Today we’d like to introduce you to James Duffer.
James, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was very fortunate to be raised around a lot of different musical influences in my family members and friends which gave me a love of music and the feeling at an early age that this was what I wanted to pursue. I was given piano lessons as a child, played at school shows and later played drums in jr. high band and took drum lessons. I learned guitar around the same time from my father who always played at home and not long after my friend Joseph Martin started playing guitar as well which would lead to our mutual obsession with guitar and eventually forming Space Ape.
After high school, I studied music/audio at Collin College and I started performing in the Dallas area as a solo artist, releasing my first album “Midtown Odyssey” in 2014. That same year, Joseph, myself and our childhood friend Nick Stanley formed Space Ape after years of jamming as a trio with Myself on drums, Joseph on guitar and Nick on bass. We dove into the Dallas heavy rock/metal scene performing regularly in bars & clubs in Deep Ellum, Fort Worth & Denton for several years before releasing our first album “Space Ape” last year.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Even though we grew up together, we still went through the personal struggles of learning how we function as a band. How to implement each of our individual skills and creativity into a collective whole to create the best work we can. Learning to honestly communicate with each other taught us that we could work through differences in opinion or direction to reach a compromise rather than ongoing conflict and opposition which leads to the demise of most bands and most things in general. The other struggles are also ongoing challenges of financially funding the band’s work because we are our own production company so we don’t get additional outside funding for producing albums, videos, merchandise or touring. However, this gives us total control of ourselves creatively and financially as a band and as a business.
Please tell us about Space Ape.
Space Ape Music LLC. is our own production company through which we handle all the aspects of Space Ape as a band. We self-produce our albums, music videos and touring through this company and we act as our own label to release and distribute our albums, videos and merchandise by dealing directly with record stores and fans. We also partner with other companies that facilitate channels of distribution and marketing of both physical and digital distribution. We handle the legal aspects of our copyrights, publishing, licensing and trademarks for our work, merchandise and releases under this company as well. The main thing to be proud of is the drive/DIY mentality we share as a band to accomplish our own work and creative output on our own terms. We plan to release another album and really hit the road to expand our touring and live performances in 2018.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have far too many fond memories of my childhood to narrow it down to one singular favorite memory. I’m very grateful to have grown up in Dallas and gone to school in Richardson where my grandparents lived and where the other members of Space Ape grew up. I mostly think about the all the fun we had as kids running around the neighborhood and growing up there at that time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.spaceapeband.com
- Email: spaceapemusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spaceapeband/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spaceapeband/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com
Image Credits:
Space Ape Music LLC
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
