Jamie T sets his sixth album Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning) for October 9

Jamie T will release his sixth album, Ghosts (100 Days Of Mourning), on October 9 through Polydor. The London musician, real name Jamie Treays, assembled it from voice memos spanning his whole career, which makes it a record built out of what he already had rather than what he set out to write.

He talked about it backstage at Reading, where he had just played a surprise main stage set. He told NME he is "happy to be where I am" now, and described going back through old material as a helpful experience, something he had never made time for. "I've come out the other side of that," he said, adding that he now looks back on the whole period more fondly than he did a few years ago.

The memos were sketches. Some ideas kept resurfacing every few years, and he made a point of finishing those specifically so he could stop carrying them. Because they were vague enough to still be open, he could take them somewhere new rather than reconstructing what he had been doing at the time.

The stretch behind that is one he has been direct about. After his 2023 Finsbury Park show he felt something was over, and he now describes it as burnout rather than drama: something in his mind telling him things were not right. He says he is still working out how to keep doing this as a job in a way that feels safer, and that he would love to keep going.

The return has been gradual. "3310," his first new music in three years, arrived earlier in August. He played his first gig in two years at London's Scala on August 20, previewing the album track "Waist 36 Leg 32," and then called Reading two days before the festival to ask if he could get on. They gave him a slot on The Grid, and he played for 33 minutes and 10 seconds.

He is careful about what the early records still mean to people. He says he feels a responsibility to songs that soundtracked people's university years and will keep playing them as long as anyone wants to hear them, while being clear that it is not where he is now.

The album is filed under indie and rock, and its date sits on the release calendar. A UK headline tour follows in December. Reading and Leeds generated a run of stories this year, from Charli XCX teasing a different show to Royal Blood revealing a secret set.