Jamie T opened up about his current headspace in the run-up to his long-awaited new album, as he spoke to NME backstage at Reading 2026.
The musician, real name Jamie Treays, released his first piece of new music in three years earlier this month with ‘3310’. He kicked off Reading & Leeds down south with a last-minute “surprise” set on the main stage, The Grid.
Shortly after his 33-minute and 10-second set, he joined NME backstage, where he talked about how he was feeling about his return and impending sixth album, ‘Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning)’. The record, which will arrive on October 9, was created using voice memos that span his career.
“I think it helped me to process things,” he told us when asked how looking back had helped him move forward. “I hadn’t done a lot of that in my career. It’s been so fast, and I’ve just always been on the go. I don’t think I had ever really had a minute to think about it, so it was really important. I’ve come out the other side of that, and I look back more fondly now on it all than I maybe did a few years ago.”
He continued to describe it as a “really helpful experience”, adding: “It’s all a mindset, isn’t it? If you get yourself caught up in a mindset of looking at the hard times – because there were hard times for me during that period, and ups and downs… But I’m really happy to be where I am. I think that’s because I did that record and because I managed to look back through all those things and put it to bed.”
Treays explained that the voice memos that formed the album were old “sketches and stuff”.
“There were some ideas that kept coming back around seemingly every few years, so I made an effort to look at those and try and get those nailed so that I could put things to bed a bit,” he said. “They were all vague enough for me to be able to carry on and put a spin on it that I wanted to put a spin on.”
When sharing the artwork for ‘Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning)’ on Instagram earlier this week, Treays shared that he had “felt like something was over” after his 2023 Finsbury Park gig. Asked if he felt like he was done with music at that time, he replied: “I never know with things like that. I’m not that dramatic, really. I definitely felt something had turned in my mind, and I think I was burnt out by that point, as well. Something in my mind was telling me something’s not right.
“I think I’ve had to learn, and I still am in the process of learning as an adult how I’m going to carry on and proceed to do this as a job if I want to do it. Because, in hindsight, it was taking too much of a toll on me, whether that be burnout or mental health and things like that. I feel like I still am working out a way of doing it where I feel safer in this experience. So I’d love to keep going with it.”
Asked how he’s feeling now, the musician said he feels “great at the moment” and is “really happy to be back around”. “I’m really proud of the new record and excited to play it to people,” he said.
During his performance on The Grid, Treays delivered a set of old fan favourites plus new single ‘3310’, asking the crowd if they were “ready for a little dance”. Backstage later, he reflected on being back at Reading, a festival he has played “five or something” times in the past. “It’s so lovely to be back,” he said. “We called them just two days ago or something and asked to be on, and they were so nice. They let us play a little set at the beginning, and I felt really welcome.”
In an Instagram video teasing the set, Treays had commented that he had “FOMO” at the idea of not being at Reading this weekend. “It’s my fault because I’m not very good with deadlines, but I did tell everyone that I work with that the album was going to be finished in January,” he explained. “We didn’t really book any festivals for this year because no one thought it was going to be finished.
“So I got terrible FOMO when I was at home thinking that all my friends were going to be playing festivals, so it was nice to be able to get on stage, and it was such a big crowd, so that was just so touching for me.”
Last week (August 20), Treays played his first gig in two years at London’s Scala, during which he performed more beloved songs from across his discography and previewed ‘Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning)’ with ‘Waist 36” Leg 32”’. “It was brilliant, I had so much fun,” he said. “We haven’t played there in 20 years, so it was really nice to be back and just a nice way to think about where you’ve been in the interim periods.”
Asked what kind of reflections he had on the night, he shared: “It was just fond reflections, really. I’m in a good headspace with it all in a sense, so it’s nice looking back now. When we played Scala last time, I remember we just had a little projector behind us that didn’t even fit the stage. It was tiny, and we were just putting photos up that we had taken on tour. It was just ramshackle. Some very fond memories.”
At one point in ‘Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning)’, Treays references being the soundtrack to people’s university days – and fans’ connection with his early material was still palpable at the Scala gig. “I feel a responsibility to that stuff because it means so much to some people,” he said. “I’m really happy to play them because it’s so rare to have anything that hits like that. So I will keep playing them for people as long as they want to hear them.
“But I moved on quite a long time ago from that. It’s not really where I am now, but I’m so, so glad that I did something that means so much to people. I’m very proud of that.”
‘Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning)’ will be released on October 9 via Polydor Records. Jamie T will embark on a UK headline tour in December – visit here for tickets.
Reading 2026 continues today with performances from Geese, Charli XCX, Fontaines D.C. and many more.
Check back here for all the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and more from Reading & Leeds 2026.
