Time for T

A new Jamie T album is always a big deal. His latest, ‘Trick’, brims with punk, hip-hop, giant choruses and youthful excitement. He tells Rhian Daly about turning 30 and learning how to “give less of a f**k”.

- Rhian Daly

There are few voices in modern music as distinctive as Jamie T. since the wimbledon native (full name Jamie Treays) emerged in 2006 with the ‘Betty and The selfish sons EP’ and, a year later, his debut album ‘Panic Prevention’, he’s been synonymous with keenly observed character studies of lairy lads and troubled youths set to a boisterous punk-rap hybrid that merges The clash with Beastie Boys. That debut took its title from a self-help tape series for anxiety sufferers, something the then 21-year-old experienced first hand. his second album, ‘Kings & Queens’, followed in 2009 – exuberant and infectious, effortlessly justifying all the acclaim and accolades heaped on him first time round.

Then he disappeared.

After five years seemingly in the wilderness (he was actually holed up in his hackney studio, starting but not finishing tracks), Jamie returned in September 2014 with his long-awaited third album ‘carry on The Grudge’. it showed a very different side to him – one that those who’d eagerly, impatiently awaited his return probably weren’t expecting. It coursed with dark tales and morbid themes, full of women who “didn’t die quite right” and psychotic voices in your head who want to “f**k the world”. He sounded like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, barely any of that early roguish charm able to shine through the bleakness. In interviews and photo shoots around the record he would clutch his guitar like a comfort blanket to ward off those debilitating nerves.