Liverpool singer-songwriter Jamie Webster released his fourth studio album, Running Round the Sun, in September and returns to Australia for four shows this December. Known for his working-class storytelling and strong connection with his audience, Webster has built a career on songs that speak to everyday experiences, struggles and hopes.
We caught up with him to discuss the challenges of making his latest album, his friendship with Billy Bragg, the influence of his hometown and why connecting with people remains at the heart of what he does.
You look like you’ve been pretty busy with touring. How’s the schedule?
We have festival season from May to September. Then September to basically the start of October in the UK with the band, a brief spell in Spain with the wife, back straight into Canada and America. Now the acoustic run of the UK, and then to the faraway land of Australia. I love doing what I do and it’s amazing to travel all of these places and meet new people. But I will be happy come January where I can just sit in one place for a minute. But then after a week or so, I probably want to be back out again.
You’ve been to Australia before, haven’t you?
Yeah, I’ve been twice. I first came to sing some Liverpool FC songs, the last time I came in December 2024 was the first time performing songs from my albums.
You have a link with New York with your song “Wherever You Are”
I think the Liverpool – New York connection is historic anyway: going back to the boat that used to leave from the Liver Buildings to go to New York. There’s always been a passageway between the two cities. It’s where the Irish used to come before they’d emigrate to America and stuff like that. You come and register in Liverpool in the Cunard building and then get on the ferry and go straight to New York. So, there’s always been a history between the two cities, and I think for every musician/singer/songwriter doing what I do, it’s a dream to go to New York.
My guru Bob Dylan, that’s where he made his name, obviously Tin Pan Alley in Greenwich Village and stuff like that. To get out there and play has always been a dream of mine. “Wherever You Are” was a song that I had the first half of, and then a tour that I was supposed to be doing in America was cancelled but I’d already booked flights and hotels in and out to New York. So, I thought, well, let’s go to a studio and finish that song. Then I thought, well, okay, let’s write the New York element into it. The universal thing about the song is that everyone goes through a bad time and everyone gets through the bad times. I think it was perfect for me to blend the two cities and the two stories into one.
I was trying to sort of sum up my impression of how I would describe you, and I’d say Travelling Troubadour would be like what I’d see you as. You’re a storyteller, and it feels like you really connect with people when you travel.
That’s a massive compliment first of all, so thank you very much. It’s definitely one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me. I don’t think I’m the greatest singer in the world. I don’t think I’m the greatest guitar player in the world. I can hold a tune; you know what I mean. But I think my biggest skill is you put me in front of people and I’ll connect with them. You know, I’ll break through. That’s my biggest skill. Entertaining people and telling stories to people and making people maybe feel things that you do not feel every day when you come to one of these shows. That’s what I do.
A song like “Voice of the Voiceless” shows how you support the underdog. You’re taking people and bringing them up, giving them hope and things like that.
I do think that people have walked the same line that I’ve walked, which is working class life. You know what I mean? I think you are an underdog, really. I think there’s a lot of things sort of set up to not intentionally to make your life hard, but as life advances and the world advances, I think it does get harder for the everyday working human being to survive and exist and thrive. I think if we come together and use our voices in unison, we’ve got a hell of a lot of a chance of maybe changing that and maybe getting ourselves heard. Unfortunately, not a lot of people have the platform to be heard, and that’s where I like to use my platform and use my voice to amplify voices of other people and opinions of other people around me.
I don’t think that I can change the world with new music but if someone listening to my music can be convinced that the world could be changed then that’s a start. I’m just very lucky to have people that actually believe in the songs that I sing and the messages that I carry, and you know, takes me to the other side of the world.
How did your Sefton Park concert back in 2024 come about? That looks like such an amazing event.
I’m lucky to have the fan base that I do have in my own city. So, we’ve always had that massive support there, and people of all ages, which is amazing. The gigs have just kept getting bigger in Liverpool. We started off with the 300 capacity, and then we done the 600. Then we went straight to the two and a half thousands, and then we done three of the two and a half thousands. Then we done the arena, which was 11 and a half. Then we done two nights at the Pier Head, which is 12,000 each.
Then it was like, well, where do we go from 24,000, and it’s like probably to a big, massive park where we could put maybe 30,000 in. And that’s what happened. It was a great story and an amazing gig. I had some amazing company on the stage with me that night and it was something special. That was my biggest moment in my career for me to do that. It’s not a festival; tickets have got my name on them. It’s my show in my own town, and it’s something that I never even dreamed of because I never even think it was a possibility.
I just thought it was a dream; it was something that you think you did, that you don’t actually have. It’s beyond a dream, and yeah, it was special. The task is now trying to do that all around the world. But these are memories that no matter what happens in in my career, and no matter what happens in my life, I’ve always got memories like that. I’m so lucky to have experienced it. Not that I didn’t work hard for it, but you know lucky to have. You’ve got to ride your luck to do to do things like that in life, and I’m just grateful to everyone who’s made it possible.
Your latest single is “Small Town Life”. We have a saying in Australia, “Tall Poppy Syndrome,” and I feel that to “make it” somewhere like a small town you have to go beyond that. Like you have to get rid of all the negativity first, and then once that’s gone, then they’ll then they’ll embrace you, if that makes sense.
I think in cities like Liverpool, on the way up, it’s so supportive because people are happy to see someone doing well from their background. Obviously when you go through, you get to a certain period of success, and you make that change. I think that’s the period where you have to sort of navigate the negativity. Hopefully I’m past that point, and I can just keep me message through. The people in Liverpool have been lifesavers for me, and they guarantee me a career really. I’m lucky to know that I’ve got a big hometown show every year or two. It’s massive for a for an artist like me – an independent label artist. I’m not with one of the big boys. I’m not on all the radios. I’m not on all the television shows. I’m pretty organic in the way that I’ve done things. So, for me to have that spine of a fan base in Liverpool, it’s massive for me, and I never take it for granted.
One thing I noticed is that your social media presence is what you’re saying about organic. It’s like you can see the real you. Like you can see that there’s no marketing campaign telling you what to say or do or act.
I’m not a model either, you know what I mean? So, I’m not inundated by brands. Because I’m very outspoken about what I feel. I feel like I’m not that poster boy for a big marketing campaign, I’m just not. I’m just a real person who’s trying to say things as I see it, trying to find my own way, and trying to maybe help others find their way through a bit of music as well. I don’t take myself too seriously. I’m very much still on the ground in the community that I’ve been raised in, and in the wider communities of the city, I’m approachable. I’m not hidden away in a big mansion somewhere. I’m walking a dog in the park every day. I like to think that I’m a relatively normal person for what I do. I think it’s important, and I think that’ll give me longevity and me career rather than be a flash in the pan.
You mentioned Bob Dylan before. What other artists inspire you?
The obvious ones are The Beatles, the greatest rock and roll band to ever do it, the creators of pop music, really. It is a biassed opinion because they’re from Liverpool, but obviously they’re a benchmark for anyone from Liverpool and any musician in the world, really, to try and follow. You’re never going to fill their shoes, no matter who you are, in my opinion. Maybe Bob, but I think they’re on different paths, but at the same sort of peak.
But the other one for me is Billy Bragg. So, Billy’s become a dear friend of mine. I love Billy and his family, and you know it’s gone beyond the music with me and Bill. I’ve just spent some time in Canada with him in the summer playing a couple of festivals out there. He was playing a gig with Paul Weller in Liverpool the night that I was playing in Manchester so I couldn’t get to the gig. But because Manchester is only half an hour away from Liverpool, on the day of the gig, me and Billy and Billy’s partner Juliet, we met for coffee, and we had a little catch up, which was nice. I constantly look to Billy for advice, and I sort of run certain thoughts past him.
Juliet, to be fair, has been amazing for me as well. Like the pair of them; he booked me for my first ever Glastonbury show, and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since. But you know, I love Billy, and like people say, don’t meet your heroes, but I meet him every day. He’s got an infectious personality, and what he’s stood up for over the years in his music and the line that he’s taken. A 40-year career is not to turn your nose up at. You know, especially when you’ve done it the way Billy has. If I could have half the career that Bill’s got, I’d be a very happy guy.
Your latest album, Running Round the Sun has taken a couple of years to write?
Yeah, it was something that I thought I had it done a bit earlier, and then I listened to it with the management team. One of the guys on the team was the first to point out that maybe the songs that I had didn’t quite fit together as an album. He said what I didn’t want to say but was thinking in my mind. I was exhausted. I was at a real sort of low period personally, struggling with a couple of things, and I’d almost given up. I’d almost just be all that’ll do, you know. And I’d never done that before.
