapsulates the idea of being able to be a well-respected musician and star but maintain a quiet nature and a will to succeed rather than the flamboyance of Lennon and Jagger and all those sorts. He�s just a refreshing kind of alternative to that hedonistic 60�s sort of personality. He obviously had his moments - - I mean, everyone around then did - - but I think he kept it low-key and maintained that his guitar playing and his music was what came first. He�s obviously quite a sensitive person and I think that he just clicked into that band perfectly; with the strong personalities of Lennon and McCartney and their perfectionism, the band needed someone of the immense talent that George Harrison had because those two wouldn�t have settled for anything less. He did the job over and above everyone�s expectations, really.
What it is like being the front man of the band? Are there times when your band mates could easily answer most questions, or is there a reason why people should or want to talk to you?
The other three could probably answer a lot of the questions about musical influences, how the band formed and things. But I think it�s just because so many people want to talk bout the lyrics, really. So I think that�s why.
Lyric writing, yes, but also your voice. Part of the power of Starsailor live, I think, is that no one really believes you can sing like that until they actually witness it. Were you ever nervous about letting that voice out in public?
When we first got signed there was the inevitable group of people who were opposed to what I was doing. I think it�s quite in your face, quite intense and the sort of voice and music that you either love or hate. But that�s what everyone should aim for, because the worst feeling in the world is indifference.
When you guest DJ�d on KCRW, I was really struck by the artists you�d
picked. What I saw that Starsailor had in common with Jeff Buckley, Tim
Buckley, Big Star and the others you played was an earnestness and deep
desire to play music. Do you ever fear that people will exploit that earnestness,
and are you scared at all that you might end up like some self-destructive
artist who succumbs to the thing that they love most because people around
them are taking advantage of them? I mean, the guys that I mentioned all
met some kind of tragedy in their careers.
(Laughing) Interesting question! I think it�s definitely a hard, hard
world to try and live in if you�re a sensitive and modest kind of person.
But you just got to separate your home life and personal life from the
world of music, all the people that you�re kind of working with. It�s important
that you keep those sorts of things in perspective, really. It sounds cynical
but you try and work out if people would be that nice to you if you weren�t
selling records or doing good business. I think you can always tell the
people that are only interested in that side because of the little knowledge
they have of where you come from musically, your heritage and things. You
meet a lot of people in music as well who inspire you, who�ve worked with
great people before and have put you in the same bracket, and that�s who
you want to sort of listen to a bit more.
