New Zealand pop singer-songwriter Mitch James is on a roll.
Besides scoring a big hit (the 62 million plus streamed track “Bright Blue Skies”) Mitch James has a new single out titled “Motions.”
He’s now playing shows in support of it.
Mitch performed at Callum Scott’s recent Manila concert.
In an interview with Bulletin Entertainment, Mitch revealed why he’s most excited to be doing these things again.
“I had an extremely s**t 4 years since my first album. My own health issues, family health issues, constant roadblocks in my career, failed album attempts, singles that didn’t work,” James said.
Couple that with the pandemic that essentially shut down everything, it was a really trying past few years for Mitch.
“I didn’t weather (the pandemic) well at all,” said he, managing a laugh. “It was very challenging.”
Of course, his personal way out of all this is to come up with new songs.
“I wrote a lot. I’m a collaborative song writer, so it was very hard to try just by myself. And to not play shows (during the lockdowns) was very challenging. I guess you could say, I weathered it just (fairly). Put it this way, I’m very grateful that we’re coming out of it now and that we can play shows and get back to some sense of normalcy.”
And one of the songs to come out from those trying times in Mitch’s life is “Motions.”
He said, “I always look for the silver lining or the bright side (of things). So, this song (“Motions”) is all about that.”
One other single that James recently put out is “Japan.” And just like “Motions,” said song is practically an account of what he lived through recently.
“’Japan’ is about one particular experience about where my ex-girlfriend and I were planning to go on a trip to Japan, and she dumped me and I was at band practice and I was going through Instagram and saw that she went on the holiday without me (laughs), so I wrote about it so that was a very particular instance that one, so yeah, I like to make them (songs) about real things because I feel that’s where people can connect when it's real.”
Mitch added, “I pride myself on being a songwriter who writes about real life experiences. For a while there I sort of skewed away from writing about things that were real when things weren’t working out for me. So, I went back to the drawing board and went back to what my fans always loved about my music which is (singing) about what’s real and honest. So, I definitely took all of those challenging experiences and the good ones over the last few years and put them in a body of work that is like life. Which is a rollercoaster, you know.”
Mitch is now poised to release a brand-new album of original songs. It is aptly called “Patience” and is due out on November 4.
James is “renowned for his open-book candour” which “underpins his emotive and compelling songcraft.” And If “Motions” and “Japan” are any indication of what his other new songs are going to be like, expect “Patience” to be a full-on display of James’ brutally honest songwriting and vulnerability.
Which is always a good trait to have when it comes to songwriting.
"For me, it's always about the honesty in the songs and not trying to be like, 'look at me, I'm rich and I have heaps of girls, I've got a nice car," James opined.
"No one connects with that s**t. And I'm not rich and I don't have heaps of girls," (laughs). But the songs I connected to always told a story and my job as a songwriter is to tell one and do it in a good way."