James Yuill hails from London and blends folk, electronica and pop into a rather beautiful landscape of sound. There’s plenty of artists currently ploughing this furrow, but Yuill makes it seem a more joyful world to live in. Apart from an identity crisis, he tells us a bit about how it all started…
For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should…
Because I’ve had four number ones, my 1986 album ‘Slippery When Wet’ sold in excess of 26 million copies and it set the record for the most weeks for a hard rock album at #1 on the Billboard 200… oh no… wait that’s Bon Jovi… there’s no reason why people should have heard of me.
Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
I think it was when I heard Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ for the first time… I knew I wanted to play rock guitar! My aspirations have changed slightly as I’ve grown up.
Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
I’m not really sure where they come from… my subconscious I guess. I just sit down and sing whatever comes into my head… the first verse done, I then try and work out what I’m on about then steer/force the rest along a similar path.
Name your Top 5 records.
Difficult, but it would have to be…
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
4hero - Creating Patterns
Tasmin Archer - Great Expectations
Jackson and his Computer Band - Smash
What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
The first gig in public was at the tunbridge wells forum with my school band. it was a success…but success isn’t always easy on the ear, as we proved.
What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
That I have a weedy voice (courtesy of Time Out). I think it was justified.
What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
Waiting for MySpace to load/sort it’s problems out.
If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
Audio forensics… long story.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
I once spent a night loading lorries at a factory in North West London. It was a long night shift and apart from an hour break in the middle there was no let up. The parcels would come down this conveyer belt directly into the back of the lorry and if you weren’t fast enough they would build up jam the main package artery. Eventually the break came, but the canteen wasn’t serving food, so all i could have was a Sprite and then back to work. It was also deafening so after one night I never went back. I didn’t even get paid for that night!
We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
The theme is people who died too young:
Nick Drake - Time has Told me
Jim Morrison - People are Strange
Jimi Hendrix - Little Wings
Janis Joplin - Move Over
Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother
