Rag‘n’Bone Man says fans should not expect his forthcoming album to be a “break-up record” following his recent separation.
Instead, Life By Misadventure will focus on his “past, present and future” and explore how he has grown as a man since becoming a father.
The Brit Award winning singer-songwriter, 36, real name Rory Graham, married his partner of 10 years, Beth Rouy, in 2019 but they have since parted. They share a son called Reuben.
But he said a break-up album was never “on the cards” because he chose not to write any music immediately following their split.
Life By Misadventure sees the baritone vocalist eschew the neo-soul of his chart-topping debut album Human in favour of songwriting inspired by Joni Mitchell, Sir Elton John and Paul Simon.
Speaking about the inspiration for the album, he told the PA news agency: “I don’t think too much relationship-wise because I didn’t really write around that time. I didn’t want it to be that break-up record or anything…
“It’s not a horrible situation or anything, we still get on really well. So it’s not like a break-up record was even on the cards to be honest.
“There is a tiny bit of that but most of it there is a real common theme about talking about my past and talking about now how I feel as a supposedly grown up, responsible father. We’re all f****** winging it basically.
“And then a lot about my worries about the future and about how I have brought a child into this world we live in, which is seemingly at the moment f****** crazy.
“It feels like a real timeline. It’s a real story of the past, present and future.”
Prior to lockdown Graham moved out of London to Sussex in order to give his son more space.
He said the joy of being a father had fed into his music and made his forthcoming album more positive sounding.
He said: “Part of becoming a father is that you have to let your guard down a little bit and also just be really honest. Children are very disarming. You could feel properly shit one day but if my boy is around I instantly feel pretty happy.
“It brings me a lot of joy so it definitely fed into my music. Even though there are some songs on there that do feel a little bit melancholy, there is hope in them. They are not totally sad.”
– The single Anywhere Away From Here featuring P!nk is out on April 9, while Life By Misadventure is released on May 7 on Columbia.
