…the Where My Love Goes music video:
Adam [Pitts – drums] suggested to do something special for this video and I had already spoken to the lads about maybe proposing to my girlfriend, so we thought that I could do it in the video to surprise her. We pretty much set it all up within the space of a couple of weeks and then we just went for it.
…picking singles:
We usually sit down with the management and label and decide on our favourite. Where My Love Goes was everyone’s favourite from the beginning, so we always knew wanted to release that one just before the album.
…his writing approach:
The song writing process always stays the same for me. Usually I will write an idea on my acoustic or my piano, do a little demo and show it to the lads. If they like it then we will record it properly with the producer.
We did the whole record in Nashville in a place called Blackbird Studios (where the likes of James Bay have recorded). It’s an amazing place and obviously great for musicians. I worked with a guy this time around called Eg White who has written songs for the like of Adele, James Morrison and Tom Odell. We wrote a song called Only Water which is a piano ballad and my voice, so that was really cool. It is the song I am most excited for people to hear.
…the first song he wrote for the album:
We Are The Fire – I wrote that towards the end of the last album (Chapman Square) and it was going to be on the re-pack [of Chapman Square]. We wanted to hold it back.
…the most recent song he wrote for the album:
When I’m Old – I wrote it after we came back from Nashville and I thought I would do a couple more days of writing. To be honest it wasn’t even for Lawson, I was just writing songs in general and I really liked it.
…a new tour:
We will definitely be doing a tour after the album comes out in the summer, but the size of the venues we haven’t decided yet. It will be towards the end of the year.
…their live shows:
We always change the songs from the studio versions because Joel [Peat] is such a great guitarist so we always want to incorporate some of Joel’s work in the live setting. The songs in general will always be a lot rockier live. We have to make the album versions friendly for radio, but when you go and see a live rock gig you want it to make the hairs on your neck stand up, so we add more guitars and drums and it is a little bit different. The song from the new album I am most excited to play live is Lion’s Den. It’s got a big sound and a sort of Michael Jackson style to it.
…how to get into the music industry:
We got out big break from YouTube. It’s a lot harder nowadays because everyone’s doing it, but when we first started – 6, 7 years ago now – we were one of the only bands uploading music to YouTube and it wasn’t really a done thing. I would say that is the best way to do it; if you cover songs and write your own songs as well. However, the true reality of it is that you are more likely to get more hits on a song on YouTube if it’s by someone else. I know that’s harsh, but that’s the truth. We used to cover songs by people like Bruno Mars or Katy Perry – anything that was big in the charts – and do our own version of it. We basically just built up an online fan base and that spread and grew and people started talking about us and we signed a record deal. You have to keep building on it and adding fans. Make sure you’re on social media and I think then people start talking and if you deliver on your live shows, people want to come back and see you play again.
Lawson’s single Where My love Goes is out now and their new album Perspective is out on 8th July.