Date: Wed, 2 May 2012
Featured Artist: James Willetts, Musician, Engineer, Animal Lover and so much more!
Artist Page: http://www.sonicbids.com/
Born and raised in South Carolina, James has almost seven years on staff as recording engineer, mixer, Foley/ADR Recordist and mixer at the prestigious Fantasy Studios, under the ownership of Fantasy Inc. (Stax, Original Jazz Classics, Original Blues Classics, Volt, Prestige, Riverside, Pablo, & Fantasy Records, as well as the Saul Zaentz Film Center & Tolkien Enterprises), the Concord Music Group, and Wareham Development. Moving on to be a freelance engineer / producer / musician here in Boston. He's toured professionally across 45 states and 9 countries in such acts as thenewstrange, The LustKillers, Aloud, and Silent Century.
James is fresh off of tour with The LustKillers, who will shortly be releasing a second full-length record, That Which Does Not Kill Us…, and his Boston project, Silent Century, has just released the debut album Aloha, now available for purchase or listening on CDBaby, iTunes, Spotify, & Pandora, as well as the band's website, SilentCentury.com. Look for their Boston show at PA's Lounge in Somerville on May 11th.
Following that release show, he will be throwing a birthday party in the form of a show on June 20th to benefit IMOM, an organization for financial aid to help animals receive funding for life-threatening emergencies, and Spike's Fund, an organization designed to provide funding for the medical care of homeless and shelter animals.
Official Hink Questionnaire
If you could go anywhere, where would you like to travel?
If I could go anywhere, I'd go to Egypt. The history and architecture there would just be amazing to see in person.
Who is your biggest artistic inspiration?
Probably at this point, Thom Yorke. That fucker had a killer band in the 90's that grew even beyond the expectations well into the 21st century, he fostered his own solo record, pushed forward several up-and-coming acts that he simply enjoyed, and has collaborated with more artists and cutting-edge dj's even into mid-life, still pushing the envelope & making killer records & remixes.
What artistic tool could you not live without?
It's a tie between my M-Audio Microtrack and a keyboard…. Keyboard is too general, in that I could live on just my Rhodes or simply a USB keyboard. However, my portable recorder is great for tracking rehearsals and shows for notes or input for the band, as well as walking around collecting samples, sounds, or just inspiration. It's also nice to give a little something back to the opening band.
What was your favorite school lunch?
My favorite school lunch was probably when they had that weird, square pizza with tater tots and corn. Strange, huh? I don't eat meat anymore, but there was something great about the ham & cheese my mom would pack for me: Sitting in my locker all day made the cheese melt just a little bit and glue the sandwich together to make it extra tasty. Little Debbie Devil Squares for dessert!
How do you want to be remembered?
I would most like to be remembered for my kindness.
Find him here:
http://www.jameswilletts.com/Home.html/
https://twitter.com/#!/jameswilletts/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1219713/
Thanks James!