THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTEDNESS OF ALL HUMAN EXPERIENCE – SPECIFICALLY THE EUPHORIA SURROUNDING BIRTH, DEATH AND SEX – IS EXAMINED ACROSS LA PETITE MORT, THE NEW ALBUM BY MANCHESTER LEGENDS JAMES. “LIFE LIFTS UP HER SKIRT AND GIVES US A FLASH OF HER MYSTERIES,” SAYS TIM BOOTH, THE BAND’S TALISMANIC FRONTMAN.
Despite the thoughtful subject matter the new James album is uplifting – in equal parts it is music for the head, the heart and the feet. LA PETITE MORT (a literal translation is “the little death”, though it’s a French euphemism for the post-orgasmic state) rewards deeper listening. A single surfaced recently (in advance of LA PETITE MORT’s June release), accompanied by a wonderful animated video created by the BAFTA winning director Ainslie Henderson. Here, lead singer Tim Booth and Henderson offer their thoughts on MOVING ON…
“My connection with James is a long and evolving one, ” Henderson explains. “The first time I heard their music was sitting at a friend’s house, aged 18, stoned and confused. SOMETIMES was playing, I remember feeling something that until then I didn’t know pop music could make you feel. I thought crying was only for when you feel loss or sadness. Pop, but woven with something sincere and yearning, passionate and beautiful. It was 1997, Britpop was happening and I’d just started my first band, I was falling in love with music and trying to figure out who I was, what I wanted my life to be. I was emboldened by the Gallagher swagger, excited and inspired by Blur and Pulp, but James’s music spoke to me like no other band of that era. James didn’t seem to really belong to that era, they orbited it, danced around it, but they were their own branch, growing off in their own direction. It’s telling for me that as Britpop died away and my love for those bands faded into nostalgia, I remain as curious for the next James record as I ever was.
In 2003 I find myself with Saul and Mark, the guitarist and keyboard player from the band. We’re recording an album in a makeshift studio in the dusty loft of a French Châteaux. A turn on a music reality show named FAME ACADEMY and subsequent recording contract with the same label the band were signed to led to an introduction. Fate delivered to me a long, wonderful summer with them; recording pop songs, eating cheese, drinking red wine and flirting with the French girls of the local village. Je suis un poisson, je n’ai pas d’eau”…
Tim Booth: “I’ve known Ainslie for years after channel hopping took me to an episode of FAME ACADEMY… I watched in shock as he worked with Mark and Saul in the FAME ACADEMY mansion. I hate those shows but this boy had something. Luckily for him, what he had was untameable. He wilfully didn’t fit the mould, was too original and spontaneous; he didn’t win.
Over the years we met and I became aware of Ainslie’s animation work through Saul, who suggested we work with him. His animation is wonderful, heartfelt, truthful, innocent; it reveals a true storyteller. As a band we were determined to work with him even if it meant we had to dip into our own pockets. Animation work takes weeks and is painstaking compared to that of most videos.
I remember standing in a back garden in Highbury, mobile burning my ear, as I told him in detail of my Mother’s death and that of my friend 
Gabrielle – the twin inspirations for MOVING ON. My description caught Ainslie’s imagination”…
Henderson: “It’s 2014, and I’m on the phone to Tim. He is describing how the band came to write MOVING ON, and what the words mean to him. The story he tells me is deeply moving; one thing that stayed with me is his describing death as a birth. Days later this conversation echoes around my mind while I’m listening to the song as I walk past a typical Scottish woollen knitwear shop. My eyes flit over a ball of wool in the window while the 
word “unwinding” is sung and pretty quickly I’m leaving a garbled over-excited message on Tim’s phone about the music video I have in my head”…
Booth: “With perfect timing, Ainslee’s script came through on my e-mail, just as I was having a meeting with our manager Peter, trying to persuade him that we should pay the extra needed to work with him on a video. I tried reading it to Peter but couldn’t complete it due to tears. Peter read it and welled up”…
Henderson: “The day after I finish the film I’m exhausted, bleary eyed and looking forward to joining in with the spring that I have heard is happening outside. I’m so grateful to Michael Hughes, the other animator who I gave all the difficult shots to, for his skill and patience in tolerating my terrible perfectionism. Most importantly, I feel delighted with what we’ve achieved on the video. I think we’ve made 
something kind of special and I feel so honoured that I’ve contributed in my own small way to this magical thing that is James”.
Booth: “That he found such a perfect medium to fit our song blows us away. Ainslee delivered on the promise of his script – and then some. He worked with such care, artistry and heart. MOVING ON is the first video we have made that we consider to be a work of art”…
Ainslie Henderson is one half of creative house WHITE ROBOT, and a writer / director / animator who, in 2012, was awarded a BAFTA new talent award for IT’S ABOUT SPENDING TIME TOGETHER. His last film, I AM TOM MOODY, was nominated for a 2014 BAFTA and has won over thirty international festival awards, including Best British short at Encounters, Disney best student film award at Ottawa and the special jury prize at Annecy.
The new James single MOVING ON is available at iTunes, here. The album LA PETITE MORT is released on Monday 2nd June – pre-order here. Listen again to our recent edition of The Mouthcast featuring a great chat with bassist Jim Glennie, here. The band tours the UK in November. Tickets go on general sale at 10.30AM on Friday 9th May, here.
THE MOUTH MAGAZINE 
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