Then another guy in the management team noted that I’ve never had that attitude before. I thought to myself, you know what? Right. So, I started exercising a bit more, and I started writing again, and I wrote a few songs. Then, within the last sort of six to eight months, and then a couple more, like within the last couple of weeks before I was due to go and record it, I sort of took the best, recorded everything, and then took the best of what I thought fitted together.
There are some great tracks there that are still being put aside because they were great tracks, but they didn’t quite fit together. It was the hardest album campaign and writing process that I’ve ever done. It’s the fourth one, so you think you’d be good at it, but you don’t want to do what you’ve done before. You don’t want to stray too far away from what you’ve done before either. You think about it a lot more. In the past, it was just like next one, next one, next one. I know what I’m doing here.
I think after 10 For the People, my third album, it was sort of like, where am I going here? What am I doing? What’s the message? It was a turbulent ride. It really was, but I feel like I’ve come out of it stronger than when I went into it. The album obviously got the result to keep me top 10 streak going in the UK and in a real tough climate at the moment.
The album reached the top of the Indie album charts, just beating Natalie Imbruglia’s Algorithm.
The funny thing was, me and Natalie were both on a UK television show the day after the album got released. Both albums came out on a Friday, and on a Sunday morning, we were on this cooking show. She was lovely, and I sort of forgot for like 10 minutes that I’m actually competing against you this week. But obviously she was amazing. She was down to earth and really complimentary of what she’d seen on the show that day of the music, which was massive for me. Then when I did see the indie albums chart, I did have a little smirk on my face for maybe a couple of minutes. But Natalie’s an amazing singer, and obviously, she’s done amazing things in the industry over the years. So, to be even to be in the company of her was an absolute honour. Again, if I can have a career like hers; unfortunately, I won’t be on billboards in Times Square. So yeah, Natalie was great, and it was a proud moment when I seen the Indie chart come in and seeing that I’ve managed to hold out the top spot against her.
To me, the healing power of music sums up what this album is about. With “Turning Point”, there’s the persistence, with “Ode to Me and You”, fighting negativity. There’s a lot of positivity in the album.
Yeah, I’d probably say to sum up the album it’s about learning how to navigate through the bad and most importantly how to enjoy the good. You know, with songs like “Across the River” and “Just Begun” realising that presence is a virtue. It’s something that we should all seek to be, as present. Really enjoy the moments when the moments are good.
Is that the thing with social media that people are constantly seeing other lives without really focusing in on their own?
Yeah, it’s so easy to look at what other people have got and what you haven’t. But then, you could flip that round and look at what you have and they don’t. The grass is always greener on the other side, so to speak. You know, it’s not. When you’re looking, especially on social media, I think people are looking at a lot of materialistic wealth that’s showcased on social media. It’s possessions. It’s brands. It’s a certain lifestyle that nobody fucking lives. I’ve met half of the influencers, and they’re miserable when they haven’t got a camera on them.
I’m guilty of looking from the outside looking in as well and getting down about what other people are doing. But, I’m living a dream that I never ever thought I could live, and I still sometimes find myself on days going, ah, wouldn’t it be nice to be like that? But you know, you’ve got to remind yourself that there’ll be thousands of people looking at you, thinking the same thing, and vice versa, people looking at them. Also, nobody on social media posts about the bad days.
Like gamblers never tell you about their losses.
Exactly, a bettor never tells you when he’s lost. It’s a fake old world. What I’m trying to get at in the album is to see through the bullshit. Focus on what really matters. When you’re down, it’s about leaning on the people around you and being open and honest with yourself, being persistent and working hard to get out of it. Not saying that this is forever, this ain’t forever. That’s the album in a nutshell, how to get through the bad and how to enjoy the good.
Running Round The Sun follows Webster’s two consecutive UK Top Five albums, Moments (2022) and 10 For The People (2024), and features longtime bandmates Danny Murphy (guitars), Jim Sharrock (drums) and Tim Cunningham (bass)
Jamie Webster Australian tour dates
Thu 10 Dec – The Triffid, Brisbane
Fri 11 Dec – Paddo RSL, Sydney
Sat 12 Dec – Max Watts, Melbourne
Sun 13 Dec – Freo Social, Fremantle
Info and tickets HERE
