Rolling Stone interview with James Blunt

February 6, 2006 D. H. McKee

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On July 10th, 2005, James Blunt was in Switzerland when he got the call saying that his debut album, Back to Bedlam, and his smash hit “You’re Beautiful” had catapulted past Coldplay to the Number One slot on the British pop charts. “I spent the afternoon going, ‘Fuck,'” says Blunt, 28, who organized a proper champagne toast on the roof of a Holiday Inn. “My band turned up a couple hours later, and they spent the rest of the afternoon going ‘Fuck’ as well.” “You’re Beautiful” — written about an ex-lover he spied in the London underground with a new man — soon stormed the U.S. charts as well, and the album jumped to the Top Twenty in early January. In addition to songs about lost love, Blunt lends his gravelly voice — which at times sounds like a young Rod Stewart’s — to tunes like “No Bravery” and “Cry” that reflect on his four-year stint in the British army, during which he served in the war in Kosovo. But he doesn’t get into specifics. “The ideas I’m writing about are ideas that any human being should be able to relate to,” says Blunt, whose speaking voice sounds weirdly like Star Wars’ C-3PO.

Rolling Stone : Q&A: James Blunt

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As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

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Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.