"Since we split up in 2001 a whole bunch of kids got into Indie music that I don’t think know James apart from bits and bobs on the radio," says Jim.
"We’ve arrived for the first time in people’s lives and we thought ‘hang on a minute instead of playing big arenas let’s take it to small places.’ His son, he says, is into ‘grime’, a gritty type of rap. "It’s just him and a few mates who get a couple of tracks together and hand them out to friends. He’s so outside the business, which is wonderful. I’m like, ‘well you need to get a demo done and send it to the record companies’ and he’s says ‘we’re just doing it for the fun of it’. ‘Surely not’, Jim laughs to himself.
This time around though, his dad’s band is also more relaxed. They got back together because missed the creative process of making music together.
The "sort of" split in 2001 – it was never actually confirmed – followed the departure of Tim Booth.
"At the time we were touring and we were suppressing a lot to get through it," recalls Jim. "It stirred up a lot of emotion and we’d fly off the handle with each other if we weren’t careful. It hit me more afterwards when I started missing writing songs.
"I don’t think any band writes songs the way we do," says Jim. " Nobody brings in anything prepared and something starts to appear when we’re playing. It moves and shifts, it’s so nebulous. Tim sings phonetics and bits of sentences which don’t make any sense and we listen to each other and have jams between eight and 25 minutes long and then listen back and fit pieces together. It’s just such a buzz."
The generation they’re playing to can create singles on their home computers and fly up the charts on downloads. Jim’s by no means grudging. In fact there’s a sense of private glee that the record companies, who he thinks have missed a trick with the download revolution. He doesn’t few the slog they had through rose tinted spectacles.
"It’s good for kids to struggle and work hard for what they get." he says. "But I wish it had fallen a little bit easier to us."
James plays at Liverpool University on April 12.
Call 0871 230 1094 for tickets.
