Exclusive: Dave McCabe on When You’re Young, Red Dead Redemption 2 & Solo Tour

The tour, which gets underway at Barnoldswick’s Music & Arts Centre this evening and culminates with a date at the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool on April 25, 2026, will see the 45-year-old joined by fellow Zuton Jay Lewis on the intimate run of shows. “He's the best person going,” McCabe said when asked about how excited he is to have Lewis accompany him on tour. “He's a really good friend, and I mean that. I actually like his company, and when he plays the guitar, it's like he makes it sing. And I didn't really realise, I suppose, as much, because we've always had other instruments in the room, but just playing with him on his own, he's just got this touch that I think brings a lot to the gig, if I'm honest.

“I think it's not just a Dave show. I think Paula, who's singing with us, brings a lot as well. She brings this other energy to the set, so it's an eye-opener for me, really, because it's really quiet. It could either be really easy, or it could be really hard, depending on the gig. But I've got the confidence now because I've done those two gigs in one day because I was really like, 'What's going to happen at these gigs?' But since I've done them now, I know I'm going to enjoy this tour, so it's exciting now,” McCabe stated.

In the lead-up to the tour, McCabe, who’ll be performing as Dave Zuton on the 13-date trek, has been working on new material. The solo single ‘When You’re Young' – a track with a “soulful sound, with strings, keys and other vocals on it”, in McCabe’s words – is expected to land ahead of the tour, with a full solo album expected to be released later this year. After previously exploring electronic influences on his ‘Church of Miami’ album, McCabe has revealed that he’ll be adopting a more “guitar-based” approach on this record.

“It's more just me with my guitar and my mate Danny. And we're getting other musicians to play. Each song is different up to now. And we haven't finished writing it. So it might not come out for another 16 years,” McCabe said with a laugh. “But the song that's coming out, ‘When You're Young', is like a soul song, really. A soul song about looking back on when you were young,” the 45-year-old finished.

“They definitely took it to a whole new level” – the success of 'Valerie'.

McCabe, who is widely known for fronting the indie rockers The Zutons formed the band in 2001 after leaving Tramp Attack, an act co-founded by ‘Brookside’ actor Kristian Ealey. The Zutons were an immediate success. Their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Who Killed the Zutons?’ went multi-platinum, spawned two top 20 singles in ‘Pressure Point’ and ‘Don’t Ever Think (Too Much)’, landed at No. 9 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart and saw the band earn Mercury Prize and Brit Award nominations. As a collective, the band’s success didn’t end there. Their sophomore album ‘Tired of Hanging Around’ reached No. 2 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart and featured the top ten hits ‘Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?’ and 'Valerie' – the latter of which was covered by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse to worldwide acclaim.

“Yeah, I think that song is just its own life form,” McCabe admitted when asked about the success of ‘Valerie’. “I wrote it really quickly and came back, and we had the music pretty much done within a couple of days of doing it. Obviously, we had a massive hit with it. I didn't know Mark Ronson then. I remember the label rang me up and said, 'Amy Winehouse has done a cover of your song.' I was like, okay.

“I remember listening to it thinking, 'This is really good.' But I was like, lightning doesn't strike twice, but it did. I think they definitely took it to a whole new level, that song. And then the sad thing that happened afterwards has kind of immortalised the song again. I remember Colin Murray on the radio saying to me, 'I think people are going to be singing this song in 20 years.' And that was about our version. So people were kind of saying that then, but then for someone like Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson to do it, totally, they're going to be singing it, well they are singing it 20 years later. There's proof of that,” McCabe said.

The cover, released in 2007, became an instant success, peaking at No. 2 in the Singles Chart and eventually becoming the ninth biggest-selling single of 2007 in the UK. Now, just under two decades later, its popularity remains undeniable and has since become an immensely popular karaoke track. “I don't know if it's ever going to stop being a karaoke song,” McCabe said. “It seems to be massive. Like when I was a kid and you were into Nirvana, Guns N' Roses and Pantera, you didn't think when you were older you were going to write a song that aunties and uncles were going to sing. I think I've done it in karaoke in Spain once, but I think no one knew who The Zutons were; no one knew who I was. So they just thought I was some idiot, which I was, getting up singing his own song,” the Zutons frontman joked.

