About.
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With over 35 years of professional musical experience, James Kinne is a multi-instrumentalist sure to captivate you by his first riff. His enthusiasm and passion for music has propelled him quickly as a favorite for many up and down the east coast. His love for music started from birth, and his musical endeavor began by wailing on the drums as a toddler. As his love grew for playing the drums, he began his professional journey performing in a thrash metal band in his small hometown in New Jersey. Realizing he was much more than a drummer, James picked up and taught himself to play the bass and guitar while he attended Hartwick College in NY. By the time he was 19, he was touring nationally with the band Angry Salad and made stops globally as well in Shanghai, China.
James’ ability to create his own original music helped him to develop his first band, “Chasing Gray”. The release of “A Break in the Clouds” earned he and his band Spin Magazine’s “Best Unsigned Band of the Year” award. Along with that accolade, “Chasing Gray” toured extensively in the Northeast and opened for the likes of “They Might be Giants”.
2001 led to immense change for James, and he released his first solo project, playing all instruments on the album himself. As James states, “I write and play music because it soothes me, and I hope it soothes others. It is one of the most universal and comforting forms of communication we as humans have-and it is capable of saying so much more than mere words alone.” His talent as a multi-instrumentalist led him to release “Between-2001”, “Fleeting-2005”, “Aletheia-2009”, “Scraps-2011” and “The Other Side of Yesterday-2016”. After taking a break to redevelop his craft, James is slanted to release a new album in late 2020. James has shared the stage with Live, The Verve Pipe, Counting Crows, Tonic, Jonathan Brooke, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, RUN-DMC, Violent Femmes, Vertical Horizon and played alongside Marty Floyd of the Freddy Jones Band as well.
Aside from his own projects, James has collaborated, produced and provided instrumentation on many other artists’ work. He was also awarded 3rd place in the “Telluride Troubadour Competition at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2005. Just a testimony to his immense talent and ability to cover multiple genres. From his humble beginnings as a thrash rocker, to placing at a bluegrass festival, James has all his bases covered.
With musical influences ranging from Toad the Wet Sprocket, Vertical Horizon, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, Jonathan Brooke and Iron and Wine, the release of the new album is highly anticipated. As an artist, James is constantly reinventing himself and looks forward to providing his listeners with a newly invented edge that remains true to his musical genre in early 2021.