Jamie T’s sixth album, and his first in three years, Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) is an exorcism by way of voice memos. Written during a solo trip to Siena, Italy, Jamie revisited fragments of ideas recorded over the years, reshaping forgotten outlines and fleshing them out into fully realised songs – blurring the line between the initial spark and the final cut. In doing so, he was able to close a loop on his youth, reckoning with the complex emotions of the journey from being a kid who likes to make music to becoming one of Britain’s most celebrated and distinctive musicians, alongside the scars left by more recent years. Lead single 3310 pays homage to the 00s Nokia status symbol, while Cocktail, written with Damon Albarn, takes stock of relationships that burned out; “I’m tired of making plans/Breaking promises I’ve made/And losing friends I had,” Jamie sings, lamenting memories lost to hangovers, anxieties and spiralling. Midway through the record, he delivers an interpretation of The Jam’s Ghosts – with utmost feeling – before closer Tallahassee offers a reflective look at what it all means.

Matching such a personal record, here Jamie shares five things that shaped Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) while he was in Siena, from an unfinished painting to the local fox he kept an eye on through his Ring doorbell.

Nerone contempla l’incendio di Roma by Pietro Aldi
“This unfinished painting by Pietro Aldi in the Santa Maria della Scala in Siena is a painting I visited a few times while [I was there]. Seeing an unfinished painting is like peeping under the bonnet of a car to see the inner workings of the artist’s hand.”

Recording equipment
“This is my travelling recording equipment. No need for much in the modern age, but a guitar, a microphone and a hundred pens and pads.”

Dog
“The neighbour’s dog would chase me out of the gates when I left and bark at me when I came back. Spent the whole time I was there stealing my socks from the bedroom upstairs.”

Tourtel Birra
“The worst beer in the world.”

Fynn the fox
“I found a baby fox abandoned in my back garden at home a week before I left for Siena. The poor thing had become quite reliant on me in that time. He lived just under my fence. Three meals a day. My wife set up a Ring doorbell camera while I was away so I could check he was OK.”

The barn
“This converted barn in the hills of Siena is a place I would definitely go back to and record. No distractions and the countryside is peaceful.”

Jamie T’s Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) is out now.