 Monday night and straight away we go to our special guest and we were just talking off here before we came in and you know yourself with the pandemic and you think to yourself oh maybe it's a year maybe six months maybe but it's not it's 2019. 2019 November. Over three years. I know and it's Charles James on the rise and of course James and Catherine and Donald and you're both welcome thank you very much for coming up. Thanks for having us again. It's a pleasure. So tell me this, when did you say the last time it was November 2019? Yeah you checked the car, I think it was November 2019 yeah. And how's things been with you, you know, how did the pandemic, because I know you're all occupation, you drive a boat. Drive lots of boats. Yeah. No actually I was lucky enough that I was able to work throughout because I was still based in London at the time, you know you were back and forth every nine days, nine, one, nine days there, six days at home. It might have been harder getting back home then, would it have been at any time no? Well early on in it yeah, you're kind of like I got stranded this side initially when they grounded everything. Right okay. I was stuck at home for a month like I couldn't complete. You can love that. But then after that once I kind of got everything figured out, it was grand like it was just quite surreal passing through the airports when it was only me and the staff and stuff like that. Two people on the planes and all that. Well please God we don't see it again, I don't know if we got enough of it. So music wise, have you been touring or what? Yeah I've been recently yeah from kind of really November because I do like a month away and a month at home and I've been playing around for a month and then bit of a break in another month so we were down and back in November we were down at Club Yo again. Oh well you're right. God we haven't been down in a couple of years to me haven't we not? Yeah. How's it going down there Gretz? Great, great. It's a lovely atmosphere and it creates that whole atmosphere you know and the pods and all down there now you know these overnight pods. I heard that too. It's a good reason to stay down for a couple of nights. We stayed overnight because we were heading to Dublin the very next day then so we were playing on Weelands with Porig Jack. Oh he was up here? Was he? He's from the Iron Islands isn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a great lad. I love Weelands. Some singer. Where does he be best a lot? Does he be best in Dubai? No am I wrong? Not sure. But he was up here, of course he was a lovely fellow as it was right and he seems to be like you know making ripples. Yeah he was up for a song of the year just hitting the night before we played or maybe to anything the night before. How'd you find that connection? I had me listen to this song Making Sound and I just reached out on Instagram and you know sent him on some of our music and seen D'Nita's support about two weeks out and I fortunately did like so. That was a great night so it was a nice crowd like. Weelands is a good spot. In a few years it's been on it but once again great atmosphere. Great atmosphere. And the crowd. Right we're going to go straight into a bit of music. James Forst. So Forst up first is? First up is Drinking the Ghosts away. So this is one of the two new songs that we have in the can and ready to go so. We'll chat about that. This will be the second release. We'll chat about that after this. Thank you very much. One, two, three, four. And this is my last disguise. I could seek dust on your fume. Cover your eyes in blue. These black wings I'm for you. No, no, because you'd see through the best disguise. The more you'd see through the best disguise. And lately I have been dreaming. I've been drinking the ghosts away. Lately I've been dreaming. But you can't keep the ghosts away. You can't keep the ghosts away. I could confess all the things I've done. Each reckless, impulsive one. But I cannot change what's been and gone. Because I've learned to be right from my wrongs. Oh, I know my rights from my wrongs. I've been dreaming. I've been drinking the ghosts away. Lately I have been dreaming. No, but you can't keep the ghosts away. Yes. I love that. The harmonies just so tight they're brilliant. This song is one of two. One of two. We're releasing, yeah. And these are going to go on the album. They are. Yeah, I would expect so, yeah. Is there an album in the can yet? Or is it? No, we've just been discussing that. Because we're hoping to go to South by Southwest in Austin in March just for, you know, to have been out working on a bit of a holiday. But we might have to re-jig it to try and get in and get the album recorded. So it's either going to be March or May. We go in and try and go in over like a 10 day block to... What are you doing with the album? The plan is to do it in Attica. Oh, right, okay. The end of the album there. So that's always been the plan. We've hopefully got Ory, Macbriarty on it to produce. So he produced these two. It worked really well because it clicked really well with the songs and the ideas. Everything on the album, James, is your own? It is, yeah. Do you collaborate in your writing or...? Not yet. I know it's mostly just been used for your writing. You just do it your tolls? I don't think that would work. No, I'm only joking. But do you see your musical influences, James? I've heard your music before loads of times and I always get that harmony in it. There's lovely harmonies all the way through. Is there sort of harmony acts that you've grown up with? Yeah, I mean, I think as an influence, in terms of the writing, I think a huge one's been Chris Christofferson and the style, Bob Dylan too, but then I grew up listening to Simon and Jennifer Funko. There's always been a big influence for both of