We’ve all been low. The statistics for depression and related conditions in the UK are alarming, and it seems this is the malaise of the 21st century. So much for a future which promised increased leisure time and health and happiness beyond imagination.
Alistair James, from Eston in Middlesbrough, north east England, began writing music in 2005 when he was still at school. As a frontman and songwriter, he played shows up and down the country with regular visits to venues like London’s Dublin Castle which led to a small independent record deal, an album and support gigs with bands like The Beat and Twisted Wheel.
It must be tough to have so much so young – and I say that without sarcasm. It must be one hell of a culture shock to go from being a touring band to working at Greggs, in any capacity. Still, Alastair was fortunate enough to find himself in an episode of a Sky documentary about the bakery chain, and in no time at all as being hailed as a ‘fucking genius’ by The Enemy’s front man Tom Clarke, and Tom Robinson describing Alistair’s songs as “delivering a delicious pop chorus”.
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I’d call him a jammy git, but ‘Have You Ever Been Low’ is a tidy and exuberant number that draws together the nifty pop currents of the Buzzcocks and The Undertones with the anthemic leanings of Springsteen. Songs like this don’t happen by chance.
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