Track by Track: James Vickery - 'Overture EP'
Meet James Vickery, the new face of UK R&B - and today he has treated us to his new EP ‘Overture’. The release shows off the full capabilities of his talents, from creating dance floor fueling hits to slow bedroom jams. He took a moment to talk to us about the release - track by track.
I decided to call the EP 'Overture' as it means 'an introduction to something more substantial'. I wanted to tell people that this is just the beginning of what they can expect, that an album is soon behind the corner. I'm not afraid to talk about my hearing impairment anymore, I'm proud of it, and that's why the tattoo of the mute icon behind my deaf ear is the main feature, it is who I am today, and a full representative of why this music is the way it is.
Tear It Apart
Kenny Beats reached out to me and said he wanted to work, I was a little skeptical at first because I know he kills it in the trap game, so I wasn't sure what would come out of the session, we instantly hit it off, he brought in Jared Scharff on the guitar (Dominic Fike, DaBaby) and the vibes are so great. It's a song about a time I felt I was never good enough for someone, no matter how perfect they are.
Spanish Rose
I was dating a Spanish Girl at the time, and was utterly infatuated with her, she had the craziest body, and I would have been mad to not write a song about her beauty. I took heavy inspiration from Senorita by JT and was listening to a ton of Neptunes production credits and pretty much the whole of Justified. The song is called Spanish Rose because she had this really fiery personality, we would argue a ton, but I loved it? Like a rose has a thorn, it wouldn't be complete without it, and that's the main lyric in the chorus.
Pressure
SG Lewis is my boy. I love that guy, I'd been a fan for about 3/4 years from way back to the time when he put out 'No Less' with Louis Mattrs (another JV collaborator). We're good friends and at the time I was going through a horrible situation where I had been completely used by this girl who was using my name to get a foot into the music industry, I told him the story and the song completely wrote itself, it's a complete word for word transcription of what was going down around that time, but that's the beauty of music. It's such a great blend of SG's production, and my writing and melodies.
Turn Me On
I'd been listening to a ton of Sabrina Claudio all winter, I think she just dropped a project and I just got signed, I said to the label I HAD to work with the guy who produced her stuff, he's her go to and did such a great job on the project, I knew we'd make something amazing. We got in the studio for the first time and I he asked me what I wanted to make, I said I wanted to do something like John Mayer -Gravity, not because of the instrumentation, but because of the vibe and time signature. I don't think I'd ever written in 6/8 and I don't think SadMoney had either at that time. We ended up speeding the song up slightly for the groove but the vibe remains the same, super indulgent and soulful. Probably my personal favourite on the project.
Perfect Company
Haha. Pomo is probably my favourite producer to work with right now. He just gets me. Him, Danny Mckinnon and I have written some incredible songs that are gonna be on the album. I was listening to 'Who Hurt You?' by Daniel Caesar, and I probably listened about 3/4 times before getting the lyrics and I only then said to myself, 'wow this song is so dirty'. I wanted something like that for me, where everything feels so in the pocket that you forget what it's REALLY about, until we get to the chorus. The song wasn't meant to make it onto the EP but I put a snippet on my IG and we got such a great reaction that people were demanding that I put it on, so here you go.
Something Good
Something Good is without a doubt one of my favourite songs I've ever written, I wrote it at a time at my lowest, it brought me out of that, it's about that stage in your life where you're dating someone and kind of stuck in that in between but it feels really good, and it could really be something special if you give it time. It won't go down as one of my most successful songs but it will always hold a special place in my heart.