James Blunt’s biggest achievement is no laughing matter. Or is it?
Yes, we’re talking about You’re Beautiful. The love-to-hate-it tune was the third single off of Blunt’s debut album, Back to Bedlam in 2004, when it exploded in a way that Blunt couldn’t have foreseen. It remains the British singer’s most successful single in America.
Three albums later — All the Lost Souls (2007), Some Kind of Trouble (2010) and Moon Landing (2013) — and it’s still the only song of Blunt’s to have earned a coveted Top 40 spot in the US.
Alas, with great power comes great responsibility — or at least, the need to grow a thicker skin.
The oft-ridiculed You’re Beautiful was dubbed the seventh most annoying song of all time by Rolling Stone readers not too long ago, but Blunt is nothing if not level-headed about the vitriol lobbed his way. (The 41-year-old has a habit of replying to unsuspecting haters on Twitter with light-hearted and self-deprecating remarks, which makes for comedy gold.)
“There are a few people who, when a song is a hit in any kind of big way, they’re then rude about it and say they don’t like it,” he told tabloid! over the phone ahead of his Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival performance on February 25 at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, which will mark his third appearance at the festival.
“But there are millions of people who do [like it]. They don’t necessarily jump up and down screaming how much they love it — they just buy it and listen to it. I know that, because it’s sold in its millions and played in its millions on radio, and if I didn’t play it in concert, I think the audience would ask for their money back,” he added.
We certainly can’t argue with that. Moving swiftly along, the fast-spoken singer filled us in on the re-release of his latest album, Moon Landing — Apollo Edition, and told us what he’s most looking forward to when he finally gets off tour.
Are you going to be playing a lot of new songs from Moon Landing in Dubai?
I don’t want to bog people down only in the new album because I want them to enjoy themselves. Of course I’ll play things like Bonfire Heart that they’ve heard on the radio, but I promise to play songs from earlier albums that people know, as well, like You’re Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover and 1973.
Do you enjoy playing the massive hits more or the newer material and more personal stuff?
For the audience to react in a positive way is the most exciting part as a musician, really. And they respond well to the songs that they know best. But of course, along the way, it’s nice to introduce a new album. If I was just playing the first album still, all the time and only that, then of course the mind would turn to jelly.
You chose to re-release Moon Landing as the Apollo Edition with extra songs last year. Why’s that?
That’s the record label trying to eat as much money as they can out of an album. It was commercially successful enough [for them] to want to re-release it. But what I really enjoyed was, I had written some songs on the road which I really loved, and I could then put them out now rather than wait for the next album, which might be three years time. It’s got one of my favourite songs called Smoke Signals, and I love having that out now because I can play it on the road.
Do you tend to do a lot of writing when you’re on tour?
I do find it quite hard, just because we’re travelling and prepping for the next show, so I don’t write that much on the road.
Is Twitter a way for you to blow off some steam by responding to people who don’t expect it?
I’m just messing around. People take Twitter so seriously, as if their opinions are always fact. I thought, well, I may as well enjoy it. So I’m always trying to do it with good humour and, on the whole, trying to at least laugh at myself just as much as anyone else.
With people like Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran, do you find the singer-songwriter scene is more commercial right now than when you were starting out in 2003?
I think it’s a really exciting time. There’s lots going on and I think what’s really exciting about it as well is that we can get our music out so quickly, so easily, directly to the people. That’s what I find most exciting at the moment, just the fact that you can hear a song like Sam Smith’s on the radio, Shazaam it immediately and buy it. It’s fantastic. My record collection’s exploded as a result.
What music are you liking right now?
I really love the Hozier song, Take Me To Church, I think that’s really fantastic. I don’t know what else I’ve been listening to, I’ll have to take a look at my iTunes and see what I’ve purchased recently. I know Ed Sheeran very well, he’s a friend, actually, because we’re managed by the same management firm.
Would you ever consider doing a duet with someone like that?
I normally record in a personal way, and I go and lock myself away as I have done with this album with Tom Rothrock, my producer. We locked ourselves in the studio for about a year doing it. It’s quite intense in that way. I’ve never tried doing that with someone else. I have written with other people along the way. I’ve been writing with Ryan Tedder, who’s the lead singer of One Republic, and we have great fun writing together and messing around. I jumped on his tour bus with him and went touring around Europe, I was like the groupie to their band. I like that kind of collaboration, but as for the actual recording, I like to stick with [my producer]. He allows me to make a noise and delete it if it sounds bad.
You’ve spoken quite a bit about record labels. Do you think you would do it all on your own, if you could?
No, I get on with mine really well. I’m on Atlantic Records. I’ve said comments about them trying to sell the record, but I’m glad that they do. I’m trying to make a living out of it, too. I suppose that’s the job. They allow me to make the records that I want, and then their job is to go out and sell it. We have a really good partnership in that way.
What are your long-term plans at the moment?
I’m hoping and looking forward to getting home so that I can wash my clothes.
Are you a homebody, then, or the type who wants to keep getting back on the road?
I love home. Absolutely. But I also love being out on the road. At the moment, we’re on a roll. We’re really looking forward to coming to Dubai again and it’ll be fantastic. We put all the practice in around the rest of the world [over the past 18 months]. By the time tour is finished end of April, then I think we’ll be happy to clock in and go home.
What does being home mean to you?
Considering that on the tour we sleep in a bed the size of a coffin and there’s 14 of us on each bus, sleeping overnight as it moves between cities… To be home means you can sprawl out and be lazy. And you don’t have to share it with 14 men.
Tickets to see James Blunt and Christina Perri on February 25 at Dubai Media City Ampitheatre start at Dh295 at ticketmaster.ae.
