Blunt about love

YOU PROBABLY know him as the guy who sang You’re Beautiful, and might even have thought that it was a romantic song.
But just listen intently to the lyrics, and you’ll realise James Blunt might not be such a romantic after all.
Blunt is currently touring the world to promote his fifth studio album, The Afterlove, out last year. The British singer was in Kuala Lumpur for a concert on March 25 for the Asian leg of his world tour.
Before marking his first performance in the country, the fast-talking, honest, and down-to-earth singer sat down in a media round-table interview to talk about his latest album, and how he doesn’t really mind people interpreting his music as romantic love songs.
Speaking about his first breakthrough song, he reiterates that You’re Beautiful is actually “about a guy high as a kite on drugs talking to someone else’s girlfriend in a public space when her boyfriend was there”.
“If people want to play that at their weddings even though the song finishes [with] ‘I will never be with you’, then go for it,” he says with a laugh.
He explains that the success of those songs is because he pours his heart out on stage, including his “insecurities and failures”.
“It’s not [just being] a romantic guy, [but being] a guy able to open up, and say: ‘Wow, I’m not so good at this, and I failed in this’, and that’s, you know, perhaps what a girl wants to hear.”
He rationalises that “people appreciate seeing other people’s failings or expressions of themselves” in his songs, which are not necessarily romantic.
“Strength of character is to show your weaknesses, and not be afraid to show your weaknesses.”
His latest album, which took two years to write and record, centres not so much on the state of being in love either with someone or something, but as the name implies, the time after the initial passion has died down.
“[It’s about] when a relationship is ended or when the lust [is] ended, and you’re left with the ashes of that, and something a lot more long-term.
“[It’s like] when someone has died, when the addiction is over, the love of a drug or alcohol is over … after the fame has gone, and touched you in different ways.”
The album’s lead single, Love Me Better, written with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, is a playful take on the lyrics of You’re Beautiful, with Blunt singing: “I’ve used that line before.”
It’s also about things that aren’t necessarily pleasant to hear, like being “called a dick” that the English singer alludes to, particularly, on social media, and how nasty people behind keyboards can get.
“We should be more kind to each other. Just because you can say something horrid about someone, it doesn’t mean that you should,” he proclaims.
Another track from the album that stands out, Someone Singing Along, has a deeper mission. The song’s accompanying music video shows displaced Syrians, and the devastating destruction in the war-torn country.
Despite the images, the song is positive and uplifting, and when asked about the need to tell this specific story, he says it was written about how politicians instil fear in people.
“I’m involved in the really awesome business of music, which brings people together, and strangers stand shoulder to shoulder in a room listening to music.
“No matter how different [the] colour of their skin, they seem to still connect to the song, to the same human emotion, and so I don’t see the differences they’re talking about. I only see their similarities.”