James Walsh is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and frontman of the band, Starsailor.
James was born on 10th June 1980. When Walsh was aged 12 he started to play the piano and by the time he was 14 he wrote his own songs; he enjoyed listening to groups like The Charlatans, Oasis and Jeff Buckley. A shy and lonely personality, he looked for artists that had, or have, an influence on the musicians of his generation.
Sometimes you just have to walk away from something, follow your heart, take a leap in the dark and start afresh. After almost a decade with his enormous yet somehow tender, fragile voice fronting Starsailor, James Walsh has emerged as a singer-songwriter in his own right, with an acoustic guitar and some big, new tunes to travel wherever the road may take him. Towards the end of Starsailor’s decade of success, he’d started playing acoustic gigs to promote the band abroad, and started to enjoy the new found “freedom” of playing without a safety net.
Just over a year after taking the difficult decision to put the band on extended hold, James has barely looked back. He’s toured with Sheryl Crow – playing to more mainstream but “tremendously appreciative” audiences than he ever did with Starsailor’s indie following; written with Suzanne Vega after inviting her to sing with him in New York and recording the Live At The Top Of The World EP with Norway’s Tromsø Chamber Orchestra in the closest major settlement to the North Pole. Working with an orchestra and world famous composer Bernt Simen Lund is a long way from Starsailor’s Wigan roots – “very cold” laughs James – but incredibly exciting. As a result of adventures like that, James admits, “songs have been pouring out of me.”
