At the very last minute, I managed to score an invite to the private meet & greet session with James Morrison organised by the awesome people at Universal Music Singapore. I was stoked like hell.
I’ve been a huge fan of James Morrison since “Undiscovered” though I know it hasn’t been very apparent of late. Haha. I never forgot about the cancelled showcase back when “Undiscovered” was first released and I was so upset about it then. 6 years later, he finally visits and played an exclusive show by MTV Asia called MTV Sessions. You can watch MTV Sessions when it premieres on MTV Asia on 28 April 2012, 6.00 pm (SG/HK/PH).
James Morrison is probably the third artist/celebrity that I’m so stoked to meet that I was almost in tears from the happiness and excitement. He was super nice and a really funny bloke.
The meet & greet session was really awesome! There were 8 of us in the room apart from the staff of Universal Music Singapore and James Morrison’s people. We had like 30 minutes or so (I lost track of time) with James Morrison and we were chatting/doing a mini Q&A session with him. James Morrison even sang “In My Dreams” and “You Make It Real” for us!!! The only thing missing was probably a cup of tea and a few muffins/scones. LOL.
It was really quality time with James Morrison. I was glad to be able to tell him in person that I love the line, “I’m not lost, just undiscovered” and that his lyrics are so beautiful that it moves me to tears when I listen to the CD; especially for the song “If You Don’t Wanna Love Me”. It still makes me tear every time I hear the song.
It was really cool to hear an acknowledgement from James Morrison and he shared with us how he has reached a stage where he just separates the emotions from the song so he doesn’t get emotional. Lol. It makes sense if you think about it, otherwise he’d be in tears each time he sings “In My Dreams”.
We chatted about many more things which I don’t really remember about. Haha. There were just too many things and I was too high.
Here’s what I remember:
- Telling James Morrison that “hoping to come back to do a full concert” is an unacceptable answer. LOL. The correct answer is “I will come back to Singapore and do a full concert.” That said, they’re hoping to do something in October 2012. NOTHING HAS BEEN CONFIRMED YET.
- His customised guitar (in the photos) is called Betty.
- “In My Dreams” is the song that feels most personal to him because it’s about his Dad.
- The concept of the music video for “I Won’t Let You Go” came from the director, Phil/Philip Griffin (?) and it’s basically about getting support from the people around you even though it might take some time. He said that he liked the concept of the video and that it was freezing during the video shoot and the poor girl who was lying on the road was shivering very badly during the filming of the music video. Also, the music video was filmed on the set of “The Bill”.
- I asked James Morrison if he gets mistaken for Chris Martin and he said that it happens a lot and he does get annoyed sometimes; especially if they ask him to sing Coldplay songs. Though for a laugh, he has actually signed “Chris Martin” for people who thinks that he is Chris Martin. Haha. When those people ask about Gwyneth and the kids, he’s be like, “Oh yeah, Gwyneth and the kids are fine.” The best part was when James said their kids name are “Apple and Pear or something”. LMAO.
- And he does forget lyrics when performing. He’d usually just mumble/make some sounds that resemble syllables and smoke his way through. Though he would apologize for it if required since” people would be forgiving if you’re honest”. He once had to stop a song and restart it a few times because he forgot the words. LOL. He actually asked some fan for the lyrics (or something like that) but he still forgot the words. Well done! Hahaha.
- Before he started singing and writing songs, he used to draw as a way to express himself.
Anyway, he signed all my albums and decided to draw on the sleeve for “The Awakening”. Honestly, I’m glad that he chose singing and songwriting over drawing. Haha.
Fortunately, the folks at Universal Music Singapore and James Morrison were cool with letting us take individual shots unlike the usual group shots during concert meet & greets.
This has got to be the coolest meet & greet session I’ve ever been to hands down. It was completely relaxed and you really get to meet & greet/chat with the artist. I know the cool people at Universal Music Singapore usually do what they can and I hope the next bunch of lucky fans who wins a meet & greet with a Universal Music artist gets this sort of quality time. (Of coz if the artist in question is willing and cool with it like James Morrison.)
Finally, here’s the video of James Morrison serenading us with “You Make It Real”:
