James Allison Emerges with Retrospective Alt-country Sound on “I Just Don’t Know Where I Belong” (SONG PREMIERE/INTERVIEW)

James Allison has been a name in underground and indie music for over a decade, and he’s finally stepping out on his own. Some may recognize him for his work with Electraplay studios (especially the Live At Electraplay video series), most will remember him for his electro-synthetic pop project Digisarus who valiantly carried the “our band could be your life” torch well into the depths of the country on countless tours that totaled about 500 shows. But when the pandemic hit and being disenfranchised by the music industry, James decided to start releasing music under his own name, starting with the emotive and retrospective alt-country “I Just Don’t Know Where I Belong.” Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the track.

A hyper sincere and honest retelling of his touring days, James draws us in with his Roy Orbison inspired style croon, leading to an upbeat and shuffling open-road rhythm. James crushes the romanticism of the road that was born out of the early days of rock n roll, with lines like “the truth is I”m living in Hell” he hits to the heart of what so many indie artists who didn’t get a huge fan base know too well, that touring is a cold and ruthless business. “I was traveling so much, I didn’t keep an apartment or home at the time. Just a storage space in LA. I had started to become reflective of all the things I was missing out on to pursue this idealized version of a full-time musician that I’d always held. I was operating somewhere between a DIYer, club opener, and bar musician at the time, and I didn’t know how much longer I could go on doing that.”

James Allison doesn’t over complicate his formula. His melodies are familiar, the chord progressions have been passed down through generations, but his angle is modern and refreshingly honest, killing off the demons of the rock n roll “dream” that still haunt so many nearly known artists.

Listen to the track and read our exclusive interview with James below:

Going by your own name as an artist is a big change of pace, especially after doing so much work with Digisarus, what was it like making that decision during the pandemic? Did the pandemic make the decision for you?

I think it was a decision that just naturally occurred over time. The name “Digisaurus” was always supposed to evoke evolution, and that concept was applied to the music and the shape of the project itself. What started out as a very collaborative project (essentially a band to begin with) started to morph into a very personal thing as I began touring solo, especially the two years prior to the pandemic. I wondered a lot of times whether it was within my right to do that since so many people had been involved at one point or another, so I always had the idea of moving away from the name in the back of my mind.

There came a point in early 2020 where I finally had an album’s worth of material that I’d written by myself, and I knew it would make the most sense to take the leap to my own name with it. The pandemic definitely encouraged that by isolating me and forcing me to take the helm on most of the recording and production.

You’ve made a fairly large stylistic change with your new music, were there any musical growing pains along the way?

Again, it all occurred quite naturally. I was focused on electronic synth-pop music in 2015. “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk and Chromeo were huge, and that was a trend I wanted to follow. It was all about hooky riffs and songs you could have a good time to. I found a niche as a solo bar/club performer who catered to a party atmosphere, but Digisaurus really became an act rather than any sort of sincere expression of emotions. And that was fine. I learned so much about performing and how to win a room with fine-tuning that act on a nightly basis for a few years.

But outside of that I was driving around the country, listening to music from the 60’s and 70’s, meeting very interesting people from all walks of life, and going way deeper into the human experience than I ever had before. In 2019, I began looking at my life as a traveling performer very objectively and just started writing about it. When I was off the road in early 2020, I let all that organic writing and emotion guide me in making music rather than trying to chase trends. That bled into my production too, and I wasn’t really interested in playing with new synths, plug-ins, and technologies of the moment anymore. I started to take guitar and piano lessons again and became more interested in the melodic and harmonic structure of those instruments and using them in songwriting.

‘I Just Don’t Know Where I Belong’ has a lot of sonic references to artists you’ve mentioned that influence you, like Springsteen and Tom Petty, who have certainly written songs about travel and isolation. Are you looking to get back on the road with the pandemic winding down?

This song deals with those subjects you mentioned most poignantly, but the album to follow covers many aspects of my life as a sort of “nomadic traveling performer.” It was a hell of an experience. But now that I’ve written an album about that life, I think it’s time to move on to something else.

I’ll probably tour again in the more traditional sense of promoting a release, but not like I was. Touring became my livelihood, and then the pandemic forced me to figure out making a living at home. Being home really showed me how much I was missing out on in terms of community, personal connections, and relationships. Those things drive my song-writing right now, which is good because it means my songs will keep evolving. I’m also really enjoying producing other artists. It gives me an opportunity to learn about music and personalities from different points of views and has really widened my creative scope. It feels good to be consistently recording, and I plan on riding this wave as long as I can.

Photos by Kris Misevski

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