Jamie Rafferty has spent the past few months introducing himself one song at a time. Now we finally get to hear the bigger picture.
The Scottish singer-songwriter has released his debut EP Detached Observations, bringing previous singles Back To 25 and So I Can Let Her Go together with three new tracks and giving us a much better idea of the artist Jamie is becoming.
At the centre of the release is new focus track People Like Us, an uplifting rock anthem about wanting something more from life and sharing that ambition with the people closest to you.
“It’s about getting out and heading somewhere, pushing towards something better, not necessarily a specific place but a feeling or a promise two people make,” Jamie explains. “The destination doesn’t matter. It’s about chasing something down that only people closest to you understand.”
It’s a sentiment that feels particularly fitting for Jamie.
Growing up in the small Scottish village of Croy, pursuing music professionally wasn’t something that initially seemed particularly realistic. He started playing drums at five before picking up a guitar as a teenager after seeing Noel Gallagher live, but when he eventually began writing and recording his own songs, he did it in secret.
The money to make them came from working alongside his dad, and even his family didn’t know what he was doing until he eventually played them the results.
Things have changed quite considerably since then.
Those early performances in his local village hall eventually led to pub gigs and increasingly bigger stages, including King Tut’s, Barrowlands and TRNSMT. His first two singles have also brought attention from the likes of Notion and House of Solo, alongside comparisons to Sam Fender.
But Detached Observations gives Jamie the space to show there is more to his songwriting than those comparisons might initially suggest.
Opening track After All This Time looks back at the beginning of his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, bringing together a driving rhythm with a love story built as much around resilience as romance.
Then there’s I’ll Never Find, which takes things somewhere rather different. Layered harmonies nod towards Jamie’s Gaelic heritage while Eighties-inspired synths sit beneath a song about watching the passage of time begin to affect the people you love.
Alongside People Like Us, those songs join the already released Back To 25 and So I Can Let Her Go, the latter showing Jamie’s knack for taking the people, places and stories around him and turning them into something that feels much more universal.
And that observational quality is ultimately where the EP gets its name.
“It’s really just about how I’ve watched life play out in front of me through the start of my 20s,” Jamie says. “As the name suggests it’s not exactly a diary entry. It’s more about standing back, taking stock of things and trying to make sense of what’s going on inside and around you.”
The record itself has travelled considerably further than Croy, with songs written between Scotland, London and Nashville. Jamie worked with collaborators including Seton Daunt, Owen Lewis, Elliott Blaufuss and Luke Sital-Singh, bringing together influences ranging from Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne to Oasis and The War On Drugs.
Next comes the chance to take Detached Observations properly on the road.
Following recent support shows, Jamie will celebrate the EP with three headline dates, playing The Waiting Room in London on 10 September, YES in Manchester on 11 September and The Garage’s Attic in Glasgow on 12 September, with support from Ian Elliott.
Detached Observations is out now.
About Author