Going solo with the Ramifications

After releasing their third studio album ‘You Can Do Anything in 2008’, The Zutons quietly disbanded a year later, leading to McCabe’s decision to launch a solo career. McCabe co-wrote Ronson’s ‘The Bike Song’, sang on the cover of The Justice Collective’s Hillsborough charity single ‘He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother’ alongside Robbie Williams and Paul McCartney, and in 2015, McCabe, with his backing band the Ramifications, released the electronic-influenced solo album ‘Church of Miami' – an album McCabe admits “never really got right” in a live setting.

“I loved the album, but live, we never really got it right, and that was not on anyone. It was just that I’d never really played with backing music. The stuff was so complicated. To recreate it would have taken another year or another six months of getting people to come in and do it, and realistically no one had the time. So there was a lot of stuff on track to play to, like noises and stuff like that,” the 45-year-old stated.

“I never had my guitar for a lot of the songs, so that kind of made me feel a bit weird on stage. And also it was kind of like everyone wore masks. I never wore a mask, but everyone in the band did at first, and it was my spinal tap moment. So I'm so glad I've done it and got it on my system. Looking back now, it's more enjoyable and funny looking back now than it was at the actual time. I still like the album; I still like the songs; I still like the music, so it's not all bad. But to be honest, I wasn't in the best place mentally or physically when we were doing it, so that didn't help at all,” McCabe stated.

Reuniting with The Zutons

After being separated for nine years, The Zutons reunited in 2018 to mark the 15th anniversary of their debut album with a tour. However, it wasn’t until 2024 that the band decided to release their comeback album – 'The Big Decider' – an album co-produced by Ian Broudie and Nile Rodgers. ““It was good,” McCabe said when reflecting on the experience.

“Nile Rodgers is a legend. It was good to just be with someone who was so calm. I just remember how calm he was about everything. And Ian Broudie is the same because he's a legend in himself. He's done loads of different jobs over the years. Sometimes you need that uncle vibe in the studio. Because you do become a gang of kids, and you do get a bit possessive. You do get a bit like, well, I want this to be this way. You need someone to man-manage the situation; come in and do it. Whether you want to admit that or not, but that's just the truth of the matter. Because you get too many decision-makers in one room. You need someone who's just going to override it and keep it simple,” the 45-year-old said.

For musicians, finding inspiration for songs on an album can take many shapes and forms. For McCabe, the track ‘In Your Arms’ came from playing Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. “I wrote a song about Guarma (The fictitious island on the video game that is located in the Caribbean) once. It was a really good song, and then it changed into this song called ‘In Your Arms', McCabe said when expressing his fondness for the acclaimed video game.

“My manager said, 'You can't write a song about an imaginary place on a computer game,' and I was like, 'Okay.' And so we changed it around, and it became this song, In Your Arms. But if it wasn't for all the hours invested in Red Dead Redemption 2, I wouldn't have got the song. If you add all the hours up, what is it, over 100 hours for one song? Yeah, it shows you how much you've actually got to play video games to get the results out,” the Zutons frontman said.

As part of promoting ‘The Big Decider’ album, The Zutons embarked on an eight-date trek across the UK last April, culminating in a date at Mountford Hall in Liverpool. Afterwards, the band supported Richard Ashcroft at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire – an opportunity that McCabe described as “a full circle moment” after previously revealing that the first band he saw perform live was The Verve, who were supporting The Smashing Pumpkins in 1993. And for McCabe himself, he made a guest appearance at Anfield to perform alongside Dua Lipa.

"It was very scary, to be honest with you,” McCabe said when asked about the experience of performing at Anfield. “I’m glad that it happened, and I am glad that I’ve done it. But when you walk out at Anfield, it's full; it's Dua Lipa fans, and I had these in-ear monitors in, but I'm not used to them, and they kind of suck all the noise out of the air. So you walk out to complete silence; people are waving, and some people are looking at you like, 'Who's this fella?' I think they were expecting Elton John or someone to come out. So most people, to me, were looking at me going, 'Who's he?' And then, you're not Amy Winehouse either. So it was like, when I walked out, it was like, f****** hell. And the walk up was like stars in the eyes. It was about 50 yards to this little stage from the main stage.

“So you have three stages. But that was one of the longest walks ever. And you can see it in the video; I'm kind of walking with my head down, like I'm in school. But it was good, and I saw the video clip the other day, and when the song's playing, it's great, but it's one of those things, isn't it? "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I'm glad I took it,” the 45-year-old finished.

McCabe’s tour gets underway in Barnoldswick this evening - and tickets for the tour are available at https://songkick.seetickets.com/tour/dave-mccabe