Musician James Marriott has exclusively revealed the title of his unreleased album in an interview following his sell-out show in Sheffield, as part of his first UK tour.
The 25-year-old kicked off his first tour, named the Bitter Tour, in February, travelling around the country to perform to hundreds of adoring fans.
He made his way to Sheffield on 24 February, where he performed a sell-out show at The Leadmill, with over 850 in attendance.
James spoke of how honoured he felt to perform in a venue which artists such as Alex Turner and Jorja Smith had also performed.
He said: “That was a very special night for me specifically. It was the biggest show that we had done at that point, still the biggest we have done so far, and it was just a really brilliant night.
“I find it really hard to find anything else in my life that has felt that way and its beautiful. I loved it.”
The Sheffield show marked several milestones for the musician, this being his 10th show ever, as well as one of his most popular songs Him, hitting ten million streams.
To celebrate, he performed an encore of Him.
James added: “Apparently that moment when we walked back on stage, people refreshed and it had hit it. It was just the timing was magnificent.”
A journey from online content creation to music
James’ career began with posting commentary videos on YouTube, and then he increased his following with live-streaming on Twitch.
He launched his music career in 2020 after he debuted with his first single Slow Down, when he already had a strong following online.
Speaking on the important role that this prior career has had on his music, James said: “Having this kind of backing of everything online, we have always known whatever we put out there, there will be an audience for it.
“It has meant that I can afford to surround myself with some really talented people that can make everything better, which I wouldn’t of had without this original career choice.”
After trying multiple art forms himself, James emphasised that he encourages people not to pigeon-hole themselves.
“The way that I feel about art and artists is that no one should ever feel like they need to do one thing.
“I think the way that society and culture works is that if do one thing for a long time and become a master at that thing, there is a decent chance you can make a living off of it. But that doesn’t mean that when you make a living off it that you should only do that thing.”
Recording his first album
Speaking exclusively to Sheflive, James revealed the title of the unreleased album.
He said: “It’s called Are We There Yet and it’s an album that I’ve been working on for a very long time. There is a couple of songs that I played [on tour] that are off that album.
“The first single is going to be So Long which we love as a band. We love playing that song and I think it’s probably the best song I’ve ever written. I am very happy with it, and that should be out within the next couple of months really.”
He added: “We should be done over the summer at some point, and release it towards the end of the year.”
James expressed how the touring experience has influenced the album direction: “What I’d say is, the majority of the music we’re writing now is very inspired by playing live.
“What I found is, as much as I love writing the music and producing it and putting it out there, nothing really beats the moment where you’re in front of people and they’re singing it to you. Car Lights being the biggest example of that.”
James added: “We want to make music that people can scream back at us, and I’m happy with how it’s going so far.”
