Gavin James’s latest single ‘Sober’, is the perfect introduction to who he is as an artist. It’s a stadium-scaled expression of the kind of sorrowful sentiment that you’d normally keep close to your chest: the ever-relevant young adult experience of wondering whether a love is fuelled by intoxication or if there’s something more substantial to hold onto.
Gavin says, “Sober is a song about being in love with someone and then in the morning they all of a sudden don’t love you back. It’s pretty much about the sobering reality that you are not for them and you’re left alone replaying the relationship in your head … so you’re sad about it and you sing it real loud with a piano.”
There’s a bravery in sharing such an emotion in a song that’s equally at home on the airwaves as it is unifying audiences at shows. And that’s matched by his judgement in deploying the full-strength of his emotive vocals only where it matters the most.
Setting eternally relevant themes to classic melodies with an ear for modernist production, Gavin James’ unassuming authenticity and songcraft has been the key to him unlocking 1.5 billion streams, 6 million monthly listeners at Spotify, and 32 international Platinum or Gold records. His million+ social media followers are similarly engaged by an artist simply being who he is.
From early favorites such as ‘Always’ and ‘Nervous’ to recent releases ‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Boxes’, Gavin’s talents have been embraced by countless big names. He has played shows with Niall Horan, Ed Sheeran, and Sam Smith, while Jimin of BTS amassed 256 million likes when he sang along to ‘Nervous’ on the South Korean streaming service V Live. Gavin’s most recent ‘Boxes’ EP hit number 1 in the album and airplay charts in Ireland last year.
Let us know what you think of ‘Sober’ on @CelebMix!