'It Was Just A Weird Way To Make An Album': The Lessons Jarryd James Learnt For New Record

The long-awaited second album from Aussie singer-songwriter Jarryd James is finally out today, but its planned unveiling could have very well taken place a month early, against the wishes of everyone involved.

James was rushing around town in December with a test pressing of PM on him, only to discover he had misplaced it somewhere along the way. Thankfully, a good samaritan named Richard stumbled across the vinyl.

“I was getting in an Uber and it must have just slipped out of my bag,” James recalls. “Luckily, it had my name on it, so he wrote to me on Instagram… he saved me, man.”

The release of PM is a long time coming, following on from 2015's Thirty One.

“[PM] is in the same vein of, I guess you’d call it alternative R&B,” he tells. “I don’t think there are two songs that sound the same, which is something I really tried to work on; I wanted everything to be pretty unique.

“But as far as the sound palette, I think it’s pretty interesting. I pretty much worked with a different producer on every song, I kind of doubled down on a couple of them, but I think people will like it.

“These days I just get into the studio and let it happen as we’re recording the track.”

James also took an organic approach to the album as a whole.

“I didn’t rush into it,” he enthuses. “I definitely took my time, because I wanted to make sure that it turned out exactly how I wanted. I spent a lot of time travelling around and working with the exact people that I wanted to work with, and I got very lucky there.”

It’s an approach that stems from the chaotic manner in which his acclaimed debut, Thirty One, came about, following the “unexpected success” of breakout single Do You Remember.

“It was just a weird way to make an album, because it was like, ‘Well, shit, you’ve got all this heat on you now, you’ve got to make an album.’ Rather than, ‘I really love making music and I’m able to do it all the time now so I can take my time and make it perfect.’

“I’m still proud of Thirty One, but it was maybe a little more choreographed by other people than it was by myself. With saying all that, I still got to work with some of my favourite people that I then went to work with on the second album as well.”

For PM, James enlisted an impressive team of producers, including Clams Casino (A$AP Rocky, Vince Staples), Malay Ho (Frank Ocean, John Legend, Alicia Keys) FrancisGotHeat (Drake, Travis Scott), Joel Little (Khalid, Lorde) and more, which saw him create the album across LA, Nicaragua, Brisbane, Auckland and New York.

“Travelling changes your mindset a lot and for me it definitely makes me feel much more creative. I’m so glad I got to get around the world when I did.”

Had the start of PM’s creation coincided with COVID-lockdown and travel restrictions, James would have taken a drastically different approach.

“I refuse to do Zoom sessions – I can’t, I’m too awkward as it is already,” he laughs. “I have to be in the room with someone; I have to be able to see the look in their eyes. Being in the studio with someone, it’s quite an intimate thing and you need to be able to read their body language and catch their vibes.

“Like I was saying before, the way I make music all goes off instinct and literally winging it and making shit up as you go along, so if you separate the people doing it, it kind of makes it impossible for me.”

James knows how to access his creativity and along with being in the same room with someone, working at night also helps inspiration, hence the new album’s title.

“I’ve tried making music in the morning before, you know, getting up and doing the whole ‘getting to work’ things, but I just never make good decisions in the morning, my brain isn’t really awake yet,” he tells.

“So I usually start my sessions around 5pm or something like that. There’s something about when the sun goes down.”