Hi, I’m James Frost, a singer-songwriter based in Dartmoor, England.
I’ve been honing my craft for many years, touring and travelling; walking the tightrope of the independent artist and following my path. It’s been hugely challenging and deeply joyful, like all the best things in life, and I believe in it passionately.
Music is a big part of who I am and has been a guiding force in my life, from the early days in school bands and open mics, through the years of solo touring, to my current work with a live band and album release.
My songs are a window into my life, surrounded by the deep nature of Dartmoor where I live, and a community of seekers, healers and artists in the South West. The songs express my love of nature, my personal healing journey, stories of fellow travelers on the road, and the awakening in consciousness that touches my life and many on this planet.
With growing support, I launched a crowdfund to fund my debut album ‘All Of Our Hands’, raising over £16,000 from fans, with additional money from Arts Council England and Help Musicians who believed in the project. My vision was to not only making an album but to open up the creative process so people could see inside it, participate in it and play a fundamental role in its creation.
As a result, over 100 people played or sang on my album ‘All Of Our Hands’, joining huge choirs at Real World Studios and Dartington Hall to sing directly onto the album they had pre-ordered. Online audiences also helped create a lyric booklet of ‘Hand Art’, full of paintings, illustrations, collages and environmental art by artists and non-artists alike, and lots of children. I hosted listening parties and house concerts throughout England for fans to hear personally about the creative life and over 50 friends, fans and followers participated in the video for ‘Where Everything Is Music’.
For many years, I travelled, lived simply and surrendered to a life on the road, playing concerts throughout England, in acoustic venues, arts centres, cafés, living rooms, ceremonies, saunas and protest rallies, at Glastonbury Festival and on BBC Radio, and at the end of evenings in the twilight around fires.
I released an EP ‘Nameless’ and launched it with a sold-out show at the Servant Jazz Quarters in London and a haunting video for the title track, filmed in a secret woodland venue in Norfolk. The following year, I played concerts with James Yorkston, Martha Tilston, Tiny Ruins and many other folk heroes, before a summer of festival touring including slots at Secret Garden Party, Glastonbury Festival and Folk East.
With my gained knowledge from experience, I also coach other artists, helping them to crowdfund, access arts funding, and map out their careers, supporting artists at the grassroots and giving a leg up to new artists and the incredible pool of UK talent. It gives me great pleasure to see others receive funding and take steps on a similar pathless path of no destination that I have walked myself.
The creative path is a rite of passage, requiring incredible resilience, courage and resourcefulness. And so it has been with me, sacrificing many of the material comforts in order to follow a calling and a dream. What was the dream exactly? Who can say… it got lost down the river of Life, being replaced by experiences more sweeter and more authentic, less about fame and money, and more about moments that linger in the soul long after they first were lived.
With love,
James
