RJ Thompson’s journey into the pop charts was far from an overnight success story. 

In 2021, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s second album ‘Lifeline’ made waves by entering the UK Albums Chart at No. 5 – the first placement of his career – settling him alongside the likes of Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and The Weeknd. 

Now the musician, who landed his big break in 2004 when he was asked to open for Midge Ure and has gone on to tour with the likes of Gabriella Cilmi and Jools Holland, is back with its follow-up ‘Yearbook’; an album conceived during the pandemic that sees the star dream big and take his sound to major new levels. 

‘Yearbook’ feels like a big record. What can you tell us about it? 

The last record did well. It kind of took me by surprise how well it did, to be honest, because it was at the height of lockdown, me on my own, trying to figure out how to market a record.

All of a sudden, it did really well – which was incredible! Prior to that, I’d been doing music for a long time but I hadn’t had a great deal of success, so after it did well it was like, ‘Oh, there’s an audience here,’ and it led on to writing this album from the point of view of, ‘How can I better the last album and make something that’s a bit more interesting?’.

I started writing these tracks in last January’s lockdown and it was very much a case of me in my room, dreaming of this world outside the window that was bigger and grander, and fantasising about simple things like going to the shop about being allowed to walk the dog.

Some of these songs have a really grand feel about them. Feel Alive sounds like an American road trip, and that’s exactly what I was dreaming of in the confines of my own four walls.

When Covid started, did you set out to be creative, or did the inspiration just come to you?

I really just forced myself to be creative. Songs don’t just fall out of the air for me. I know some songwriters say they’re ‘gifts from God’ or whatever, but I have to work at it. So I tried to dedicate a set amount of time a day, I’d go in at nine o’clock and say, ‘I’m not leaving ‘til lunchtime and I’m gonna have something by the end.’ 

It was a different way to how I’ve worked in the past, where I’ve not been as regimented, but in lockdown I needed to have some kind of routine or I’d just be in my pyjamas all day!

You’ve spoken in the past about the importance of talking and sharing in regards to mental health, which is particularly relevant in regards to the past two years. How did working on ‘Yearbook’ align with that?

I’ve had mental health problems over the years, since I was a teenager really, and I went through a big phase of OCD and anxiety – all sorts of stuff. One of the things that always pulled me through times like that was if I could get stuck into a project. So yeah, that was a huge thing; I think I think it would be easy to get dragged down in a period like lockdown. 

How have your experiences with mental health impacted and influenced your music?

Nowadays, it barely affects my life, but I still have that analytical and obsessive brain where I’ll get fixated on something quite easily. Especially with mixing, where you can be getting all the levels right on the tracks, but then you listen to it in the car and it sounds completely different. Or through a different set of headphones. That’s the tricky part for me.

Years ago, on my first record, I just couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t do it. I’d listen to a track and, all of a sudden, all I could hear was the snare drum, because I was so fixated on the sound and why there was a little bit of click on it. And I actually couldn’t finish it. I just had to step away from it and go back, because my mind is very analytical and very, very quick to get stuck on something.

I think my OCD probably adds to it, to be honest. My music would be what it is without it, I guess.

There are lots of different sounds on the album; tell me about some of those influences. 

I listen to a lot of music, but at the time I was listening to a lot of people like Beck, Bleachers and Jack Antonoff – his style of production. I kind of went into it with no rules; I just wanted to make an album that excites me and that I think is interesting. 

Cutting Room Floor has that jazz piano, that kind of New Orleans jazz band in the background, and it all ended up feeling quite cinematic. That’s where all that came from. It was just me and my producer – we just basically said, ‘Let’s throw everything at this and make it feel like a dream.’ That’s what the album is; we can’t go outside, so let’s make it feel like a dream and let’s have those little moments of weirdness that come in, in dreams.

Another exciting component to this album is the artwork, which can be scanned with the accompanying free IOS and Android app to unlock groundbreaking augmented reality technology. Can you tell us about that?

It’s hard to sell music nowadays, because everyone can get it for free or on streaming platforms. So it’s difficult to find a pathway and make a career in music. I’m a big vinyl collector and I was very keen on making all of my physical releases – my vinyl and CDs – something that people would really want, that’s unique. 

I’ve got a friend who’s an app designer and does all of this augmented reality stuff, and we came up with this concept where basically, because your phone is connected to the date and the time and the weather, we could figure out a way to find out what the date and the time and the weather is on the phone and when you hover your phone in front of the artwork, it would display the front cover that’s relevant.

We filmed 300 different variations of different different, like different times of the day, just me like writing songs, the writing on the chalkboard, me playing guitar, whatever, at different times of the day, different weathers, different times of the year. So basically, when people buy the record, they can use the app and hover over it to see up to 300 versions of the front cover, depending on where they are.

I thought it’d be a really cool experience for people, because the front cover is basically a metaphor for how I wrote the album; locked away in a room, unable to do much, but dreaming of this big world.

If there’s one thing you want people to take away from ‘Yearbook’, what would it be?

The last album was pretty much about my childhood and mental health. This album is not necessarily a ‘lockdown album’, but I don’t think it would have existed without that period of time. There’s a lot of references to loss, whether it’s loss of people or loss of confidence, but I think ultimately, the final thing sounds quite hopeful. So I would hope that I hope was the message.

‘Yearbook’ is available now.

Read the full interview in the December 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.