James kicks off the year with a brand-new track, California Rain, currently Number 1 on the UK’s Official Trending Chart and on course to become his first-ever Official Top 40 single.
Today, we call him for a catch-up on the tune, album number three and the Netflix-worthy saga that is ‘biscuitgate.’
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James, Happy New Year! How was New York in the absence of the promo billboard you were hoping to see?
It was actually a really fun trip. I know there’s the big joke of it all, but we had other stuff planned anyway. Me and [my videographer] Kiwi went around New York on Saturday and had loads of different ranges of pizza slices. It ranged from, like, a $1 slice up to a $20 slice, so we had a really fun day doing that.
Very important question – which was the best?
There’s a place called L’Industrie and it had a huge queue. They did one which was fig jam and bacon that was incredible. Then there’s Mama’s TOO!, which did a poached pear slice. Bro, you simply must add them to your list.
We will, bro. Anyway – music! The response to California Rain’s been amazing so far…
I’m very, very happy. You get this kind of moment every now and then when you write a piece of music, have this vision of how it will do and a very light confidence will come through. I’ve only felt this way about two songs now;Â I Don’t Want To Live Like This and California Rain.
I wrote it in America for my next record. We were going to play some of the older songs on the last tour of America that we hadn’t played in a while. We were practicing them, and I thought, ‘I don’t really want to play these. I don’t think they sound very good. I don’t think they’re the best representation of me. What is the best representation of me? Probably the one I wrote in Caldwell, Idaho.’
I said to my band, ‘let’s, let’s just keep sound checking this song and if, by the end of this tour, we get it to a place where we can actually play it, we’ll play it. If the reaction is good enough, or people online start talking about it, then that’ll be my confidence.’
The story of this song is so strange.
Why so?
It’s not ‘music industry’ at all to me. To me, ‘music industry’ means you go to a studio, record it, and then you have this period of half a year to decide, ‘how am I going to release this?’ Whereas this song was written at the beginning of October, while I wasn’t even in the country to be able to record it.
I had two weeks between the America tour and the UK tour to record it. So, in my time off, I went this song, my producer from Finland flew over to do it and, whilst we were touring the UK and playing it every night, it was being mixed. Then the music video was done the week I got back from the tour.
It felt like ‘this is the tour’s song, so everyone needs to hear it right away,’ then my audience did the rest. If they feel like I care about a piece of music that I put out, and I have to truly care about it like with this one, they get behind it so much. They start writing about and doing art for the characters that are in it. They even recreate the music videos.
It’s amazing, as an artist, to have a primary audience that are willing to kind of create beautiful things around your art.
Has the speed at which you turned around California Rain informed the way you’ll work and release music going forward?
I think, for my sanity, I should not do this every time! It’s so make or break. I saw sombr recently talk about how he kind of doesn’t finish songs. He writes a hook, puts it on TikTok and sees what people think about it. That kind of evokes what I’ve done here, but I wouldn’t recommend it every time. What if people think ‘I’m not really fussed about this one?’ Then what do you do?
This one needed to be its own kind of ‘tour’ song, as it’s written about home sickness and not being here in the UK.
Also, I have a story I want to tell with my next record. So we’re going away very soon to get that finished.
Oh James, you tease! How soon? Before the Australia tour in March?
Manager Ben, am I allowed to say? [Manager Ben – “no”]. Okay, soon.
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Ah, ‘soon’ – the music industry’s favourite word! We’ve got to talk about the California Rain music video, too. How so ✨fabulous✨?
I’m technically credited as a creative producer on it, because I came up with the very loose idea: I wanted to be a weatherman. I wanted to be the sun. I wanted to be the rain.
The weather man is getting kind of stuck at work. He feels like every single day he has to do this weather report, and it’s just sunny all the time. I wanted the sun to be the most arrogant form of me. There was something that happened on the tour where I hid a biscuit. I call it ‘biscuitgate.’
Tell us more…
Well, I hid a biscuit. We were in Berlin. I’d had two days off, and I was feeling super lethargic, super achy, and there were four lovely biscuits that the promoter had provided us in Berlin.