us, like Arthur and my big fan. There's really that kind of Laurel Canyon sound like from the 60s, like the California. There's always been a different influence. And if you were sitting listening to music now, you're saying your own away from your own work, what would you listen to nowadays? At the minute, I would say... I'm listening to a lot of Tyler Childers. You know Tyler Childers from Kentucky and Jason Isbell. Are they American contractors? No, well, Americana, I would say. Their style, like, you know. And that's been a lot. And then Drive By Truckers and Brandy Carlyle, like we were writing. Our honeymoon in September. I went to Music Festival in Redondo Beach and the headline acts were the Lumineers, Brandy Carlyle, All In Oats, Lucas Nelson, it was really our style of music. It was an Americana festival. It was brilliant. One of these singers has a band catalog of songs? I've got loads that I've written over the years. I've never got as far as a studio with them. Do you pop back into them and change into them? I did that for the last EP that we put out in 2019. I dug one out that I'd kind of written and never finished. So we got back at it. That was a long way from here. But like I'm trying to... Let's say that last one's a bit of an older one too. Like, but I've never seen a studio. Where's the next one that we're going to play? Brandy was only written in October. And it's just... I've found now with the month on, month off and the work, it's actually given me a lot more headspace to write. You know, I found before when I was nine and six and working really a lot of hours over in London, I didn't have time to kind of sit down with the guitar and sort of... Do you take the guitar with you? I know your jobs. A high-pressure job has no doubt about that. But do you get time to write or do you get out? I do, yeah. I wrote the Elephant's, like, which is the first single. I wrote that in Angola in October, like, actually. Because you're working 12 hours a day anyway. But then in the evenings, you are free. You know, even a couple hours. If you're not on a ship, like, you're free to just kind of sit her out and chill out. This job is... It takes you everywhere, like, all round the world. Like, I'm based now, based out in the Congo River, like, down in Soil, the minute. Working on a great bunch of people down there. I actually think one or two of them might be tuned in tonight. What are you transporting? I'm as curious as your music to you. What do you transport, or what? It's an LNG, so liquid natural gas. And propane and stuff, I guess. So it's export. So there's a big plant there. And they re-liquify the gas. And then the ships come in, I take the ships in, and supervise the load, and then take them back out again. Oh, right, right. That's interesting. Of course it is, of course it is. At the same time we were talking, do you think you were in London? I was, yeah. I've only changed in July. Oh, have you? Yeah, I only started the new job in July, so before that I was in London for five and a half years. And I was driving everything. It was container ships, and cruise ships, and draggers, and everything from a tug-up to, you know, 300-meter container ship. They're not easy, I have no doubts. Catherine, you're just going to touch on your own, and your teacher? I am, yeah, primary teacher. And primary school teacher? Yeah, yeah. In Carandona? In Carandona, Craigtown, yeah. What class do you teach? I'd usually have fourth or fifth, I'm off this year. I'm on a career break this year. Ah, very good. I'd usually be in the more senior end of things, yeah. Do you like that? Yeah, I do. I was just saying to James today that, you know, I hope to stay at the more senior end of things, yeah. You know, it's getting tougher, isn't it? Speaking to a couple of teachers this last night, it's not getting easy. Well, do you like, you know, do you write on your own? Do you write music yourself? No, no, not at all. I really just kind of go along with whatever James is writing and put my own interpretation on the piano part of it, you know, working the harmonies, and yeah. Yeah, Catherine's responsible for all that, like all the harmonies and stuff like that. That's what I'm saying when you work together. You know, when you're writing down James, and you're basically, and your hair going around, Catherine could do this or that. No, I can only leave that to Catherine. Like, I try and find a key that suits my voice, and then Catherine tends to come up with the harmonies quite quickly, you know. And then it's just fine. James was up with quite unique chords and things like that on the guitar, and, you know, it's adapting that then, you know, to people with the piano and with the harmonies. You know, it's been more my forte. That's great. I can't remember the last time we seen you. It's where we were. I think it might be Clubio. I think it was Clubio, yeah. It was the night Maya got her, like, some achievement worth. It was, it was, it was. It was a great night, so it was four of us. Oh, that was a great night. I'll never forget it, you know, when Brad and Morphe come down to me and say, what are you asking me? I was like, oh, that was good. They were brilliant. No danger of the boys not being top class. No, but that's the kind of music. They're not affected, you know, and great lads. Absolutely. Listen, that was great. We'd love to get the second song for me. So this second song. This is called The Elephants. This is going to be the lead single. What inspired us? What's the background to it? This one was, so my father passed in August of 2020 with a heart attack. Right. He just dropped ahead suddenly, like, and he was a pilot as well. We were very close, like, you know, he kind of shaped my whole career, really, like. So I was going on chips with him from I was kind of seven, eight years old. He