Having just spent 12 hours straight at Downtown Music Studios in Soho Manhattan with my brethren Jaxon Dillon-Fish (Bass), Tim Sharp (Electric Guitar, Vocal Harmonies), Tony Rouhotas (Drums), Alterik Wilburn (Manager Esq.), and Mark De Olivera (Rap Artist) and our new team member Shamel Hughes (Sound Engineer) I find myself feeling deeply satisfied. Every one of the team members raised to the challenge and knocked the ball out of the park with every swing. Humbled is a word of inadequate description in relation to my experience with this cast of characters. I am overwhelmed with gratitude in finding myself surrounded by such incredible fellows who constantly offer me support, love and respect. Each experience with these cats, I feel, amplifies my own personal growth and I love working within our team. If I am to be honest (and so shall I be), I feel this recording session has captured my best work to date in terms of singing and musicality. Rarely have I written and shared more personal words than those in the lyrics of these new songs; which are powerfully poignant and writhe with symbolic stories.
Where would I be without The Rouge Royale and our team, of what I consider, excellent individuals? Where indeed might I ask… but here I find myself in a boat that we each work to build and each help to sail.
I find it wild to be reading an article about myself and the awesome guys that make up The Rouge Royale, being featured in the same article as Bruce Springstein…
Check it out, as we just rocked one of NYC’s most high profile venues:
My new band just released our first video, check it out 
This was a single shot at our first performance (we invited a bunch of friends to check out the band before we did a legit concert in NYC as a testing ground) that Michael Morgenstern ( now a friend ) shot for us.
The video and audio are unedited except for subtitles/titles – everything else is completely raw so you can get an idea of what we really sound(ed) like 
My life has changed drastically in the last 6 months with the end of my dearest and most long term love relationship and the birth of my most beloved band “The Rouge Royale”. It is amazing how one death can bring such glorious energy into our lives. Never have I felt more inspired and supported by other human beings and I owe this largely to what I now consider some of my closest friends, Tim Sharp (lead guitar player), Jaxon Dillon-Fish (Bassist), Tony Rouhotas (The drum animal that keeps us moving along) and my long time friend and manager of TRR Alterik Wilburn. These people came around me in a significant time of need and showed me through their actions, love and support that it was not only OK to express what I was feeling but that this expression needs to be put into the world. These people came around me when I had barely the strength to give anything of myself except my torrents of emotion, and they asked very little to nothing of me except to show up. Through this group of people I have been learning greater self acceptance and the music is more satisfying than ever. I do however miss the gentle side of my acoustic soul at times, but, I am confident that with time I will be sharing a new and deeper expression of the more gentle part of my being also.
Currently with TRR we are writing a new album and secondly I am working on solo project with the working title “Raven’s In My Shadow (c) 2011″ in my spare time, when I can find moments alone.
A return to the joys of reading has given me a new vigor in writing and I have been lost in the glorious medleys of descriptive text by my favorite writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. His short stories are my favorite because of his ability to convey so much, in so little time with powerful and colorful scenes of human experience. “The Great Gatsby” has always been my favorite, but recently I’ve been nosing through “A Return to Babylon” which is highly stimulating and fun.
I want to say thank you to each of you who have continued to send me notes of love and support while joining us at our shows. Your belief in my projects (and now our projects) is the reason I do this.
Happy Holidays, I wish each of you love and happiness.
James
My oldest bro gives me a ring and says “Hey James, wanna come on an audition with me? And what about Tim, can you give him a ring too?”
Long story short after we enter a room where we are told “you may experience the adventure of your life, but for now tell us a little about yourselves…” and a few days later we receive an email inquiring on our availabilities in the upcoming weeks. Fast forward, three of my closest friends and I are on a plane to the Bahamas, to meet with supposed “Bacardi representatives” with little to no sleep, and each one of us suffering a bit from our irish breakfast
I wont lie, I was scared to death that we were being lured into a scene out of the movie “Hostel” and this fear really didn’t go away until I woke up the next day on a boat in the middle of the ocean surrounded by a bunch of seamen and cameras. We had been “tricked” into going shark diving, after being told we would be going deep see fishing only to soon find out that “we were the bait”…
All is well that ends well and the experience will never be forgotten. I’m considering writing up a detailed depiction of what happened during those crazy hours… We survived the sharks and the sea sickness, had wonderful food made by the boat’s lovely chef (she was great), and got quite tipsy on Bicardi’s new Oakheart all for free! Bad ass! More details shall come but this will need to wait until later. For now, check out the video
Just completed a very powerful metamorphic photo shoot with Hadar Pitchon, check it out
Having listened to the raw audio of the recording sessions I have been doing recently with Lee Nadel, Rich Mercurio and Billy Masters I have to say that I feel two main things. Inspired and humbled. The work that we have been putting together is so beautiful and so powerful that I cant wait to share it with people. I am excited to be alive, and excited to be creating music. I love it, there will soon be four new recordings with a full kick ass band of “At the water’s edge”, “Sing Liberty”, “Take My Hand” and “All My Life”. A few things to look forward to… Rock rock rock rock rocking grooves and sounds… think Pearl Jam “Ten” or “VS” mixed with early Beatles and reggae… YAY!
I’m reflecting today as I sit at the “Cosmo Diner” on the east side waiting to see my friend and colleague Lee Kaplan (the awesome video editor responsible for putting together all of my videos to date – check him out at www.makeitreel.com). Lee and I are working on a series of videos from the release concert and today he will be unveiling to me his last couple weeks of work. I am totally excited as I have not seen any of the footage from the release party in weeks!
