James Main

James Main is a singer-songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. After a breakthrough encounter with the honest lyrics and raw sound of Joni Mitchell’s early 70s albums, he started out as a solo artist in 2007 with the release of his first two EPs on MySpace (Music Therapy I & II). In 2011 he moved away from the “piano-punk” style of his early works and released his first full-length album, Letting Go, which drew musical inspiration from vocal-trance and house music. James' second album, Closer (2012), had a more intimate, soft-rock feel. In the years after Closer, James stopped producing albums and instead focused on composing a stage work (Wings, 2017) influenced by Joyce's 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' and James' own experiences of faith. During this period, he also wrote three song-cycles for solo instrument and voice: Songbird (2013); Faith, Hope & Love (2015); and Mother Tongue (2018). In 2020 James released Hearing Secret Harmonies about the interplay between pain and faith, while continuing with the yin-yang theme which first appeared in Mother Tongue. This was followed by the tragicomic and slightly absurd "Off the Hook", spanning genres from baroque pop to musical theatre to emo. (He may or may not have released a secret mixtape in 2023.) James' most recent release, "Rhythms of Desire", explores the unexpected and fluid nature of desire through a mix of confessional rock and R&B.