Early life Burrows was born on 30 June 1979 in
Winchester and he was educated at
The Westgate School and
Peter Symonds College. He stated that the first albums he bought were
Bad by
Michael Jackson and a compilation album titled
Ballads by
The Beatles. The first instrument he played was the
cornet and he later transitioned into drumming. In May 2021, it was announced that Burrows had rejoined Razorlight after 12 years alongside Johnny Borrell, Björn Ågren and Carl Dalemo (who rejoined the same time as Burrows). The band went on to tour across UK and EU festivals before starting work on the fifth Razorlight album.
We Are Scientists (2009–2014) After Burrows left Razorlight, he almost immediately joined
We Are Scientists. His first album with the band
Barbara was released in June 2010. The band's fifth studio album and Burrows' second with them,
TV en Français was released in March 2014. Burrows left the band in 2014, but has occasionally teamed up with them for live performances since his departure.
Solo and Collaborative work (2008–present) Burrows first released a solo album,
The Colour of My Dreams, on 26 May 2008. The album was released to raise awareness and funds for the "Jack's Place" Appeal at
Naomi House, a
hospice for children in his home town of Winchester.
The Colour of My Dreams was written and recorded at home by Burrows during
Razorlight downtime, after he stumbled across a book of poems by an old family friend, Peter Dixon, and set about putting them to music. Using just
GarageBand he began work in his flat and sings and plays all the instruments on the record. Eleven days after he left Razorlight, it was revealed that Burrows had signed to
Universal Records, the same
record label as his ex-band. Six months later Burrows' new solo moniker I Am Arrows played their first show. Burrows revealed that he was working with
Noah and the Whale producer
Eliot James and the album
Sun Comes Up Again was released in August 2010 and reached No. 38 in the
UK Albums Chart. The song "Nice Try" from the album features in the film
Friends with Benefits.
Editors frontman
Tom Smith teamed up with Burrows to form Smith & Burrows – they released their debut album
Funny Looking Angels in November 2011, an album of winter songs featuring the single "When the Thames Froze". Burrows would drop his I Am Arrows moniker for his next solo album
Company, which was released on 22 October 2012, and received critical acclaim. All singles from the album were put on the A-List on the
BBC Radio 2 playlist. Burrows would also spend time working with Columbia recording artist,
Tom Odell, contributing drums and backing vocals to both the
Wrong Crowd and
Jubilee Road albums. He co-wrote "Sirens" from Odell's debut album,
Long Way Down, "Here I Am" from
Wrong Crowd, and the title track of
Jubilee Road. In 2018, he collaborated with the British author
Matt Haig for the album
Reasons To Stay Alive. The songs were composed by Burrows while Haig composed the lyrics for his songs. In August 2018, the title track of the album was released. The album was released by Fiction Records on 1 February 2019, featuring further singles, "Handle With Care" and "Barcelona".
Soundtrack work (2011–present) Burrows played drums on the
Arthur soundtrack produced by
Mark Ronson. One of the songs is currently the theme tune to the
ITV chat show,
The Jonathan Ross Show. His drumming also features on the
Ilan Eshkeri soundtrack to
Johnny English Reborn. In 2012, Burrows was approached by the production company Lupus Films to work on
The Snowman and The Snowdog, the follow-up to the 1982 classic animated film
The Snowman. Collaborating with Eshkeri, Burrows co-wrote the soundtrack to the new film as well as writing and performing the official single from the film, "Light the Night". The flying-home sequence also uses an orchestral version of Burrows' track "Hometown" from his solo album
Company. The score was nominated for a BAFTA craft award in April 2013. In early 2015, Burrows featured on a re-recording of
Kate Miller-Heidke's song "Share Your Air", replacing the vocals of
Passenger. In November 2013, it was announced Burrows would join
Ricky Gervais' comedy band
Foregone Conclusion, for a nominal period of time as musical director. Before the close of that year the Burrows played three shows as MD and drummer of the band. The soundtrack of the film based on the band,
David Brent: Life on the Road was co-produced by Burrows and Gervais and released via Gervais' own label Juxtaposition, distributed through Caroline International/Universal. Burrows composed the soundtrack for
Ricky Gervais' 2019 TV series,
After Life. ==Personal life==