James Bourne rose to fame in the early 2000s as one-third of one of Britain’s biggest pop punk boy bands, Busted.
Alongside Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis, he scored a string of massive hit singles, including What I Go To School For, Year 3000, Air Hostess and Crashed The Wedding, but now he’s going it alone and forging a solo career with the release of his latest LP ‘Sugar Beach’.
Written during a 16-day layover on his way home to California at the height of the pandemic, the album sees James document his experiences alone in paradise at a £1,000/night five star resort, as the world around him shut down.
Looking back on that time, he opens up on the creative burst that led to him penning his latest long-player, and reveals how his solo plans align with the future of Busted.
Your new album ‘Sugar Beach’ was written in St Lucia during lockdown. Tell us about that time.
I wrote the album in the Caribbean because I had to go to the Caribbean to get home [to California], because of the travel ban. I don’t have a green card – I have a visa – and the travel ban made it really hard for visas. Green cards were allowed, but O-1 visas couldn’t do it easily.
I bought the house [in the Hollywood Hills] four years ago, and I had to come here because my garden here is enormous and I was getting messages from the fire department saying my garden was overgrown and I needed to deal with it [laughs]. There were so many reasons to come back. It was quite stressful, but in the end I found a way back through Sugar Beach.
Many people would think lockdown in St Lucia sounds idyllic, but what was it really like to be there, alone, during the pandemic?
It was backdrop of the pressure of trying to get home – but being there and accepting that I’m going to be there for 16 days or whatever, that was quite nice. It was amazing. It was almost a shame that I couldn’t share it with anyone. So that’s kind of where the songs started happening.
It was my way of documenting and creating – if I can’t share the moment with someone, maybe I can capture a moment in the song and I can share it with the people that listen to my music. That’s kind of how it started.
The lead song, Sugar Beach, pretty much encompasses the themes of the album, but what’s striking is the contrast of the light, breezy melodies with heavy lyrics.
All the songs on the album were inspired by whatever was going on at that time. It was a real freeze frame of the situation, captured in album form and in song form. Each song on the album has a different feel and talks about a different thing. Even though some of the songs are delivered in a more light hearted way, it’s that thing where you make a light hearted way out of a bad situation.
It’s weird, because I was in the five star resort – and it was expensive! In some ways, it was a dream come true and I’m definitely not complaining about it. But I’m just trying to communicate how the album came to be, because not a lot of people will understand. Like, ‘Oh, you were on holiday.’ But not really…
If you spend £1,000 a night to stay somewhere, you’d like to think you’re sharing that moment with your girlfriend or whatever. I don’t go lavish when it’s just for me. I don’t eat at really nice restaurants alone. I don’t go on really amazing, expensive holidays by myself. I’m quite normal when I’m by myself; I settle for quite average stuff. I like to share great experiences with people.
It did turn out to be a great experience and there were so many reasons to make the album – because I could write the whole thing off as a business experience! [Laughs]
There have been so many ‘lockdown albums’ over the past year, so it’s refreshing to hear something that comes from a different place.
It was like, there’s a vibe here. There’s a thing that’s going on right now that I’m never going to forget. And I’m going to tell that story forever; everyone’s going to tell their pandemic stories forever. I’m just glad that I have this really cool album to show from my experience. Everyone’s circumstances were so unique and individual – and this was mine.
A lot of people were writing songs about Covid and I wasn’t. In a way, my lockdown album is a lot more relatable and a lot more timeless, because you’re dealing with things that actually cross over to a world where there isn’t a pandemic. When the pandemic goes away, a lot of the songs on the album will still feel relevant, because the themes are wider and they’re more universal and relatable.
‘Sugar Beach’ is focused on a limited period of time during lockdown – how did you spend the rest of that 18 months?
I’ve been really focused on this project, because it’s my second album, which is important for me. I wouldn’t say that my career right now is at its most relevant; I’m making solo music independently and when you’re in that position, you approach it in a way where you have no option but to try and make something timeless. You have to make timeless stuff, which actually makes it really exciting, because you feel like you’re making music that is gonna live forever.
There’s a real passion that comes alongside that and I think it’s a real, authentic way to create – even more so than when you’re being hammered by the big labels and they’re spending huge money on pushing you. Anyone who doesn’t really love making music wouldn’t be making it in my situation.
Is there a satisfaction that comes with working independently, compared with say Busted, where you’re perhaps tailoring your music to other people’s expectations?
Yeah, it’s been amazing. I’ve got two albums now and I just toured a couple of months ago. I toured both the albums, because my first album [‘Safe Journey Home’] came out in 2020.
It’s weird, because Busted was still playing in 2019; we did festivals, played Glastonbury and it was all happening. So in 2020, we were always going to take a break, without knowing that the pandemic was around the corner.
So two years goes by and I played a full set of solo material that had been made in the last two years – and that was really cool to have people come and sing the words to those songs. I really feel like I’m starting a long-term thing. Writing music brings me a lot of joy and happiness, so I’m building something that I want to last and I want to carry through.
Speaking of Busted, where are you guys at right now? Are there plans to do more together and celebrate the 20th anniversary?
Yeah, we had lunch a couple of months ago in London. I think we’d like to get on the same page. I’m unsure of what it will look like – ‘I don’t know’ is the answer, because I’m just a part of it and there’s three of us…
There are all these things that it would be nice if they happened, but at the moment, the band isn’t functional. So we’d have to decide if we want to go and open that can of worms, because once you go back to it, my life changes quite a lot because it means that I’m back in England and not at home.
I don’t know what will happen with Busted, but I think there’s a No. 1 album in us still…
Read the full interview in the September 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store or use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist.
