As Hartlepool-based singer-songwriter James Leonard Hewitson returns with his new single, Callum Rowe caught up with James to discuss the pandemic, working in major key and more.
Tell me about how this song came about…
I had a job over the pandemic where I was working outside a lot: I was driving a little van around replacing batteries on e-scooters. I just kept getting ideas popping into my head as I was driving along and one day, the rain was really heavy and that’s where the idea for ‘She Makes The Rain Go Away’ started. It sounded like something from a while back, maybe the’ 60s or ‘70s, so that’s what I’ve based the whole sound of the song around; like The Doors, The Beatles and a bit of Jonathan Richman.
It’s such a pleasant song. Is it important to make people smile with your music?
I’m not entirely sure what the intention was with the listener but I did write it in a major key so that made it joyous. I did want to make it a happy-sounding song, of course, but the instrumental and the outro are a bit more in the middle of emotions so that makes it a bit more neutral.
The track has a wall of sound at the end. How much did the later Beatles material inspire this?
The Beatles and associated acts of The Beatles inspired the first couple of minutes of the song, before the big instrumental section at the end. I was playing the guitar and there was a suspended E7 that I played and I really liked it, so I had to use that for the outro. Maybe Harry Nilsson was more the inspiration behind how I wanted the outro to feel. I had his song ‘Coconut’ in my head the whole time. I suppose he was described by some people as the American Beatle.
What else inspires you when you write your music?
Lyrics just pop into my head, but the ones I choose to use have to give me some sort of catharsis, like a release on a personal level for me to feel inspired enough to take it and really think about what I want to do with that idea to turn it into a proper song. In terms of sound and music, anything can inspire me, especially in a studio setting. Even just the different tones on a guitar or something might inspire you to decorate some parts of the music differently.
What can you tell me about the album out in May?
The new album, ‘More Pop’, is out on May 31st. Butterfly Effect are doing a very limited edition run on vinyl for it as well. I’ll be doing release shows at The Head of Steam in Newcastle on June 1st and The Green Room in Stockton on June 14th.
What did you learn when you were writing the new album?
Now you’re testing me. I recorded a fair amount of it at home and I think that was the most valuable thing I learned: how to do the tracking at home. I don’t really know how to make records myself so in the past I’ve just shown up to a studio and had everyone help me there. This time I got a bit of software at home, got an interface and a couple of good mics. It’s great to say a lot of what is heard on this new record was done at home. I would say maybe 25% of the takes were done at home and then the rest is in the studio.
You can listen to ‘She Makes The Rain Go Away’ from Friday 29th March on all major streaming platforms.
