I first saw Shayfer James perform live, a little over a year ago at a JC Friday’s, Groove on Grove event. I remember I was on my way to check out 1,802 art shows that were happening that night. Shayfer started singing and I ended up staying for his whole performance, I was floored. He is an incredibly talented musician, his music draws you in, mesmerizes, hypnotizes…. Shayfer’s voice is sexy and timeless…. OK I will stop here before I get myself in trouble.

What’s your name? Shayfer James.

What do you do? I write songs.

Can you elaborate? Typically, the songs start as poetry, pieces of poems, or just very simple concepts. I write them based on tiny ideas or concepts.  I only occasionally sit down and say “I’m going to write a song today”.  An image will come to me, and then I’ll build the song from that.  When the song is finished, I know what it’s about, unless I’m working from a prompt of some kind .  It’s sort of like a subconscious process, not so different from putting a brush to canvas with some idea, but no real concept of what the final product will be.

How do you define your style of music? It is lyrical, dark, singer/songwriter.  It’s been called Pop-Noir or Noir-Pop.  Generally the music is a bit more aggressive and theatrical than what you might associate with the “singer-songwriter” moniker though.

I get like a bluesy feeling. I think it hits different spaces; my chief early influences growing up were Golden Era singers and Motown. That’s what my mother and grandfather always had going. Later on, I started listening to Gershwin and Stephen Sondheim, and songwriters from the 60s-70s.  Then hard rock, and so on and so forth . My family was really into theater, it was a big part of my early life which influenced me a lot as well.

Is this your full-time job? Yeah, I mean do other things for money.  I’ve waited tables, worked at a bar; I was a handyman for two summers. I teach, I do whatever to sustain, but this is what I spend 95% of my time doing.

Making music? Yeah.

What other projects are you involved in? In October, I composed all original music for the  St. Peters University original production”What Lurks”, and my music was in “House of Atreus” at Art House in Jersey City.  Recently, a musical I’ve been writing was selected for the Johnny Mercer Foundation’s Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals in, CT.  That’s a pretty big deal for me.   I also produce and c0-write songs in various styles.  I did this really cool project last year with a poet named Aja Monet she’s absolutely incredible.

In Jersey City, during November, I asked local visual artists to lend me their work.  I hung it on my bedroom walls and have been writing a song every day (give or take) using the visual art as writing prompt.  I then film the artist listening to the song for the first time. You can see the specific progress for that at www.marchofcrows.com.  March Of Crows is what I am calling the project.  It will all come together in local event come March.  It’s turning out to be an incredible creative experience for me.

You had an EP that came out? Yes. In September.  It’s called Haunted Things.  The songs appear on the EP in the order that they were written. They’re about my process of trying to navigate love, sex, chivalry, and romance; how those things have been defined for me in healthy and unhealthy ways.  I’m asking myself how lines blur between love, infatuation, obsession, sadness, loss, and a fear of being alone.

So it all comes from your personal life and experience? Yeah, this EP is different because previously everything was really symbol-heavy.  There’s a song “For Wolves”, it’s a piano/vocal ballad on the EP, [and] the images that I use are very specific. There’s a line, “they cut the trees down on the corner where we kissed”, that is a specific corner in New York City.  All the images in that song come from actual events.

Do you have any upcoming shows? I have 4-month residency at The Way Station in Brooklyn. Free shows.  It’s a wonderful place and has  Dr. Who theme, which is pretty fun.  The dates are:

Tuesday, Dec 29, 2015 at 10pm

Thursday, Jan 21, 2016 at 11pm

Friday, Feb 12, 2016 at 9pm

Friday, March 11, 2016 at 9pm

Anything in Jersey City?  I’m confirming a couple of locals shows for December.   You can see the updates on my site.

What are your future plans? Planning to travel and perform in 2016.  A lot behind the scenes stuff working to get more exposure via sync, placement in TV and film publishing, etc.  And much more collaborating.

How long have you been living in Jersey City? You said you moved back and you were here before? Yeah, I was here for a year at second and Coles, I left for 6 months to live in Harlem and came back.  I like it here.

What’s your favorite Jersey City hang out spot? I don’t know. Mostly if I want to drink, I just go over to 9c.  I love that place.  I like to go to that new place Dullboy. They have those dollar oysters, and I like the vibe there.   I’m not a fan of large crowds.

Any last words? Just to go have a listen and look at what I do at my site, www.shayferjames.com.