Gavin James hasn’t even released his debut album yet, but nobody appears to have told the Dutch. It’s a cold Friday afternoon in Groningen city centre, midway through a manic Eurosonic Noorderslag, and throngs of music fans are gathered outside the Plato record store straining to hear the young Dublin singer’s soulful songs of love and loss.

Having arrived fashionably on time, Hot Press is still one of those stuck on the outside looking in. Or rather, listening in. There’s so many people crammed inside condensation has fogged the store’s windows.
We have an interview scheduled for immediately after the gig, but that proves problematic. When his 30-minute set is finished, James is besieged by autograph hunters and well-wishers. No sooner has he managed to extricate himself from those demands than his manager, Edison Waters, is handing over a mobile phone and informing him that Dutch radio station 3FM is on the line for a live interview. Five minutes after that’s done, there’s another phoner with someone else. It’s all go.
If Hozier was the Irish great white hope of last year’s Eurosonic then 23-year-old Gavin James is the great red one of 2015. Of all the Irish acts attending this year, the greatest buzz is undoubtedly around him. “That’s a great vibe if that’s going around,” he concurs, when we eventually find a quiet spot in the smoking section of a nearby bar. A tall and imposing figure, dressed entirely in black and carrying his guitar in a battered case, he speaks quickly and excitedly.
This is James’ first-ever visit to Eurosonic and he’s clearly enjoying the experience. He has a sold-out show happening in The Forum later this evening. However, the size of the Plato crowd came as a great surprise. “That was mad!” he laughs. “I was expecting maybe 20 people, but it was packed, so I’m happy.”
Given that just a couple of years ago he was earning his crust singing cover versions of ‘Galway Girl’ for indifferent tourists in various Temple Bar hostelries, James has lots of reasons to be happy nowadays. The winner of the 2012 Choice Song of the Year Prize for the title-track of his well-received Say Hello EP, his steady rise to stardom has been seriously increasing pace lately. Of course, being publicly tipped for greatness by fellow redhead Ed Sheeran undoubtedly helped things along.
Just a few weeks ago, he signed the dotted line on an American deal with Capitol Records. “It’s crazy! It was a great Christmas present,” he enthuses. How did the deal come about?
“Pretty much I signed a record deal with Christian Tattersfield and Alex Gilbert who run Good Soldier Songs,” he explains. “It was more like a publishing deal at the start. Because I’m already signed to Believe Recordings, they joined ventures and worked together as one label. They never went to Capitol. They were kind of plugging it together to get American deals for a while. Capitol came along saying, ‘Who’s this lad?’ and it just came together over the next couple of months.”
He’s still midway through recording his debut album. “We’re working on it in London with a guy called Cam Blackwood. He did George Ezra’s album and a bit with London Grammar. We’re halfway there now so it’ll be out sometime after the summer, probably September or October.”
Does the album have a title?
“I don’t have one yet,” he admits. “But I’m not going to do the whole Gavin James thing. It’s slightly lazy, isn’t it?”
By the time this issue of Hot Press has hit the streets, James will already have played a gig on top of the iconic Capitol Records building in L.A.
“On top of it! It’s going to be mad. My mam and dad and my sister are coming over, everyone’s coming over.”
He’ll also be performing at the annual Oscar Wilde party to celebrate the achievements of both established and up-and-coming Irish artists. “Yeah, the Oscar thing in February, Oscar Wilde’s party in LA, the JJ Abrams kind of thing.”
However, he goes down in the United States, this trip to Eurosonic is all about focusing on Europe.
“What day is it again?” he smiles. “Friday! I arrived here on Wednesday night. It’s been great meeting random people. My manager is here so he does all the proper meetings, and I’m just enjoying it, going to see lots of bands.”
Most Irish artists concentrate on the UK and US, but the smart ones recognise developing an audience on the European mainland can be just as lucrative.
“If that happens it happens and I’d be very happy about it. We’re definitely going to come back over. I’ve done a lot of tours here, with James Blunt and a few other people.”
How was Mr. Blunt to tour with?
“He’s a legend!” Gavin enthuses. “Such a funny guy. It’s like him on Twitter, but in a real person. He’s mad, he has so much energy as well, his gigs are unbelievable. He literally stage-dives, these are 10/12,000 capacity venues and he stage-dives from the front to the very back and then runs back. It takes him like 10 minutes. It’s so good, though, and he’s such a nice guy.”
Whatever about his European and American ambitions, James hasn’t forgotten his roots. With a new single set to land around the same time, he’ll be headlining his own show at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre in March. Interestingly, he’ll be the first musician ever to headline the iconic venue without having released an album.
“Yeah, that’s mad,” he laughs. “I heard that the other day and I was like ‘no way!’ That show is gonna be crazy.”
He hasn’t yet decided what the new single is going to be.
“I haven’t a clue,” he admits. “We have three to pick from. We’ve done six songs already in the studio and we’re going to put 12 on the album so we’re just going to pick one of the three, whichever suits. ‘The Book Of Love’ got playlisted over here in Holland so maybe that’s a good one.”
Currently divided between Ireland and the UK, he’ll be making a more permanent move to London in the next few weeks.
“I’m going to move over to London in February, just to be closer to everything," he concludes. "I do love going back home. It’s only 40 minutes, isn’t it?”