My heart races, jumps and skips beats like a school child enjoying a little double dutch session with friends everytime we (my awesome team filled with friends and people I am humbled to be lucky enough to work with) get close to releasing a new project. To date, this series of videos soon to be released will be the most extensive audio/video projects I have produced and I’m super excited
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It has taken me a while to complete my last journal entry and as I was expecting to do a more elaborate entry on the subject I think I will just share a few closing thoughts:
The beautiful evening could not have occured without the support of all my fans and friends nor could it have occured without the fabulous work done by each of my band mates, Lee Nadel, Ryan Vaughn and Jeff Berner. Lastly, had I not had the constant support and love of my partner in crime Emily Sinnott I’m sure my sensitivity would have overcome and destroyed me multiple times over. Alas, I am loved and I love each and every one of you. This journey called life is an impossible battle do face alone and as for me I feel blessed to be so supported.
In finishing:
“You can tell who a man or woman is by looking at their friends”
Thank you friends, I bow to you.
Thursday 7:30am
I awake to the sun’s warmth upon my face. Blanketed brilliantly in light, my awareness quickly shifts, to my heart’s rapid pounding within a cage of ribs. Today is the day. Seven years I have focused, patiently waiting. Listening, traveling, searching, crying, surviving, laughing and loving. I shall stand upon the cliff once again, anew. Looking out within the light, shadows and smiles looking back. Eleven hours and counting..
My mind is hot with anxiety, the circuits glowing a fiery red. Energy, bursting synapses, neurons torpedoing information, ungodly amounts of information. The hallways of our minds glistening like star dust. I love this feeling. Adrenaline. I guess this is a large part of why I do this. The excitement, waves beating upon me like the endless tides of and ocean upon it’s shores. We’ve been preparing for months for this day. I’m so excited to introduce this new sound to my friends and fans… I feel elevated playing music with this excellent group of human beings that I’ve been calling “the Bandits”. Emily Sinnott, Ryan Vaughn, Jeff Berner, and Lee Nadel have added incredible elements of beauty and excellency to this project.
For the first time ever in all my shows I feel completely rehearsed. I understand that growth shall always be possible and I feel very centered within myself knowing that I have given this my all. Emily and I have been playing together daily, her cello work is rapidly growing and it is so much fun to share this with her.
After doing yoga and meditating my mind has finally come to a place of peace. I packed up my gear and we are on our way to Euphoria studios where we will be playing our last rehearsal before the gig tonight. I’m elated.
Rehearsal, booked for tow hours took no longer than an hour and fifteen minutes. We are tight, Emily nailed it on the cello. Ryan Vaughn is tearing it up on the drums, Lee Nadel keeps making me laugh with his fills in the pocket ( I love having Lee on bass with us he has such a solid groove and perspective on music), and Jeff Berner is awesome on the electric guitar tearing it up like the best. I only wish the stage we were playing on this evening was about three to four times the size, that it is, so we could jump and dance around the stage with ease. I have been looking forward to playing at Rockwood Music Hall now for over a year. The last time I played a gig at this venue was over two years ago on my birthday in 2008 prior to any of my major trips or tours, prior to Africa, Central America or the four month National tour we just completed. I can’t wait for all of my friends and fans to see the change and growth. I can’t wait to bring to everyone my vision in this way.
After a killing rehearsal with the group Emily and I jump in a cab with two guitars, one cello, my professional cameras, tripod, bags of alcohol, clothing and party supplies. Needless to say, we should have hired a camel to help with the carrying of all the goodies. We arrive on the lower east side at Em’s apartment at about 5pm. One hour and thirty minutes until we need to be at the venue setting up. At this point my adrenaline is at about an eight out of ten. My heart only calms down from it’s insanity of pounding for seconds at a time and only after I do a series of large, deep, exhales. Everything is looking great- I’m just excited and a bit hungry. Until, Wham! Shit, I forgot to restring my guitars, I forgot the batteries for the instruments pickups, for my peddles, and this awareness comes no sooner than 30 minutes before show time!
Luckily everyone that was supposed to arrive prior to the show does so in a timely manner and we get out of the door after the minor (near major) panic attack. I only had time to restring “Lucia”, so I’ll have to make due. Each friend grabs an instrument, I throw my hood up over my head and we hit the streets. We are now ten minutes behind. Making it to the venue by 6:30 is an impossibility, the best we are going to do is arrive by 6:45pm (15 minutes before show start). Why does this always seem to happen? No matter how much preparation a wrench always falls into the gears…
We arrive with about ten minutes to spare. I find my camera people, Rhiannon Hyde and her friend Selene Preston, give them a small amount of direction in what I hope to have captured on film for the behind the scenes video I am producing. I meet a photographer my friend Gary suggested, Emmely Pierre-Louis. I locate Tommy, give him a few details about the show as he will be handling sound and lights for us and it is now about show time. A couple hugs, a couple kisses, sharing of support from my closest friends and it’s time to stand upon that cliff once again.
My heart calms. breathing normalizes. I feel at home on the stage, all the weeks of preparation have come to this moment. My mic is set, guitars are ready, the band looks amazing (Emily is sparkling in her dress and the guys look cool as cucumbers). My one major fear that no one will show up has been obliterated with the line out the door and the room packed back to back by so many amazing people I look out into their eyes announcing myself and The Bandits. 1, 2, 3 chica chica… and we are off to the races.
The entire show was an amazing experience. I could not have asked for more as my expectations were surpassed in every way. It’s hard to select which moments were my favorite but I shall let you know more soon
