GANGgajang’s ROBBIE JAMES releases new album ’24 HOURS A NIGHT and first single ‘

24 HOURS A NIGHT – JAZZ-POP ALBUM BY GANGgajang’s ROBBIE JAMES

Robbie’s new solo release 24 Hours A Night is a collection of jazz-pop songs written and performed by Robbie with just guitar and voice. The album displays a side to his artistry unknown to many.

During his long career he has consistently written in three different genres – pop, classical and jazz. His pop songwriting is evident on the GANGgajang albums; on Wendy Matthews’ platinum selling albums which he contributed five songs; and on his own pop release Secrets In The Sand.

2022 has finally seen the release of Robbie’s music in the jazz-pop and classical genres – his jazz-pop album 24 Hours A Night released independently on June 1, and the release of his classical album through ABC Classic on July 29, String Quintet No.4, The Marree Sisters.

The songs on 24 Hours a Night were written over a long period of time reflecting Robbie’s love of the great American songwriters of the early part of last century. Remaining true to how the songs were written, Robbie has recorded these with just guitar and voice. The simplicity of this recording retains the songs’ intimacy and also gives the listener a chance to hear his unique artistry of jazz guitar and vocals.

Dreamed The Same As Me is the first featured track from Robbie James’ new jazz-pop album 24 Hours A Night. The album displays the unique artistry of Robbie’s jazz guitar playing and vocals as a complete sound in its own right. It also shows a different side to Robbie’s songwriting that reflects his love and respect of the great American songwriters of the early part of last century.  

In the film clip for Dreamed The Same As Me, his old Guild Starfire III takes center stage as images of the guitar take on many different forms travelling beside him and as part of him and his music. The old guitar has been his instrument since the age of eleven, and is also the signature sound of his band GANGgajang.

Similarly, Dreamed The Same As Me is also about travelling through life with something that has always been a part of you. It is about the discovery of something you’ve searched for your whole life, only to find it was right there with you the whole time; right there with you while you were busy looking for more; right there with you as you travelled through the noise and clutter of the world which constantly overshadowed the silent beauty of love that was always waiting at your door.

“When I look to where I should be going to

I turn around and there is you.”

The chorus line, “The fields where many have dreamed the same as me”, speaks of that moment where we finally dare to dream that we may already have everything we’ve been looking for.

Robbie wrote the song some years ago, but it never seemed to fit any album he was working on at the time. But with this jazz-pop album, the song has finally found its home. In the pursuit of trying to make it fit other albums, the song went through many changes such as the addition of band instruments, chanting harmonies and different tempos. It’s a fitting story that even the song itself had to travel through a lot of time, noise and clutter before it finally found what it was looking for – it was there the whole time, just how it began with guitar and voice.

“How for is there to go

when you are already there but don’t yet know?”

       – Robbie James

GANGgajang
Robbie James has been GANGgajang’s lead guitarist and one of the band’s songwriters and producers since 1985. The songs of GANGgajang were an integral part of the music revolution of the 1980s. The band continues to tour and record to present day. The timeless Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia) is one of the all-time classic Australian songs. GANGgajang is regarded as one of Australia’s iconic bands, and have a multi-generational fan base throughout Australia and overseas – most notably in Brazil.

YOTHU YINDI
Robbie toured Australia and the world for five years as guitarist with Yothu Yindi after joining them in 2001 when they and GANGgajang toured Brazil together. Yothu Yindi was the first band to put First Nations culture on the world stage, their song Treaty is regarded as one of Australia’s most important songs. Treaty was the first mainstream hit to integrate Aboriginal Manakay with western music, sung in the language of both cultures.

SCATTERED PEOPLE

Robbie produced, co-wrote and performed on the latest album by Scattered People called Sugarmill Road. Scattered People rose out of the Brisbane Asylum Seeker Centre in 1998. Sugarmill Road is the subject of the 2021 documentary film Scattered People which continues to be screened around the country.

LIVE CLASSICAL

Robbie’s string quintet Dreaming in the Sand was performed by the Bentley String Quintet to great acclaim by reviewers and audiences alike at the 2021 Restrung Festival in Brisbane. His string quintet arrangement of GANGgajang’s iconic Sounds of Then (This Is Australia) was performed at the London Paralympics in 2012, and he has twice been commissioned by the City of Perth to compose extended semi-classical arrangements of his own song Nomadsland and Yothu Yindi’s Treaty for their Australia Day Sky Shows.