Blog:James Kennedy Biog

James Kennedy is a UK based Singer Songwriter, Producer, frontman of the Alternative Rock band Kyshera and owner the Music Company Konic Records. From South Wales, James is self taught in everything - Guitar, singing, producing and everything else. James writes all of his own material (all the words & the music!) and also wrote all of the music & words in the band Kyshera. James also produces all his own albums and has released them on his own label, Konic Records. James has also written songs for other artists such as The Military Wives Choir, Tenovus, Katie Waissel, Cat Southall and many others! He has also placed music in many adverts & TV shows around the world like Aria Hotels Las Vegas & Koko Bank Taiwan. James has performed in many countries around the world and is known as an energetic & entertaining performer!

When James was young he had bilateral cholesteatoma in his ears which meant he had to have 3 major operations leaving him with 40% hearing loss in both ears and constant Tinnitus in his left ear. He didn't enjoy school & didn't get very good grades but he did start performing in his first band as a lead Guitarist in School & played several gigs in the School hall & clubs around Newport. James then went on to Crosskeys College where he met lots of other musicians and continued performing live as a Guitarist (James wasn't a singer or writer then). James then went on to study at the highly esteemed Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama but he left 2 years in to the degree when one of the lecturers offered him a teaching job! At age 20, James was a teacher and working at a local recording studio and it was here that he started penning ideas for his own songs and experimenting with his singing in the night time. James wrote, produced & played all of the instruments on the 1st draft of the Kyshera album 'Made in China' during this time & released a demo of it under the name 'Kennedy' but later had to change the name when he was contacted by the management of classical violinist Nigel Kennedy and told that if he didn't use a different name, they would consider him to be passing himself off as their artist! The demo fell into the hands of several major labels & James had calls from Sony, Warner & many other labels who urged James to set up a band and do some live shows. However, the music industry then fell into a quick depression due to file sharing and interest in new artists (particularly artists with challenging music like James's) dried up over night. James persevered through this period by forming Kyshera and setting up his own Label called Konic Records, however, finding musicians who were able to play the technical & complicated music on Made in China was difficult and James endured many years of line up changes and Kyshera had frequent periods of non activity whilst looking for new members. Each of the 3 Kyshera albums has a different drummer and for many of their early years the band performed as a 2 piece due to issues with bass players leaving the band.

Alongside Kyshera, James has released 3 solo albums also. The first was the experimental & instrumental album '9.i.P' which was released during James's experimental Made in China period. Many people can't understand how the same artist could make this album as well as a song like 'Misfits' but as James said himself, he started out very left field and technical and then gradually became more melodic & mainstream rather than the other way around which is what happens with other artists! His 2nd Solo album 'The National Health Service' is a simpler, acoustic based album of songs which led coincided with a more melodic direction coming through in Kyshera, such as on their 3rd album 'Circle'. Circle is actually a character based story about a celebrities rise & fall and explores themes of vice, loss, love, death & meaning and ironically it was after this album that James himself began experiencing his own mental burn out & depression from years of struggling in the music industry. Both of the previous 2 Kyshera albums resulted in James having to sue either a record company or their manager over financial matters and after Kyshera's brutal European tour with cult American band 'Snot', James had a mental burn out and wanted to take a long break from the music industry in order to reassess his life. Despite this, James ended up writing his most successful album to date, the Top 50 Best Selling album 'Home' which features songs like Unconditional, Misfits, Hometown and Just a Man. James poured his depression and loneliness into the album and used it as a form of therapy for his feelings and gradually came out the other side with a more positive appreciation for his life. He resisted touring for 2 years after the Kyshera hiatus but did a small solo acoustic tour in July 2018 called the Misfits Tour which had no promotion and was only announced to his Twitter followers in each town. James has not expressed what is next in store.

TRIVIA

James was voted as one of the 50 Sexiest Men in Wales by the Western Mail.

James identifies as a Socialist