He has reached the pinnacle of worldwide musical fame, selling 11 million copies of his first album and five million of his second — levels of success James Blunt even now can hardly fathom. Now a global celebrity for his 2005 hit “You’re Beautiful,” Blunt spoke with Metro’s Anthony Johnston.
Your third studio album ‘Some Kind of Trouble’ is scheduled for release on November 8. What can fans expect?
In the past, I would go and take a guitar and sit in a corner, writing a song à la “Woe, woe, poor old me” — very singer-songwriter, quite melancholic and morose. My first album [“Back to Bedlam”] was innocent, the second one [“All the Lost Souls”] was quite reactionary and introspective as a result of a new world I was forced into. After a while, I wasn’t enjoying professional music anymore. I stopped writing music. My new album [“Some Kind of Trouble”] is energetic, positive, up-tempo and optimistic; it even has the naivety that a teenager might have when the world is there to be tasted for all its joys.
If you were to advise aspiring musicians hoping to hit the big time, what would you say?
In order to write music, you need to have experienced life. As an influence on this new album, I was just spending time with my mates and living an ordinary life, away from the music business; my work didn’t become introverted, based on the weird music world in which I am now in.
With millions of album sales under your belt, and with ‘Back to Bedlam’ voted as the UK’s bestselling album of the decade, can you explain the reasons behind your success? How did you feel with your newly found fame?
[Laughs.] To answer your first question, I really don’t know! It was quite unnerving; it was totally unexpected to me. I think when I discovered my success as it happened, I thought to myself, “Damn!” — all of a sudden your life changes. If you go to No. 2 in the music charts, no one knows who you are. If you get to No.1, everyone knows who you are. It is quite a scary moment. It took me a bit of time to get used to that feeling of being famous. Now I feel as though I have come to terms with fame and I am cool with the whole thing.
