James - The Night Before

With a career that includes 10 studio albums, twenty UK Top 40 singles and 12 million albums sold James will not only be returning this April with a 10 date UK tour but also releasing the first of two mini albums. Titled ‘The Night Before’ the mini album will be released on April 19th and it contains all brand new studio material from the 7 piece band. Produced by Lee ‘Muddy’ Baker (who produced Hey Ma as well as Booth’s solo album Bone in 2004), The Night Before seems fearless in comparison to its predecessors, a product, no doubt, of the way it was conceived: the band set up an ftp site to which they all contributed, downloading and updating each other’s efforts at various intervals whilst Baker knocked things into shape. This “virtual” recording process (which eventually led to recording sessions in Brighton and Oswestry), was presumably inspired by the band’s history of working with Brian Eno and has brought out the best in James, the results proving as diverse and intriguing as anything the band have attempted before. After the UK leg of the tour the band intend to spend five days recording “naturally and playing together in a big room” with no overdubs and with a view to capturing “something spontaneous”. This will make up the 2nd part of the mini album to be released in July and it will be entitled ‘The Morning After’.

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