Catalog Number: WJLPR1024
Color: Black
Format: LP
UPC: 5063176053312
Written, produced and mixed by James and recorded in West London and
New York City, The Shape Of History is James' tenth album."My
songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally
reflect the different music and references I have and love
My sweet spot is mid-late 70's downtown NYC New Wave Punk: CBGB and Max's
Kansas City. It is from this sound that my taste for sequenced and dark NY and
Euro electro and no-wave evolves. The Shape Of History was recorded on Scrubs
Lane, West London with Alex Ward, Harry Bohay and James Sclavunos. I then
went off to NYC and Brooklyn to record the pianos and organs with Dave 'The
Moose' Sherman. Overdubbing continued with Al Lawson at the engineering helm
in his Shepherd's Bush studio and then I went back to Berkeley, CA to mix with
Jesse Nichols before mastering with Fred Kevorkian in Brooklyn NY. I have spent
so much time with this music, I know it note-for-note and I love it and I am so
happy for you to now make it your own".
"The Shape Of History has a lot about love in it, a lot about appreciation of
oneself, one's life and importantly, of others. It is life's arc of starting out,
blooming into something and in some ways maturing. I don't think my music has
got older, I know I've not gone mellow! My attitude can be more ferocious and
fearless than ever, but there is an acquired wisdom, which naturally comes after
having been alive for a few decades! 'The Shape Of History' is a love letter and a
Thank you note to life so far. The culmination of my tenth album is the result of
co-musicians and engineers who I've worked with previously and with whom I
share a language. We know each other, we choose to work together. We enjoy
each other's talent and personalities. There is a happiness, a belonging, when we
meet up, and an open and determined desire to achieve what we know we have
to".
"From meeting Nick Christian Sayer and forming Transvision Vamp, the two of us
walking into EMI Records and demanding to see the head of Artists and
Repertoire, Dave Ambrose. Getting signed and making our hits of the late 80's
and90's. From collaborating with Elvis Costello and mixing that album at Sunset
Sound in Hollywood where The Stones mixed 'Exile On Main St', then moving to
NYC to start writing and recording as a solo artist, all the gigs I've played and the
friends I've made around the world, the astounding, incredible, wonderful people
whose lives I've crossed paths with...I am so grateful for it all."