The game is a post-apocalyptic survival-based game. I had never done it from the angle of someone’s character and story. I have written songs before where I have made up a character and I put myself in their shoes and write from their perspective. It’s a song that is written from the perspective of the main character in the game. He had an idea about a song and that is where “The Guardian” came from. I met with creative director Neil Druckmann and he was working on the second game which came out earlier this year. and that is where the video game company was based. I am not exaggerating when I say it exposed me ten to twenty times in terms of the audience.

I did and it turned out to be the best thing I’ve ever done. A friend of mine told me it would be huge, I would get exposure, and told me to take the risk. What is your favorite song from it and why?įrom ‘The Guardian Collection’ I would have to say it’s the “The Guardian.” Years ago, Sony PlayStation reached out to me wanting to use my song “Through The Valley.” They didn’t tell me what it was for or how it was going to be used. That is what I love about this record, these songs are stripped down. When a song is stripped down, I wonder if it can last on its own with just a voice and instrument. This is where ‘The Guardian Collection’ came from. I planned a whole year of touring before the pandemic hit and due to it, I re-recorded some songs and covers to keep the story going and give people something. The other half of The Guardian Collection consists of covers, a re-recorded version of a song called “Through The Valley”, and a new song called “The Guardian” for a Sony PlayStation game called ‘The Last Of Us Part Two.’ It was a really big opportunity for me and a pivotal moment for me. With ‘The Guardian Collection,’ we stripped down around half of the songs from ‘The Dark & The Light’ that acoustically shone on their own. The songs shone bright in the produced layered way that we made them but the stripped-down core was missing. That is pretty typical of me not using a lot of instrumentation, just the bare bones. I wrote those songs with just an acoustic guitar and my voice. It was a layered and filled out record and I absolutely love and adore it. In 2019, I put out an album called ‘The Dark & The Light.’ It was my first record with Parts and Labor Records with producer Jimmy Messer. Howlin’ Wolf was one of my favorites.Ĭan you talk about your new album The Guardian Collection? I was into Muddy Waters, Son House, Robert Johnson, and the Delta players.

I didn’t dive into the Blues until I was in my teens. It’s an awesome yet weird juxtaposition that taught me about both worlds. During the week, I would be in the choir and opera learning the technical and classical side of music. I would go to Gospel churches with my family on the weekends as they were extremely religious. That dipped my toe into Soul music and was the beginning of my journey into Blues.

They say that Gospel is Blues dressed up for Sunday. Growing up in Chicago the number one thing that inspired me was Gospel. My goal is to make music that stands the test of time.” I want my music to be respected, but I’ll still sit down at the bar to have a beer with you. Pointing to “authentic” performers like Tom Waits (“He has an impeccable ‘no bullshit’ compass”), soul singers like Otis Redding, Sam Cooke or Bill Withers, and the old blues icons who inspired him, James explains, “They weren’t precious about what they did they didn’t put themselves on a pedestal. Studying classical music helped him hone his vocal technique, but he learned to let loose emotionally in church. He didn’t start playing acoustic guitar until high school and didn’t start writing songs seriously until he was in his mid-twenties. A child prodigy, he entered a number of vocal competitions, with a multi-octave range that makes him unique as an artist. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, James’ timeless sound is steeped in blues legends like Robert Johnson and Son House, forever at the crossroads of damnation and redemption, the two inextricably woven into the fabric of his songs.Īfter James’ father died, his Greek stepfather introduced him to the Pentecostal church, where his vocal talent was recognized immediately and put to use in the choir. Shawn James’ voice is a force of nature, a musical preacher to a flock that accepts everyone, a combination of the gospel choirs he sang with as a youngster and his training in classical music and opera.

Shawn james album flow