wouldn't be allowed to do it now, but it was a great time. He still opened down the foil, like, he was a pilot and dairy. Right. But he passed suddenly, and I kind of so it was fair to say that I didn't cope very well with it. You know, I kind of fell into a bit of a depression and usual thing, like, too much drinking and not enough sense. It took me a long time to process it all and I'd written different songs that are trying to express the emotion of it. And they just kind of fell flat as being they just didn't get where I was at, like, and then finally it's only really the last three, four, five months that I kind of come through it all. How are you coping now? Good. Yeah, good space now. Glad to be back in the music. I think that's actually played a big part too. It's been able to express it through the music and getting out and playing for people. A lot of people would say that, you know, when they're dealing with circumstances and you're hearing a song writing because of an event that we're doing and they find so therapeutic. And again, like, because I had kind of not that I'd stopped writing, but I wasn't so used to, you know, when I was at sea, deep sea, I would have been writing two, three songs a day, like most of those. Yeah. The group, Folk and About. Folk and What. Your sound and grit. Cheers boys. Ah, they're a great bunch. They're a great bunch. Right, we'd love to hear elephants. Thank you. One, two, three, four. The Marigold. Slow. Gas for breath as another day begins. All spark and lighted. The elephants got my chest bent down. It's so much harder than it seemed. Deep despair. Gas for breath. But it's life sweet and perfect. Give me hope. All spark and lighted. Elephants got my chest bent down. It's so much harder than it seemed. Elephants got my chest bent down. Eyes by nothing. Vince that I'm by. It's so much harder than it seems. Black dogs spark and lighted. Elephants got my chest bent down. It's so much harder than it seemed. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you very much. Oh, that kind of music is, as I always say, the music itself takes me to that nice place for it. You know, and my musical tastes change. It's to do with my mood publicly or publicly. I go something, no, I don't want to listen to that. Maybe the morning or something like that. I could just listen to that. I'm really looking forward to that album. These songs are available at the moment of the year. They're not that. They're probably going to be available in about three or four weeks. You can see videos of it from we were down in Bridgensong in Mayo and they put up a live video of it. So it's available to hear on Facebook. You can't stream it yet. It's going to be a couple of weeks. Put together a bit of a PR campaign. Of course, and why not? It's absolutely beautiful. There's a ticking long to write that. That took me about a day. And then, because that was basically, I would say, half written by the time we were going into the studio to record it. The whole structure and all came together in the studio. There's other songs then that you don't even take to the studio. No, exactly. There's ones that I have spent weeks. Weeks crafting. They never say they like it. It's a good honesty in your own part. You're not just saying I'm going to fire you. It's a work in progress. It's a passion obviously. That's it. Some songs you just feel have what it is you're reaching for. That one, because even though there was other fully formed songs that we'd been playing. That one, when we took it over and we were sitting with ourselves. This is the one we need to record now while it's fresh. I was looking at the one we wanted to put our weight behind. Well, I wish you well with it. Turnways. Turnways we've been out and about. The last couple of weeks have been manic. We were supporting Blue Rose in Belfast. What were you playing in Belfast? The Black Box. Lovely venue. Amazing. I just love it. I know. My daughter, she's back living in Stevan now but she lived in Belfast for a few years and I used to travel. She was off on a Friday and staying in Horace and you had these intimate gigs. We had good gigs. It was brilliant. Blue Rose Code. It was over for the Out to Lunch festival. We had the support for that. And then we were... Castle Bar for Bridges song. Do you know Vickers Vimy? Yes, we do. We heard him on the phone here. And the time... Bonfire's a Dante. That's one of the songs you had a great song. He had him on the phone. I don't think he's up here. Gene Kern or a good friend Gene or a good old song in harmonies. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Gene. Get that sent this and then Gene will play it in Herschel too as well. Fantastic. People want to get in touch. Obviously you're on... Instagram and Facebook's kind of the best way to get us Instagram and Facebook. We are on Twitter, like, but... We never tweet. It's like Facebook's kind of fading but now you think of times... I know. David. I've moved on for a couple of times but I'm just not with the chits. No, I'm not with the chits. And the young ones want all this quick 30-second stuff and I'm going, you're half in this story and it's gone. I'm sorry. I'm just getting to you. I'll be back to be able. Exactly. It's been a delight as always having both of you in here. We wish you well. It's one of them albums. Once again, I'd really be looking forward to it. You don't know how many tracks you're going to put on? I think probably ten. We're getting out with eight of them written and then we'll open another couple. We'll come up before we get to the studio. Great stuff. Would you do another song for us? Yeah, we could do... Temujin. So this was the first single of our last release which I think we were all promoting a few years ago. Imagine. We'll not talk about that. Time and tide. Thank you very, very much.