The songs that shaped my sound James Witham

At just 19, James Witham is already making waves from their base at university in Newcastle. With debut single “Walls” freshly released and more tracks in the pipeline, this emerging artist is turning personal reflection into raw, emotionally-charged music.

Written, performed, and composed entirely by them—bass, guitars, vocals and all—“Walls” offers a glimpse into a younger self wrestling with adolescence and the world’s weight. Now breaking into the North East live scene, they’re setting their sights on bigger stages and deeper sonic explorations.

Sam Fender- The Borders

Being a young lad from the North-east listening to Sam Fender was a huge catalyst for me to start creating my own music. His emotive storytelling is something that deeply resonated with me and was something that I wanted to pursue in my own creative process. I always loved the country inspired chord voicings that Sam uses in his early work such as this song the “The Borders” and consequently this shaped the style of rhythm guitar used on my first single “Walls”.

Deary- Heaven

As I got a little bit older I found a love for dreamy sounding music and found myself listening to a lot of shoegaze style tracks. Heaven by Deary is one of my favourite songs to date and this dreamy ethereal feel is something I consequently poured into the creation of “Walls”.

Pink Floyd - On the Turning Away

Pink Floyd were another of my first musical loves and what really got me into playing lead guitar. The way David Gilmour paints a picture with his melodic soloing for me is second to none, and through playing a lot of Pink Floyds work over the years, the moody bluesy style really influenced my lead playing on “Walls”. The again cinematic feel of Pink Floyd is also something that I just loved and wanted to be pronounced in my first release.

Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

Looking towards my coming releases I began a huge Radiohead phase towards the start of this year and this song along with Nice Dream massively influence the sound of one of my new tracks “Weatherman”. The persistent acoustic guitar blended with the wash of johnny greenwoods electric work is something I wanted to emulate in the studio. The beat of Nice Dream is also something that heavily inspired the drums on “Weatherman”, as the driving ¾ beat created the perfect feel to lay out the story of which I was aiming to convey.