Samantha James

Samantha James
Born June 13, 1979
Origin Los Angeles, California
Genres
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Years active 2007-present
Labels Om Records
Website https://omrecords.squarespace.com/samantha-james

Samantha James (born June 13, 1979) is an American dance-pop singer from Los Angeles known for her style of blending downtempo to uptempo dance music with soulful vocal styles. She released her debut album, Rise, in 2007 on Om Records, which features production work by Sebastian Arocha Morton (aka ROCAsound). The title track from the album was released as a single and reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.[1]

Life and career

The daughter of Melanie Lee Rose and granddaughter of musician David Rose, James grew up with different types of music. During her teens, she became heavily involved in the underground dance scene in Los Angeles. Her influences include Pat Metheny, Sade, Tracey Thorn, Lady Miss Kier, Madonna, Esthero, Morcheeba, Bebel Gilberto, Basia, and Róisín Murphy.[2][3] At the age of 13, James lost her mother to breast cancer after an eight-year-long battle with the disease.[4] After eight years of working on her music, she met Sebastian Arocha Morton, who worked with artists such as Sting, Vikter Duplaix, and Fischerspooner.[5]

When she met Morton, James was determined to be different from other artists. After a while James and Morton came up with a mix of soulful and electronic music and continued on that path.[6]

Jones and friend Dave Curtin discussed which label would be good for her music and came up with Om Records. When they contacted the label and sent them a demo of her song "Rise", she was signed on to a single deal. After a while she was signed to do a full-length album.[7] When she released her first single "Rise" in 2006, it hit the No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Shortly after releasing her debut album she toured around the world.

In 2009, James announced that she was working on a new album named Subconscious.[8] James later stated that just before Rise was released, her father died and she took some time off before commencing writing new songs for the new album. On the new album she worked with producer (and old school friend) Shane Drasin since Morton was busy working on other projects.[9] On June 22, 2010 James released her second album.

James also released the song "Wings of Faith", dedicated to Japan, due to the tsunami in 2011.[10]

Discography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Billboard, allmusic.com
  2. ↑ http://www.vibeology8962.blogspot.com/2010/05/samantha-james-rise-of-shining-star.html
  3. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/samanthajamesofficial/info?tab=page_info
  4. ↑ "bebo.com - Profile of Samantha James". bebo.com. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Nu-Soul Magazine - Samantha James interview". Nu-Soul Magazine. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  6. ↑ "SamanthaJames: FACEBOOK EXCLUSIVE: The fans interview Samantha". Facebook. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  7. ↑ "ABOUT.COM: Samantha James Interview". about.com. 2010-06-23. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  8. ↑ "New Album". Myspace. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Samantha James: The 5 Magazine Interview". 5 Magazine and Fivestar Boogie Productions. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Samantha James Hiths Infectios Groove with Wings of Faith". Nightlife. Retrieved April 9, 2011.

External links