Exclusive Interview
Aug 7, 2020
Produced by: Rudy Manager
Edited by: Eethan Bello
Jamie Scott - “Set your bar higher than you think possible and make sure you always try to achieve that bar and keep going.”
We are excited to share an interview with songwriter, producer, and artist Jamie Scott. Throughout his career, Jamie has written chart-topping songs for artists such as One Direction, Rudimental, Rag’N’Bone Man, and many others. He has sold over 50 million albums, 50 million singles, as well as achieving numerous UK No.1 albums and singles. He has toured the world as a member of Graffiti6, a group he formed with a music producer Tommy D.
In the interview, Jamie Scott talks about his creative process, working with the world’s top artists and musicians, providing advice to upcoming music creatives, and discussing his new album How Still the River. Team Studio Talks interviewed Jamie Scott over the phone from his recording studio. The interview was conducted by Rudy Manager and Eethan Bello.
"You never really know what is going to be a hit."
Jamie Scott
Were you always into music or was there a specific moment when you realised that music was what you wanted to do?
I always loved music but I was also a really keen tennis player when I was younger. So it got to the point that I had to choose between music and tennis. When I was about 15 or 16 [years old], music became the obvious choice because tennis felt like I was working too hard. It was too much practice and I was becoming more obsessed with music. That’s all I could really think about and so it just became a natural progression with the music taking over from the tennis.
Did you ever envision yourself as an artist instead of a songwriter before signing with Sony in 2002?
I saw myself as an artist, but it’s funny because when I first signed to Sony, the music that I was signed on was a song I had written for another artist. I definitely didn’t see myself singing it, it was way more soulful. I was in a band when I was younger, that was a bit more folk, indie, with harmonies like Paul Simon, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, that kind of music. I wrote a few songs and one of them was a song called ‘Shameful’ which was quite soulful, pretty R&B and I got signed on the basis that I did that kind of music. I had to leave the duo I was in and venture out on my own. That was the start of my career.
Was there a learning process for you when it came to songwriting especially early on in your career?
I think songwriting did come naturally but it helped that I grew up listening to a lot of amazing songwriters. My mum was into a lot of folk music like Karl King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Simon – that kind of biographical, truthful songwriting; authentic and honest music. That probably helped develop my songwriting a lot, but I also think you can learn a lot – and that’s a really important thing for up-and-coming songwriters to know. I’ve learnt a lot in the last 10 years of my career writing. I got signed when I was 20, but at that point I was really still concentrating on my own music. But when I was 26 or 27 years old, I started writing for other people - I wrote for Enrique [Iglesias], JLS and then One Direction. It was at that point that my career really took off and I learnt a lot at that time. That said, I do ultimately think that pop songwriting, and the ability to write good songs, is an art - one that you are born with. From that basis you can then work on the art of pop songwriting, which I think is something that I’m always striving to do. I’m still learning all the time and bestowing that learning on the people that we sign to our publishing companies.
(Jamie Scott co-wrote 'Heartbeat' by Enrique Iglesias feat. Nicole Scherzinger)
Do you have any routine in your creative process when you work on music or do you prefer to be more relaxed when it comes to it?
My studio that I went to pre-COVID was about 20 minutes away from my house so often I used to drop my kids off at school and then go straight to the studio. So I’d be there by 9:30 in the morning, have a cup of tea, talk to my assistant, work out the things I’m doing in a day and then get down to it. But I have no set routine and I’m very relaxed where I work so if I’m not feeling something, I won’t do it. I’ve got a management company, a publishing company and two record labels so there is always a lot of stuff to be getting on with if I’m not feeling in a creative mood.
In the process of working on a song, do you have the ‘gut feeling’ that the song will become a hit before it’s released?
The big thing I’ve learnt is that you never really know what is going to be a hit. There have been songs that were supposed to be big songs that we never even got to put on records and then there have been songs that we put out thinking they weren’t going to be huge and then that’s exactly what they turned out to be. So you can never really know, but I think you can have a gut instinct when you’re working on something that has the potential to be a hit and ticks all the right boxes.
Do you find it difficult to balance working/writing songs for other people and for yourself?
No, not at all. Turning 30, getting married and becoming a parent meant I’d reached a point in my career where I was starting to think about things that weren’t just the romantics of writing music and being a musician and more about the life choices. Making sure that I was focusing on ‘the business’ of songwriting more than being an artist became a priority for me. I don’t find it hard to differentiate between the two and knowing what to prioritize. But it’s a really good feeling, for the first time in five or six years, to be doing my own record again without any pressure. It’s a really different, but cool feeling. I never find it hard to get the balance right.
What was your reaction when you found out that you received an Ivor Novello Award in 2019 for the track ‘These Days’ by Rudimental feat. Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen?
Well, when we found out that we’d been nominated we were just delighted and then when we actually won it was surreal. I’ll never forget that again for the rest of my life. I suppose if any awards are going to be ones that you really feel like you need to treasure, then it’s the awards that come from the community, your colleagues, and your peers.
(Jamie Scott co-wrote 'These Days' by Rudimental feat. Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen)
Had you worked with Tommy D before you started Graffiti6?
No, it was the first time. We actually got together to work on my own album, but because the kind of music that we produced was so different it became really obvious that it was going to become a side project. It became my main focus for three or four years because I loved it so much. It was a bit of a change and something completely different to what I was doing before.
Has the success with Graffiti6 and touring the world influenced the way you approach making music?
