Release: James Ellis Ford - The Hum

James Ellis Ford - The Hum Release date: Friday, May 12th 2023 V2 Records Out 12th of May via WARP (ENG)   The composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter James Ellis Ford has worked with some of the biggest names in music, from Arctic Monkeys to Depeche Mode via Foals, Gorillaz and Kylie Minogue, but has always dedicated himself to the success of these projects foremost. Even as one half of Simian Mobile Disco, alongside Jas Shaw (and as a touring member of The Last Shadow Puppets) his role has often appeared selfless. But for the first time he is about to move centrestage himself, with his debut solo album, ‘The Hum’.

 James has deftly side-stepped the obvious choice of flicking through his contacts to produce a press-worthy pop album with a galaxy of A-list feature appearances, instead opting to release one of the most bewitching and persuasive albums 2023, as much homage to the tender and eccentric English pop music of Brian Eno and Robert Wyatt as it is love letter to his wife and son’s Palestinian roots; as much an exploration of pastoral Canterbury prog as it is informed by modern hip-hop production; as much a madcap Radiophonic voyage into the cosmic unknown as it is successful experiment into writing classic heartbreaking anthems. 

in 2017 James became a father for the first time, but there was bad news as well. His SMD partner Jas Shaw was diagnosed with a rare disease, AL amyloidosis, which meant that Simian Mobile Disco were now on hiatus. “The lack of having Simian Mobile Disco as an outlet to make music for myself, probably forced my hand to make a solo record”, comments Ford.

 

He confesses that initially the temptation to scroll through his iPhone and call on a lot of his previous collaborators  for help was strong: “I was making tracks and thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll send this to Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys).’ It genuinely did cross my mind that I could make an album with a lot of guest features, but it just felt braver for me to do it on my own.”

  

On ‘The Hum’ James played everything live, with no sequencing, no soft synths and no DAW. Music was recorded straight to tape on first or second pass, giving it vital immediacy; but playing everything himself was easy compared to having to sing: “I’d never sung in public before. I’d never done karaoke. I don’t even sing in the shower! I’m always telling artists to lean into their vulnerability [in the studio] and suddenly I had to apply some of these ideas to myself. I ended up with a taste of my own medicine!”

 

He pinpoints lyric writing as the most difficult aspect of the whole endeavour: “A lot of the lyrics concern me adjusting to changes in life: becoming a dad, getting older, my friend getting ill. Having kids is a huge, positive paradigm shift – you’re no longer the centre of the world – but both that and the situation with Jas made me consider my own mortality for the first time. The lyrics deal with this change and have a nostalgia for the times that have gone. But also I’m looking outwards at the world my son will inherit with an increasing sense of unease.”

 

First single ‘I Never Wanted Anything’ concerns the middle-years realisation that most of life’s opportunities are starting to retreat from view, but being comfortable with it. As James says: “I feel incredibly lucky that I've managed to keep doing what I do. When I play music and I get the feeling that it’s going to be amazing? That's literally the buzz that I chase every day.”