Nathan James is an extremely talented and well-known photographer in the alternative and rock world. He is the eye behind the lens on many popular album covers in recent years. This includes shooting the cover art for Tickets To My Downfall by Machine Gun Kelly and Internet Killed The Rockstar by MOD SUN, both wildly popular albums in the scene. He has also shot iconic photos of artists like Post Malone, Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, and even Lil Wayne. If you like alternative music, you have 100% seen one of his photographs.
He has the ability to connect with these artists, and produce an image that incapsulates their branding and attitude in a vulnerable and authentic way. Hell, he also just knows how to make people look cool. Artists are comfortable and trusting with him, making for exceptional visual art. Nathan James also offers his photographs to the world in the form of fine art galleries which ended up leading him into the journey of making music himself.
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“When I started photography I just really dove deep into that and did a ton of things with different artists, brands, celebrities, all that stuff. It wasn’t until I did my own like fine art photography gallery, where I was like, “What’s another art medium I could do that could bridge the gap between it not just being a photography exhibition, but also like some other art medium in it? What if there were songs that could correlate with each one of the photographs, you know?” So I made these six songs, because there were six photographs, and I was like “Damn I love like making music but it’s gonna take me some time to really figure out how to do this [and] figure out my sound [and] figure out what I want to be doing.”
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Nathan James first embarked on his musical career with songs that leaned towards emo rap, but quickly began experimenting in other genres. He released a few songs that were primarily pop punk, like “Outcast Radio” and “Cinderella.” Eventually he found his groove with what he calls “New Nu-Metal.” Fans could sense the authenticity in these songs, especially with his first release in this vein, “Medusa.” James saw traction on TikTok with this new song and realized he had hit his stride. “The Hanged Man,” “Appetite,” and “Dancing With My Demons” are all among his most streamed and most popular songs in his catalogue. In his newest track, “Nephilim“, he experiments with an even heavier version of this sound.
In this interview with Nick Major, Nathan James shares much more about his music, dives deep into his experiences working with the artists he has photographed, and so much more. Make sure to watch the full in-depth interview to learn all about the world of Nathan James.