He may be known as a sad ballad man but Dublin singer Gavin James says his own love life is very happy and that he has been in a steady relationship for three years.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the affable 27-year-old said, "That’s why this album is much happier, hahaha.
"It’s grand, I’ve been with the same girl for three years now. Lovely girl from Greece, she’s back in the gaff now with me ma and da. I never used to talk about my private life buy everyone kept asking me so I said `feck it! I may as well'."
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So where does he go to for inspiration for those trademark sad songs? "I’ve made mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, and I’d draw from those experiences. I finished the relationship early on but three or four days went by and I think `I’m an idiot! What am I doing?’"
James has just released his second album Only Ticket Home and in the three years since the release of his debut album Bitter Pill, he has been touring almost non-stop across the world as well as supporting Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith along the way.
He says Only Ticket Home, the title of which is a reflection on that touring regime, is a more upbeat collection than his debut. "It was a great, fun album to do because there were no time constraints and we went to this little place in London. " he says.
However, life on the road did get him down. At least for a while. "I was in Chicago and I was feeling homesick but I thought, what am I on about? I’m in Chicago and I get to meet lovely people every day and I get to travel all around the place. It’s my job.
"I missed my ma and da, I missed the Sunday dinner, I missed the fry-ups . . . the little things. The Guinness because the Guinness is crap everywhere else. But that homesick feeling went away pretty quickly and then I just fell in love with being on the bus all the time."
Only Ticket Home is out now. Gavin James plays The Olympia Theatre, Dublin from April 17th to 19th 2019.
