Multi award winning Indie-Pop singer/songwriter Jamie Lawson last week released his stunning new album ‘The Years In Between’ and is currently touring Europe in the UK in support of the hit record with the run of dates kicking off in Switzerland on April 12th.
Here we speak exclusively to Jamie Lawson to discuss his tour, possible collaboration with support act Sarah Darling, Country Music influences and more:
You’re touring the UK and Europe soon, what can fans expect from the shows?
Well, there won’t be any pyrotechnics, fireworks or laser displays, so apologies to anyone expecting that! I hope I can put on a show where people can lose themselves in music for an hour and a half, either by singing and clapping along or by immersing themselves in the songs. That’s
the sort of show I personally like to go to.
You will be joined by US Country star Sarah Darling for a select few dates, how did you learn about her music?
I learnt about Sarah through my manager and once I’d listened to her music it was a no brainer to ask her along. One of the great things about touring is getting to see other people do their thing every night, so I’m very lucky that Sarah agreed to come and do it.
Do you have any plans to work with Sarah on any collaborations in the future?
There aren’t any at the moment but I’m always up for collaborating so who knows…
Your own music is very lyric based, do you often take inspiration from the Country genre?
I do love country music but I don’t think it owns lyric based music. I’m more likely to have found that inspiration in bands like R.E.M., Crowded House or Mark Eitzel who always seemed to make music that I could easily sing along to and also really made me think. I like that.
With your forthcoming tour, how did you decide on the support acts?
I’ve been very lucky with all my tours to have amazing support acts. This time is no different, as I said, Sarah was an easy choice to make with her beautiful voice. I’d worked with Andy Burrows before as we wrote a song for my last album called Falling In Love. I felt very cheeky asking him to open for me as I’m a huge fan of his myself. He’s a brilliant songwriter so I think these shows will be very special indeed.
Your new album is out now, do you plan on playing the whole record live?
No, we wont play it all but the majority of it. However I’m a little worried because at the moment one of the songs I’ve left out of the set seems to be getting a lot of requests and we haven’t rehearsed it! I won’t say which song though.
What’s your favourite and least favourite thing about being out on the road?
My favourite thing is a cliche but it’s true; it’s playing to people and meeting people at the shows. It’s an amazing job to have and I’m very fortunate that I get to do it, so I try never to take that for granted. The flip side of that is not sleeping very well. We tour on a bus, the idea being you get on in one town, drive over night to the next town and sleep in between, but unfortunately I rarely do, so by the end of the tour I’m a zombie.
Which city are you most excited about playing this tour?
London Shepherd’s Bush Empire is an amazing venue with a lot of history, I saw a lot of my favourite bands play there, Natalie Merchant, Ron Sexsmith, Counting Crows, so that’s always going to be up there for me. I’m looking forward to Europe and playing in Germany again. Last time there we sold a few of those dates out which was amazing. Also looking forward to Paris, though I’m less used to playing there. We added a Paris show this time because the Paris shows with Ed Sheeran last summer were some of the best of that tour, so I’m hoping that show will be good too.
Tickets for Jamie Lawson’s UK and European tour are on sale now! Make sure you follow Jamie on Twitter @jamielawsonuk to keep up to date with all his latest music and tour news!
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