James Righton unveils new single "Empty Rooms" featuring ABBA's Benny Andersson

After announcing Jim, I'm Still Here with the lead single "Pause" at the start of the month, Righton has unveiled a second outing from the record titled "Empty Rooms", which features ABBA's Benny Andersson, who he met while putting together ABBA's live band for their digital avatar concert series.

"He’s never done anything like this before," Righton said of Andersson. "I nervously sent him the track and a couple of days later he sent back this keyboard line which was perfect."

Righton added of the song, ""Empty Rooms" is about silent conflicts. It’s about realising one’s own flaws and working through them. Like all the songs on the album it reflects another side of life during lockdown."

Jim, I'm Still Here will follow Righton's 2020 album The Performer, and will also include last year's "Release Party". The album was created in collaboration with David and Stephen Dewaele (Soulwax).

Righton said of his new album earlier this month, "The alter ego of Jim came to me whilst promoting my previous album The Performer during the first week of lockdown. Life shut down and became centered around family and domestic life. At the same time (and this did feel rather strange) I had to promote The Performer. I was asked more and more to live stream concerts through various social media platforms. So. I’d put the kids to sleep, head downstairs to my garage studio, put on my Gucci suit and became someone else. The juxtaposition of these two lives felt extreme but also interesting to me. I created Jim. Jim would be the deluded rockstar, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. James was Dad."

He added that the pandemic allowed him to write about his "wife, my children, friends who I miss and a friend who sadly passed away from Covid during the first month of the pandemic," which resulted in an album that he describes as "more personal, raw and unlike any other I’ve made."

Righton concluded, "To be clear Jim and James are both me. Jim is an exaggerated semi fictional version of me. James changes nappies, makes dinner and reads bedtime stories to his kids. Jim craves external validation, likes, followers and adds to playlists. But in truth you can never fully detach Jim from James. The balance and constantly shifting nature of this duality I find endlessly fascinating."