Los Angeles
Brendan James
Thursday, December 06, 2012 (7:00 PM - 2:00 AM) | 
Hotel Cafe, The 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Los Angeles CA
with
Brian Jarvis
Kyle McNeill
The Far Country
Garland
Brian Jarvis
Kyle McNeill
The Far Country
Garland
Brendan James
Brendan James' third album, Hope In Transition, marks a shift from blind ambition to a new optimism. After a transformative summer and some serious soul-searching, the LA-based singer-songwriter had a creative rebirth. On July 10, 2012, James released the most hopeful and invigorating collection of pop-rock in his critically-acclaimed, seven-year career.
"I named it Hope In Transition simply because of the huge transition I went through last year," James explains. "When I made my first two albums, the mindset was, 'Keep your head forward and don't stop running, keep going, going...' but I don't care who you are, you can't keep that up without a break. Because of the constant motion, I was tired all the time, and was starting to lose the enjoyment I derived from writing. I had to get centered again before I charged ahead."
The nine-song Hope In Transition conjures up a wide array of emotions within a focused aesthetic. James writes with uplifting warmth, compassion, and deeply revealing candor, while blurring the genre lines between shimmering soul, confessional folk, and goose-bump inducing pop-rock. He keenly balances a timeless sense of organic instrumentation with a playfully experimental penchant for slinky R&B-flavored beats and tasteful electro ambience.
The heart of the album is the lead-off single, the tenderly vulnerable, "Nothin' But Love." The track is instant pop surrender. Over sun-peering-through-the-clouds melodies, James sweetly and limberly flows some brave revelations. The backstory of the song?s genesis is that James was set to do a co-write with Rob Giles (who produced and co-wrote the debut album for Tony-Award winner Sara Ramirez) but felt uninspired and emotionally inaccessible the day of their collaboration. "During the session, Rob told me to speak in sentences about my feelings," James says. "I said, 'My biggest fear is I'm gonna let people down, and maybe they'll think less of me.' Rob said, 'Wow, that's awesome, now who saves you from that' I said my wife. The song went on like that, and we just kept the casual conversational aspect of it. It's about someone saving you when you're down. You just feel their love, and feel you're not alone." Thus, the song boldly begins: My biggest fear is I'll let people down and maybe they'll think less of me/Especially you, you're the jewel in my crown and I don't want to mess this up.
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Thursday, December 06, 2012 (7:00 PM - 2:00 AM)
Hotel Cafe, The 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los AngelesCA
