IT has been ten years since he released his debut album and in the meantime he has toured the world, sold millions of records and soundtracked the rollercoaster love lives of fans around the globe.
But after releasing his fifth album Bitter Sweet Love yesterday, James Arthur has revealed he has just one more record in him before he plans to pack up music for an entirely new career.
During an exclusive interview with Bizarre, James said he is planning a musical hiatus following his next release so that he can commit himself to making it as an actor — something he has long said he wants to get into.
He explained: “I am really interested in it.
“There was a time where there were a couple of projects where I was one foot in and one foot out and I was trying to make them work.
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“I sort of chose music because it made more sense.
“I do a bit of acting in my videos and I enjoy that but it’s gotta be the right project.
“At some point I’d love to spend a couple of years focusing on acting and parking the music for a bit.
“I will do that after my next album.
"Then take a bit of a hiatus and focus on my acting because I’ve got one more album on my record deal.”
‘I wanted respect’
The new album, his first since 2021’s It’ll All Make Sense In The End, follows the arc of a rollercoaster relationship and is packed with heart-wrenching, gut-punching rock tracks and soaring love songs.
When you hear it, you can understand why James has said he was in a bad place when he started working on it.
But the major change in his life is that he is now a dad, having welcomed a daughter called Emily in November 2022, which has flipped his outlook.
He said: “When I started writing it, I felt heartbroken.
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“I feel it’s important to live life a little bit and I use my writing like a diary.
“If I’m sad I go into the studio and I channel it into the songs.
“I see it as like building my way out of a s*** place really.
“I had just come off tour and felt a bit disillusioned with where I was in my career.
“I felt like I wasn’t ever going to get my flowers for what I’ve achieved in the music industry and there was part of me that felt like I’d been chasing this very self-indulgent, ego-driven goal and having a kid, it was like, ‘What am I doing?’
“I will probably never get that recognition that I want from the industry.
“I definitely grew up wanting the Brits and the Grammy nominations.
“As far as British exports go, there’s a small handful of us that are in that top 100 on Spotify global and I never get nominated for anything.
“I wanted to be respected and there was a point where I went, ‘That’s not going to happen for me’.”
Spurred on by that, he continued: “I just got into the studio making these songs to showcase to my fans the best version of me right now as a singer songwriter.
“That’s really all it is.
“The umbrella of Bitter Sweet Love comes from a philosophy of pain and how that drives most things that I’ve ever made.
“It’s been the motivating factor in everything I’ve done — pain.
“The only thing more powerful than that is love, so I wanted to make people feel those emotions as much as possible on the album.
“I’m on my fifth album and I feel like I’ve earned the right to be fully in the driving seat with everything creatively, so I’m enjoying embracing that.”
James has been very open about his mental-health battles in the past and has had to cancel shows because of his demons.
But on the impact of fatherhood, he continued: “I think becoming a dad, that has genuinely made me care so much less about external opinion.
“I really just try to make something that I love and I think my music is going to get better and better because of that.
“Having a child removes your ego.
“It removes the minor worries and you’ve got something way more important.
“I feel much more relaxed in general since that.”
Last year, fellow singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi announced he was taking a break from music to tackle his own mental-health issues, which James has applauded.
The Say You Won’t Let Go singer said: “He’s managed to shed light on something that is very common.
“I relate to a lot of what he’s just been through.
“I’ve had an eye on Lewis because we’ve been compared quite a bit and I know he was influenced by me as a musician and stuff like that.
"I sort of was expecting that to happen because he bit off a lot.
“This is a guy who’s done one album at that point, putting on so many shows, and I was concerned for his wellbeing.
“It’s hard, especially to sing at that level, to sing those intense songs. But it’s raised awareness which can only be a good thing.”
James is now hoping he can win in the battle for No1 this Friday, having also kicked off his UK and European tour in Hamburg last night.
The tour will include a homecoming show at Middlesborough’s Riverside Stadium on June 8.
He added: “I’m selling out arenas across the UK, touring Europe and doing a stadium this year.
“I think we’ve sold — this is going to sound really braggadocious but I’m going to blow my trumpet — something like 200,000 tickets this year in this country.
“That is the biggest ‘f* you’ to the naysayers — and there have been a lot.
“There’s been a lot of people who’ve tried to blackball me and I’ve felt that.
“Sticking around is the biggest ‘f*** you’.”
Claudia's my inspo
JAMES has taken plenty of flak for his hair styles over the years and right now his fringe is giving Traitors host Claudia Winkleman a run for her money.
But it turns out that is the biggest compliment you could give him.
James said: “She’s my hair inspo.
“Her fringe is wicked. She looks class.
“I love Claudia Winkleman.
“It’s a bit like Claudia’s at the minute.
“The Traitors is the best TV show that’s ever been made.
“I am f***ing obsessed with it.
“ I would watch that every day for the rest of my life. It’s amazing.
“It’s such a good concept.
“It’s cool that in this day and age there’s a show that has staying power.”
But doesn’t such a shaggy mop interfere with basic tasks like, erm, seeing clearly?
James says: “It does annoy me at times but this is all part of the world that we’re in for this album – that kind of Seventies thing.
“I’ll probably lop it off for the next album.
“But it’s been about me immersing myself in that world stylistically.
“I get so much stick about my hair these days.
“It’s funny because I think a lot of guys in the UK these days can’t fathom anyone who hasn’t got a short back and sides.”
