James is a writer and illustrator from Melbourne, Australia. He writes about music, and is currently preparing a biography on Tony Lawrence and the Harlem Cultural Festival.
James’ writing has appeared in Wax Poetics, Rhythms Magazine, The Riff, AJazz, and DJ Shadow Reconstructed. He has also contributed behind the scenes research and admin to both Rhythms and DJSR.
In 2020 James published Making Psyence Fiction, a book on the early careers of James Lavelle and DJ Shadow and the creation of Mo’ Wax Records. Elsewhere he has written extensively on this subject, including the series Mo’ Wax: Where Are They Now? which looked at more than 70 artists who worked with the label.
His next book, on Australian jazz trio The Three Out’s 1961 album Move, will be published in 2026 by Bloomsbury.
In 2021, James founded The Shadow Knows, a music fanzine mixing interviews with heavily researched longform feature articles. There were four print issues before it moved online, and in 2024 the zine went on hiatus while James completed other projects.
Also in 2021, James led The Record, a project with Wikimedia Australia which highlighted the lack of Australian music content available online. Through editing workshops The Record increased the amount of Australian music content on Wikipedia by adding new pages and expanding existing ones with images and new references.
James’s illustrations have featured in Doll Hospital and several small zines. He also creates short hand-drawn animated films, such as Five Penguins and Santa’s Hat which can be watched online in both English or French.
Upcoming projects include the aforementioned biography on Tony Lawrence and the Harlem Cultural Festival, a yet-to-be-announced podcast, and possibly more…
Contact James via: e-mail / Instagram / Masterdon
Studies
2021 – Graduate Diploma in Journalism – RMIT Melbourne
2015 – Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Management – UniSA
2011 – Bachelor of Fine Art (Sounds Art) – RMIT Melbourne
2008 – Diploma of Visual Art – NMIT Preston