Full Bio
As a Writer / producer / programmer James is credited with 60 million record sales worldwide. His work having also won 3 Brit awards, 18 Grammys and 2 Ivor Novello awards since 2001.
Not only has James worked for some of the most respected and established artists of this generation, but he has also helped establish the ‘sound’ and ‘sonic identities’ of major league acts. Defining their outputs well after his musical interventions.
James's client list includes: ‘U2’, ‘Madonna,’ ‘Dido,’ ‘Phil Collins’, ‘Manic Street Preachers’, ‘Kylie Minogue,’ 'Mel C', ‘Brian Eno’, ‘Keane’, 'Sinead O'Connor', 'Bryan Ferry', 'Alex James from Blur',' Pet Shop Boys', 'Joe Satriani ', 'Annie Lennox', 'The Cure' Siobhan Donaghy ...and many more!
In 1998 James worked with Bryan Ferry (Roxy music) on the album ‘Frantic’ where he met and subsequently worked for Brian Eno.
Brian Eno then employed James to setup parts of his London studio where James acquired an even deeper understanding of synths and sounds under Brian's tutoring (Brian gave James all his old V.C.S.3 patches.) James spent 18 months assisting Brian Eno on many of his studio projects.
In 1998/1999 James developed and programmed the award winning song ‘Northern Star’ helping define Mel C's album ‘Northern Star’ with Rick Knowels. At this time James also worked on sessions for ‘Madonna’, ‘KD Lang’, ‘Sinead O'Connor’, ‘Belinda Carlisle’, ‘Bryan Adams’ and ‘Gabrielle’
In 1998/1999 James developed and programmed tracks such as ‘Here With Me’, ‘Hunter’ and ‘All that you want’ off the multi-platinum, number one record which won Dido the Best Album category at the 2002 BRIT awards, where Dido also won the Best British Female award. It was also nominated for a Grammy. The Album was the biggest selling album of 2001 selling 14 million copies worldwide.
In 2001 he discovered, developed and produced the band ‘Keane’. He spent six months with the band co-writing, recording and producing the album ‘Hopes and fears’, helping to secure their deal with Universal. The record topped the UK album charts upon release, was the best selling British album of 2004, and has since gone eight times platinum. It returned to the top of the charts after winning a Brit award for Best Album in February 2005. With 6 million copies worldwide copies sold, it has been ranked the 16th biggest-selling album of the millennium.
In 2001/2002 James worked with ‘Phil Collins’ on his critically acclaimed album ‘Testify’ in Switzerland and France where it reached number 2 on the album chart.
In 2003 James programmed on Dido's second album ‘Life for rent’. It is the fastest selling album by a female artist and was nominated for ‘Best British Album’ at the 2004 Brit awards and ‘White Flag’ which he programmed, was awarded the 2004 Ivor Norvello in the category "International Hit of the Year". The album sold 12 million copies worldwide.
Between 1998 and 2000 James worked with Mike Hedges on the ‘U2’ album ‘All That You Can't Leave Behind’ which sold over 12 million copies, and was critically acclaimed, with the band winning Seven Grammy awards. In 2003, the album was ranked number 139 on Rolling stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
James also has worked with Mike Hedges and Brian Eno on the ‘U2' album ‘How to dismantle a Atomic bomb’ (2004).
‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’ and its singles won all Eight Grammy awards for which they were nominated. The album also sold over 9 million copies.
In 2005/2006 James developed the band ‘My Architects’ for Fierce Panda records.
More recently he developed, co-wrote and produced the album ‘Ghosts’ for Ex Sugarbabe ‘Siobhan Donaghy’ in 2007/2008 and has also co-wrote ‘Patterns of my life’ with Annie Lennox on of her ‘best of’ album ‘The Annie Lennox Collection’.
James spent a large portion of 2010 working with the fantastic new band 'Rubylux' who have recently signed to BMG having just toured in Australia and Asia and in March 2011 starting a U.K. tour.
James is currently working with the amazingly talented Russian band ‘Mumiy Troll’
The Hookblast Podcast is a weekly, 10-minute show where we discover a few new catchy songs - all sourced using Music Xray's proprietary combination of music analysis software, machine learning, crowd-sourcing of industry professionals, and fan feedback.