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Troy native Early James will release his third studio album “Medium Raw” in January and James discussed the album with The Messenger ahead of its release.

James, real name Fredrick James Mullis Jr., was born and raised in Troy before eventually moving to Luverne and then, Birmingham to pursue his music career. James made a couple of appearances in his hometown of Troy earlier this year before setting out on yet another tour of Europe.

“It was my fifth time over in Europe and I think it was the least stressful time of all of my tours over there,” James said. “It went well, everything’s been really good. I have some time off before we start this next tour.”

James also was hard at work this year on his third studio album, “Medium Raw,” which will release on Jan. 19, 2025, nationwide. James had previously released his albums “Singing for My Supper” in 2020 and “Strange Time To Be Alive” in 2022, both on Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys’ label Easy Eye Sound.

James joined forces with Auerbach once again for “Medium Raw,” this time for a much different recording process.

“It’s a little bit more stripped down than my first two albums,” said James. “There’s quite a bit of songs that are just me and Adrian (Marmolejo), him on upright bass and me on acoustic guitar. It was recorded in an old house in Nashville (Tenn.) this time instead of a professional recording studio.”

James said he didn’t know of the change in recording location until Auerbach sent him the address on the first day of recording. The album was recorded at a house in Nashville that’s more than 100 years old, called the Honky Chateau. The house is typically used as a photography studio for its owner.

“You could hear construction going on outside as we were working, it was a different atmosphere to record an album,” James said with a laugh. “This guy named Bud owns it, he’s a multimedia artist but he does mainly boudoir and nude paintings and photography. So, there’s this (promotional) picture of me where I have all my guitars on the couch. Normally, it’s not guitars on that couch; it’s naked people.

“He’s a super talented artist and he does busts and sculptures and stuff like that, too. He’s a really cool guy.”

James said the experience recording at the Honky Chateau was a completely different one for him.

“It was definitely different because we were literally in a dude’s house and he would be making his coffee, while we’re recording songs,” James said. “It was definitely a different atmosphere to record in.”

James said the title of the album, “Medium Raw” came from a talk he saw celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain give years ago that was also called “Medium Raw.” He said that it fit the stripped down atmosphere of the album.

James said that he was much harder on this album compared to his others, due to how stripped down it was. James was joined only by producer Aurebach, bassist Marmolejo and drummer Jeffrey Clemens for the majority of the recording. It was advice from Marmolejo that made him start seeing “Medium Raw” differently, however.

“I didn’t like it at first because the last two records there were so many contributions from other people that I was just sort of able to listen to it and enjoy it and not be critiquing myself as much,” he emphasized. “This is just a lot of me. I’m the only guitar player and I’m the only singer on the record. So, I was heavily critical of it at first but I’ve really come around to it. Adrian says a lot that you can’t think of a record as, ‘You have to play (the songs) that way live’ but instead think of them more as a snapshot in time and that’s what those songs sounded like then and hopefully they sound even better when you see it live.”

James most appreciates his newest single, “Rag Doll.”

“I’m really proud of ‘Rag Doll,’” continued James. “I really liked the way Jeff Clemens, the drummer on it, played against it. Because of the way we recorded it, I couldn’t see him at all. There were two walls in between us and I could barely hear him. What I heard was almost like a half-time groove but he was actually playing full-time.

“The rhythm just reminds me of when you’re walking down a hallway and you accidently walk in front of someone and they try to get out of the way and you do the same thing and you just keep running into each other over and over. That’s what the song felt like to me.”

James will release “Medium Raw” on Jan. 19, 2025, before setting out on the “Medium Raw” tour in February. James will begin in Birmingham at The Saturn on Feb. 7 and travel across the country, ending in Oklahoma on April. 8. James’ “Medium Raw” can be pre-ordered from multiple outlets at https://linktr.ee/earlyjames.