My childhood was ok. My dad passed away when I was 7 but my mum has always been my number one and raised me to be the person I am today. I grew up in Enfield my whole life, there isn’t really much of any kind of space there.

As you get older you realise how unfair the world is, and how differently you are treated. There were definitely instances when I was younger where I was treated differently because of my skin colour but had never put together the pieces because I was only a kid. I remember when I was about 13 and went on a school trip to France, I had some water thrown on me. It stayed with me for a long time because I couldn’t understand why and I hadn’t done anything.
My work now is much more personal and political – before I’d never really include myself in my music.

It’s developed over time; it’s taken some years to be somewhat happy with the music I’m making. Many things inspire me, and music is always changing. I like to always listen to what’s ‘current’ because I think it’s interesting and pop music is intriguing to me, as I find it difficult to make. I like to listen to the sounds that make a pop tune and use some bits of that in a Loraine James kind of way.

I feel like I’m still figuring myself out but compared to a couple of years ago, I know more of what I like and even just understand my feeling better – if that makes any sense (laughs). Music helped me through a lot of 2020; it's the most music I've ever made and for once I’m kind of happy with it. Making music has made me be more confident musically and as Loraine James – the artist. It has made me more comfortable with my sexuality because I don’t really hide it in my work.

Sophie was a big inspiration to me but, also, how could you not be inspired or at least intrigued by their work. I’ll never forget listening to Sophie for the first time and thinking: what the fuck is this, this is amazing and how are those sounds even made! Other people who inspire me are Sherelle, Lyra Pramuk and Object Blue – they’re doing amazing things.

You can expect my voice a lot more on this album. A lot of my vocals sound really rough as I wasn’t in Enfield and didn’t have my microphone, so a lot of the vocals were recorded directly into my MacBook or my phone.
Also, don’t expect this album to sound like For You And I, that was a different time for me and plus everything is constantly changing and this sounds different.

I started making the album around May or June 2020 and took a few months to finish. There was no real inspiration to start it, other than I had all this time and I’d already made four EPs that year. I was kind of on a roll and had this energy to make music, an energy I’ve never really had before and definitely do not have it right now in 2021 (laughs). I made the whole album just with the MacBook and its keyboard – I was staying with my partner so I only had some clothes, a laptop and my phone.
I never really know what a project is going to be at the start, it has to take its own shape, and over time, I’ll gain feelings by just listening to the stuff as a listener and not as the person making the music.

I like to record on the fly a lot; that’s how the lyrics to Simple Stuff came about. I record immediate thoughts and feelings and that’s how I feel and felt. A lot of these emotions and names for these songs come after I’ve made the track, so I can just separate myself from making the music and actually listening and digesting it.

I’ve learnt that I’m kind of a sensitive person and anxious. I'm now more confident in my music.

The order of the album came pretty quick for me, I knew I wanted those two songs to be first and last. The song titles are self-explanatory; you can’t put us down, we’re always creating new things, surviving and the blueprints.

It constantly changes, sometimes I listen to Black Ting a lot, Running Like That or We’re Building Something New. Recently, I’ve been listening to it from beginning to end, listening to it as one thing.

I’m a Black and queer person, so that will always be in my work whether it's vocal or not. I’m making music in a white-dominated world but I’m just doing my thing at the end of the day.

I’m not really a great speaker, so I don’t know if I inspire or will inspire people, but my message is you don’t need all this money and music gear, that doesn’t equate to making the most amazing music. Just do you.