Born in Hamilton, James Alphonse struggled with his ADHD led him to really try to understand the human nature, because it always seemed to escape his understanding. By doing this, he started finding ways to make peace with his past. Now, his songs reflect this desire to understand his past and to either makes amends through self-development or to enjoy the benefits of his condition. 

Due to the nature of these writing topics, his music can range from dark and brooding to ecstatic and revived. Often, his songs involve anthemic, head bobbing altpop vibes or upbeat danceable vibes. He isn’t afraid to test new genres such as reggaeton, rnb, popfolk, EDM, and disco. His diversity as a writer has led to comparisons to artist like the Weeknd, Marc E Bassy, and Shawn Mendes.

James has earned various songwriting nominations and awards including three Unsigned Only nominations as a semi-finalist and a finalist (10,000+ applicants, 10% move on to semi-finals), an International Songwriting Competition semi-finalist nomination (26,000 applicants, 9% make it to semi-finals), Slaight Music’s ‘It’s Your Shot” finalist, a Hamilton Music Award (HMA) for “Best New Group”, two HMA nominations for “Best Pop Album”, first and second in the HMA’s “Rising Stars” search, the winner of the Waterloo University Battle of the Bands, the Wilfrid Laurier Brantford Battle of the Bands, Nipissing’s Got Talent and Western’s Fan Favourite Winner, with various of his previous groups Allotrope and From Ash to Ember.

James has had impressive collaborative opportunities, writing with Duncan Coutts of Our Lady Peace and gaining mentorship from Nick Blagona (The BeeGees, Deep Purple, April Wine). James has opened for The Trews, Kyle Pacey, Dave Rave of Teenage Head, and the Johnstones. As is indicated from the 1,000,000+ YouTube streams, some of James’ biggest fans come from his work with “The Next Step”.