If there is one concert rule I live and die by, it is this:
Never miss the supporting acts.
As I stood in New York City’s Webster Hall back in February as Sophia James took the stage, serving as one of the supporting acts for Ben Barnes on his Where The Light Gets In Tour, I was reminded of exactly why I live and die by that rule.
“Does anyone have any questions about this?” James asked the audience, referencing the gray box she had brought onto the stage. “This is a loop machine. It basically loops whatever I say,” she explained as she hit a button, causing the phrase loops whatever I say to echo throughout the venue. And, before we knew it, James had gone straight into a song that we had watched her build right before our eyes.
That, I thought, was stage presence. That was a capitol-P Performer. And just like that, James had the entire audience captivated.
Now, she’s poised to make her solo show debut on April 24 at New York City’s Mercury Lounge.
James has had bit of a winding journey to this moment, having pursued music for most of her life. “I’ve been singing since I had the ability to,” she says in an interview with Culture Cabinet. “My dad is a freelance drummer, and my late mother was a professional singer. It was always kind of in my blood and in my environment. I caught the bug for it really early on.”
It was this early exposure to music that led James to explore all different sorts of outlets that nurtured her love and talent for the art, including high school choir, band, and theatre, as well as majoring in jazz at University of California, Los Angeles. “I’m not necessarily a jazz singer or a jazz artist,” she clarifies, “but at the time, I thought if I had a good understanding of jazz, I could translate that across whatever genre I chose to pursue, and then I got the songwriting bug in college.”
From there, it was an upward climb of a hodgepodge of gigs, as her career hit milestones such as a brief stint on American Idol, collaborating with artist David Francisco, opening for Eloise and Jensen McRae (“Two of my favorite artists,” she notes), and even writing for a Disney Channel show.
But, amidst it all, James also found herself walking away from a record deal.
“I started working with this manager who ended up not being a great fit for me. There was a lot of miscommunication. He had advised me to sign this record deal with him that would have come at a disadvantage to me. I didn’t really know it at the time. I was just not very educated on the music business or the industry or how it worked then, so it was a long period of nothing really happening because they weren’t releasing the music that I had made.”
After about a year of a career dry spell, she knew it was time to pick herself back up, and after parting ways with her management team, she decided to start making her own music independently. This ultimately served her well, as it led to collaborations with artists like Scary Pockets, touring with the band Couch, and recently embarking on a world tour as a supporting act and band member for Ben Barnes.
“I’ve been kind of hopping around doing everything within music, whilst also trying to pursue my one goal of being my own solo artist,” she says. “It’s challenging, but there’s nothing I find more fulfilling.”
James’ passion and drive are on full display just in speaking with her. It’s obvious that she is someone who is not just willing to take the opportunities that she’s afforded, but that she sincerely enjoys it. She has nothing but kind words to say about Barnes and her recent tour-mates, she seems to throw a compliment in every time she references a past collaborator, and she emits nothing but gracious vibes.
But underneath that is an undeniable hunger to keep going. “I’ve always wanted to do a large scale tour like that,” she says of her time on the Where The Light Gets In Tour. “I’ve always wanted to do the whole bus tour thing where you just eat, sleep, and breathe music making and live music and being around creative people 24/7. Having that experience really reinstated for me how much I want to just keep doing that forever and ever, in whatever capacity I can. Performing live really makes my soul come alive, and I’m really committed to following that feeling for as long as I feasibly can.”
Luckily, she has the opportunity to do just that, with her debut headlining solo show.
“It’s a totally solo show,” she says excitedly. “It’s gonna just be me and my looper and probably my piano and guitar. I’m just gonna play my original music as a one woman band and try to curate a fun and exciting experience for the audience and everyone there. It’s going to be a good opportunity to leave the real world outside and just party and enjoy some music.”
On top of that, she’s gearing up to release a new album. “Last year, I met this producer, Alex Bilowitz, who is also a songwriter, and he’s kind of heavy in the pop world. He’s wanted to be more creative and invest in an up-and-coming artist project. So, he generously agreed to work with me for the passion of it, and we’ve been making this album over the past year and a half. It’s a new sound for me, it’s more like alt rock with pop sensibilities, and it’s just been the most fun, playful, creative project I’ve ever been a part of. So, now I’m trying to really take it seriously and shoot my shot with it completely independently. And with that comes performing these songs and showcasing myself and presenting people with this music that I really fucking love.”
While she can’t give too much away on this yet-to-be-released album, she can offer a sampling of its sound with her recent single, “Sunshine and Apathy.” A punchy pop-rock ballad that showcases James’s vocal prowess while simultaneously providing a fresh sound that analogously sounds like the angsty throwback sound you’ve been missing and unlike anything you’ve heard before. And, if it provides any taste of what’s to come on the full album, it can only promise the best.
But, for now, James is simply thrilled to be taking the ride, and excited to show what’s she capable of.
“I hope [listeners] get hip to my life philosophy a little bit, which is something along the lines of this: no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. The world could be one huge chaotic mess, and the only thing we have control over is how much fun we have with the time that we’re given. And at the end of the day, nothing is all that serious. Everything is absurd. So, let’s just fucking rock out.”
You can get tickets to Sophia James’ show at Mercury Lounge in New York City here.
Culture Cabinet 
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