The seeds of this album were planted back in the era of World War Two, via a series of letters sent home to family members by James’ grandfather. Discloses James:
“‘Post War Plans is inspired by recently discovered letters my Grandpa wrote to his brother while fighting in WW2. The letters span from his first posting in Egypt in 1942, through to VE night in 1945.
“He served in a Regiment of the famous 'Desert Rats', so I knew that he must have had some incredible experiences, but like a lot of soldiers of his generation, my Grandpa rarely spoke to the family about his time in WW2.”
“Getting the opportunity to find out what actually happened to him through these letters has been a privilege - and a revelation. The way he wrote really caught me off guard. Each letter was like a mini novel in its own right - full of self-deprecation and deadpan humour, but with gut wrenching descriptions of the things he'd seen, soulful reflections and simmering anger at the futility of it all. And the writing was just beautiful - so focussed, concise and lyrical. An absolute gift to a songwriter.
“Full of inspiration, I set to work on songs that tried to represent my Grandpa as a young man in the war, repurposing and reimagining his words from the letters to tell a personal war story.”
The whole process of recounting his Grandpa’s stories and shaping them into a cohesive musical whole for the album had a profound effect on James as a musician, but also how he views his older relatives, their lives, culminating in a journey of personal growth:
“As the writing progressed, I started to reminisce about my childhood days with my Grandpa and my other grandparents and how these memories shaped my relationships with them in their latter stages of life. These thoughts expanded into grand themes centred around hope, despair and solace, and before I knew it, I’d made a concept album. Not sure if that’s the done thing for a debut record, but it’s worked for me.”
