Rag‘n’Bone Man says fans should not expect his forthcoming album to be a “break-up record” following his recent separation.
Instead, Life By Misadventure will focus on his “past, present and future” and explore how he has grown as a man since becoming a father.
The Uckfield-born singer, 36, real name Rory Graham, married his partner of 10 years, Beth Rouy, in 2019 but they have since parted. They share a son called Reuben.
But he said a break-up album was never “on the cards” because he chose not to write any music immediately following their split.
Life By Misadventure sees the baritone vocalist eschew the neo-soul of his chart-topping debut album Human in favour of songwriting inspired by Joni Mitchell, Sir Elton John and Paul Simon.
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Speaking about the inspiration for the album, he told the PA news agency: “I don’t think too much relationship-wise because I didn’t really write around that time. I didn’t want it to be that break-up record or anything…
“It’s not a horrible situation or anything, we still get on really well. So it’s not like a break-up record was even on the cards to be honest.
“There is a tiny bit of that but most of it there is a real common theme about talking about my past and talking about now how I feel as a supposedly grown up, responsible father. We’re all f****** winging it basically.
“And then a lot about my worries about the future and about how I have brought a child into this world we live in, which is seemingly at the moment f****** crazy.
“It feels like a real timeline. It’s a real story of the past, present and future.”
Prior to lockdown Graham moved out of London to Sussex in order to give his son more space.
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He said the joy of being a father had fed into his music and made his forthcoming album more positive sounding.
He said: “Part of becoming a father is that you have to let your guard down a little bit and also just be really honest. Children are very disarming. You could feel properly shit one day but if my boy is around I instantly feel pretty happy.
“It brings me a lot of joy so it definitely fed into my music. Even though there are some songs on there that do feel a little bit melancholy, there is hope in them. They are not totally sad.”
– The single Anywhere Away From Here featuring P!nk is out on April 9, while Life By Misadventure is released on May 7 on Columbia.
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