No, I don’t think so because Graffiti6 was a very separate thing for me. That’s why it worked so well. I don’t think it influences me now. I think sometimes having been up on stage and playing in front of 50-60 thousand people you get to experience what it’s like and what you need to do to hold a crowd if you’re playing big stadium songs. Touring with One Direction and even being a part of the whole One Direction story, being on tour with them and recording albums on tours, seeing them play massive stadiums, it all helps because it puts you in the moment of what it’s like to be in a stadium and have songs that carry themselves in stadiums.
How has the communication or creative process progressed with every new track or album that you work on with successful artists?
It’s always different, you build up great friendships and you build up ways of working with people. You build up the ability to become friends with people and it becomes easier the more you work with someone. The better you know someone, the better song you’re going to write with them, it’s that simple. So, that kind of relationship is the one that you can build up and really work at and make sure that there’s going to be no feeling of worry if you say the wrong thing. I think that’s very important when you work with artists.
How do you approach working with people who you never met before?
That’s the most important thing. If I’ve not met someone before, I very rarely get a guitar out or sit down at the piano and start trying to write a song within 5 or 10 minutes. I normally hang out with someone, we have some lunch or they come down for the day. I do two, three, or even four-day sessions where the first day we just spend chatting and talking about records. It’s not about me walking through the door with the guitar and starting to play. It’s really important to get to know someone so that you feel that you can say anything or even more importantly they can say anything.
What is your opinion on working with other people remotely?
For me, working remotely is actually perfect, especially with the people that I have already worked with a lot in-person. If you already have a relationship then of course it’s easier. When the pauses are there and you’re just thinking, then it’s not awkward. I think for people who are writing songs on a guitar or piano, working remotely is actually not that hard at all.
What was the driving decision to become more involved in the music business side and create companies such as Catherine Songs, Catherine Records and BSW Music?
I wanted to start finding my own songwriters and sharing my experiences of everything that I’ve been through. I also wanted to start signing artists. I was heavily involved in the Rag’n’Bone Man [Human] project, I was executive producing the artist called The Beach for RCA [Records] a couple of years ago and I loved doing that. I was very heavily involved at the beginning of Jessie Ware’s last album Glasshouse. I loved it all, so I just thought let’s get our own label together and we can take our time, producing and doing great things with artists, but being able to have a lot more control.
(Jamie Scott co-wrote 'Skin' by Rag’N’Bone Man)
Could you tell us a bit more about your upcoming album How Still the River?
I just had a lot of songs that I’ve written with artists like Birdy and Hudson Taylor and a few artists that I’ve written songs with that I loved but hadn’t been used. These songs were just sitting there. You sometimes never know how long a song is going to be sitting there or when it might get used. ‘These Days’ was out almost three or four years after we wrote it and ‘Cold Water’ [by Major Lazer feat. Justin Bieber & MØ] was the same. I wanted to release songs and have them out there, so I decided to start recording them. It just became such a great process that I loved. I’d written two or three songs over the last couple of years for myself anyway but hadn’t had a vehicle to put them through. I just decided to start making a record and it happened really quickly. I played everything on the record, produced it, had it mixed by a friend of mine and my engineer. Together they worked on it and then we finished it. It was a really quick process, but I loved it because it has brought some of these songs back to life that have been around for a while.
Are there any other songwriter and producer collaborations that we can expect?
There’s a song I wrote with a very good friend of mine, Jonny Coffer. He’s an amazing producer and one of my best friends and we wrote a couple of songs. We wrote a song that has gone on there, so he’s produced that with me.
What was the process of writing ‘Friendly Fire’ (first single) initially and how did it develop when you revisited it again to record for the album?
It was a piano ballad and the main reason they didn’t put it on the record was that they had enough ballads and it just didn’t sound like it would fit on the record. I had this song that I loved and thought that maybe it’s the song that I’ll cut for my album, so I just started playing it and then suddenly I just got this urge to go and start playing the drums and I started playing a much more kind of The War on Drugs feel and suddenly it just had a whole new life to it and it was like a newborn, a completely different song. It’s kind of cool. It was the first song I actually cut.
(Jamie Scott produced and co-wrote 'Friendly Fire' (first single) from his album How Still the River)
Do you also plan to go on tour with the album?
No, I don’t think I’m going to do a big tour. My life revolves a lot around my family and I haven’t travelled for a long time with my career and I’ve loved that. I’ve loved being based very close to home and seeing my kids grow up. I would never rule out doing shows, maybe doing a show in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, places that I’ve had a lot of love and maybe LA at some point. I wouldn’t rule that out. But going on a tour for two or three months around the world is probably not where I’m at right now.
What advice would you give to new artists, songwriters and producers trying to progress and build their career in the music industry from the creative and business standpoint?
I think that from the business side it’s always good to own your own rights, to do as much stuff yourself, not give too much away until it’s necessary, surround yourself with a good lawyer, and you can’t really go wrong. There’s a lot of law firms out there that would take on clients and help them out. I think the business side is kind of easier when you get older and you get into the music industry and you have aspirations, labels, publishing companies, it’s something that I advise because it’s great to own rights and stakes in other people’s work as well. From a creative point of view, I think there’s only one rule that I’ve ever managed to stick to and I think it’s successful, which is just keep going and make sure what you’re doing is always the best you can do and really push yourself. Set your bar higher than you think possible and make sure you always try to achieve that bar and keep going. Don’t worry about knockbacks, I’ve had them, everyone’s had them and just keep going and make sure that your bar is set high.
Follow Jamie Scott on Instagram: @jsbaylin
Album How Still the River by Jamie Scott released on the 7th of August 2020
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