What a difference a day makes: Gavin James on hearing his song being sung back to him

Writing a song is a very personal thing. When somebody sings back something you’ve put everything into, it’s the ultimate compliment. I loved music so much. I was in Feis Ceoil as a kid. I got a guitar when I was 11 – I didn’t like it, my hands were too small.

A year went by and I got back into it, playing Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin. I went busking and from busking to playing in pubs and from there I went into doing gigs.

But there was always this feeling that it mightn’t work out, that music wouldn’t be the thing. In that moment, when my song was sung back, it gave a bit of comfort that I was doing the right thing. It was a bit of solidarity that everybody was with me. The song itself was one of the first songs I’d written. It was ‘Two Hearts’, about where you’re with somebody but at the same time you’re not – you love them, but you don’t. It was a very general love song, to be honest.

But something so small and so big happening in Temple Bar, it really put a rocket on my back to move forward. I saw what my future could possibly look like. It was the crux of me wanting to do music more as a life kind of thing. I was fairly content playing Temple Bar – doing 15 gigs a week, playing a different pub every day. But when people started singing back something I wrote, it hit me to go out into the world a bit more.

It definitely put back a bit of spark that probably had left a little in those years. It made me not want to be comfortable with where I was. It boosted my confidence – it felt like I had more to say, more to do, than I was letting myself have.

When you’re 20, playing gigs in Temple Bar, making your own money, it’s quite hard to leave. This gave me the push – yes, I want to go up and down the country, try to make a name for myself. I remember going back home that night, saying to my mam, ‘OMG, they sang my song back!’ There were videos on my friends’ phones, and mam going crazy.

The whole family came in for my last night in Temple Bar, my aunties, uncles. It was like a farewell concert from Temple Bar, from that pub anyway. They were mad, those gigs. I grew up in Manor Street, then we moved up to Ashington. Everybody in Cabra and Ashington on the northside used to come to the shows, about 400 turning up every Sunday. It’s 12 years ago – it feels like a lifetime ago.

What was I doing on a Sunday night a week later, a month later? I was walking into town, having a pint of water because I was broke. I was going home writing music, locking myself in the studio. I wasn’t doing any gigging after that November night when I finished in Temple Bar, maybe I did one christening, a wedding. I started writing and recording songs for people. That’s how I met my manager – he heard a song of mine in a bar and he drove to my house.

A year went by and I went to LA to do Musexpo, this big music conference. My manager paid for everything, brought us over. Nothing happened.

I came home and did The Ruby Sessions and I signed my first record deal. I did a live album in Whelan’s, and I did a single, ‘Say Hello’, which was on the radio quite a bit. And then I was doing all these mad late-night TV shows in America. When it got going, I was never home, I moved to London. I’ve recently moved back home.

But that experience of your songs being sung back to you... another memorable time was after lockdown. We did a radio gig in Switzerland, 80,000 people in the audience. ‘Always’ was the song – it had become a bit of a thing on the radio in Switzerland.

We hadn’t heard anybody sing anything back to us in three years. We were welling up, nearly crying – they were screaming the words back, this huge amount of people.

When people have taken your song for face value, the feeling that it can mean something for somebody else is very special. If it hadn’t happened that night in Temple Bar, I’d hope it would have happened the week after, the year after. I always had faith that if you work hard, something good will happen.

• Gavin James’s new single ‘Heavy’ has been released on Sony Music; his new album is due for release later this year. He plays Galway International Arts Festival on July 26. https://gavinjamesmusic.com/