James Milton Played By: Greg Laswell Voice: formerly Jeremy Enigk (of Sunny Day Real Estate & the Fire Theft) presently Matt Hales (of Aqualung) Birthdate & Age: May 2, 1974 & 33 Screen name: backwards james Biography: James Milton grew up happily by the ocean in the small tourist town known as Cannon Beach, an hour and a half outside of the magnificent city of Portland, Oregon after scrap metal sculptor Audrey fell in love with the town one afternoon while scoping for gallery space. After James was born, Audrey's rising pro-surfer boyfriend Mike left for weeks at a time to follow his work, and their son stayed at home with her while she welded pieces of old cars together. Despite rocking out to the Beach Boys with his dad and reluctant piano lessons from his mother, James didn't truly discover music until college saw him living in the city, and concept of underground bands opened up a whole new world to him. As he began learning how to really play guitar, he was taken in by local jokes Shellfish, which he fronted for five years while he discovered how to write, how to sing, how to make that (secondhand Epiphone) Les Paul do what he wanted it to, and that Shellfish was inevitably going nowhere. In 1997, he dropped out of college and started making his way down the 101, taking odd jobs here and there, listening to bands, meeting people, writing music, and endeavoring to understand the scene. Four years later, in the fall of 2001, he landed in L.A., and, serendipitously, a highly coveted job as a cashier at the just opened Hollywood branch of Amoeba Music. That spring, James put an ad in the paper and Shade & the Black Hat was born from a group of total strangers. Local favorites of their particular genre but without a substantial following by Los Angeles standards, the band recorded, produced, and released The Shadows Buried In Me from songs mostly written by James and using home computers. When all 500 CDs were sold, James finally bought a new guitar. One otherwise unremarkable afternoon at band practice, James (who at the time was the only one with a cellular telephone) received a mysterious phone call, and just like that, Shade & The Black Hat was signed with Sub Pop. The fanbase grew slowly but steadily after that, and it was mostly thanks to inclusion on Sub Pop's compilations that 2005's The Ocean was so well and widely received. Record sales fueled a tiny tour, up the Pacific Coast Highway and back again (James still has never been more than a hundred miles from the ocean) before the surge of confidence inspired James to try something just a little bit different this time around. No overnight success by any means, which was how James preferred it anyway, the band continued its agonizing crawl to the spotlight with Backwards Blues in late 2007. Less than a year after the release, Shade met its tragic end. The drummer ran off with his girlfriend, and a month later James called the tour off and closed the door on the band in favor of pursuing his fledgling solo effort. Credits: with Shade & The Black Hat Other stuff: mst; random scenes welcome; aim is okay but threading is way better!