We’re listening, bro…
So I had biscuits on the side. I had one of them and was like ‘that is phenomenal!’ There were only four in a pack. I bring in my bandmate, Lou, and I go, ‘Lou, you simply must try one of these biscuits. He goes, ‘Great. I will. Yeah, wow. Those, those are incredible. Can I have another?’
It was a no. I was like, ‘I know for a fact I’m gonna want one for after this show, and this other one I’ll give to someone else after the show, but we need to make sure.
Okay…
Five minutes before the show, I’m getting ready and I was feeling a bit faint. Honestly, it was a tough. A great one, but a tough one to do. I go to my biscuit corner, and there’s a cardboard box there, which is where the biscuits are.
I look at the biscuits, and I go ‘okay, so this is going to be tough, but at least I have my biscuit for after, which is rare for me. I don’t usually need to have something after.
I was like ‘I should probably put this biscuit somewhere else, because it’s kind of in the open here.
Oh God, don’t–
At 8:45 I pick up this box of biscuits and, Carl, there’s no biscuits there. This is a separate room. Someone has come into this room, taken the biscuits and put the box back.
But…who?
It remains a mystery. I know it wasn’t my band, because what what occurred then is what I call ‘the sun’s inspirational diva moment,’ where I walked around the room, up towards the stage area, and was deadly silent. Jono, my writing partner, who plays the keys and guitar, went ‘What’s wrong?’
I didn’t want to talk about it. Genuinely, food is the only thing that can truly demolish me in that way. It turned out one was very much [my photographer] Kiwi. I don’t mind one being gone, it was the fourth. Who takes a man’s biscuits?
Somebody severely lacking a moral compass. We’re so sorry, James…
But oh yeah, the music video. I wanted the sun character to be the worst person to be around, and the rain to be the music; the overarching metaphor of the music video being that sometimes you need a little sadness or rain in your life to create. Then Herbie Elton, our director, took that to really cool extremes and put me into some really cool costumes.
I think that’s the thing I’m most excited about in the future, as well. Now that I’ve accepted that I was a theatre kid – I was in amateur drama stuff like Oliver! and Bugsy Malone – I need to go for it. If I enjoy doing it, I need to lean into it.
On stage and in music videos I’m going to do more theatrical stuff: different costumes and makeup looks. Really enjoy myself.
WATCH James Marriott’s California Rain music video below:
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Is that the brief you’re taking into album three, sonically and visually?
I’m definitely taking it into account. What’s interesting is that the music always kind of takes its own route without me thinking too much about it.
I always struggle, when we get to the release stage, when people ask ‘what genre is this?’ or ‘what were your influences?’
I have influences, but I never think ‘I want to make this album like this person.’ It’s more what I feel at the time. But I can definitely see me stretching myself into these more fun music videos.
No matter how sincere the music video is, if you can take a step back and sillify and laugh at yourself, it connects with people more. I know my music tends to be a little introspective and sad, but California Rain is quite hopeful.
In what I’m writing, there’s a lot of hopefulness. I feel a lot more hopeful. I’m excited to see where that takes me, but there’ll definitely be a lot of flamboyant looks and makeup.
We’re so ready. What else is on the 2026 vision board, then?
Whenever I get to this stage of writing, I just want to make the best possible thing I’ve ever made. Before Don’t Tell The Dog came out, I thought very little about how I wanted the album to do. I thought a Top 10 would be amazing, but Number 1 was never in my mind or a pressure. I kind of loved that.
But I have such a wonderfully dedicated audience that they’re the ones that breathe that life into those records. It means that I can focus as much as possible on dedicating my entire energy to the projects.
I’m looking forward to fully losing myself in the studio again for a month and teasing what we make out of it.
I’m really excited to tell a big story again.
And we’re excited to hear it, James! We wouldn’t even be opposed to a biscuitgate concept album, tbh.
James Marriott’s California Rain is out now via Marriott Music Ltd./AWAL Recordings Ltd.