James Devereux
Starting as the producer and engineer of Casey’s first solo EP, then dabbling in some guitar with the band (as it turns out, 3 guitars is a lot of guitar), I’ve picked up my trumpet again and solidified my performing role in the horn section while continuing to record and mix for the Jaywalkers.
Writing code is my form of societal participation – I stay more on the creative/human side of things by working on UIs.
Writing songs is my form of societal escape, and I’ll be damned if we don’t all need our own forms of that right now. Music is a pretty good one, if you’re looking for any.
“Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one” is only true if you’re actually a Jack at those trades, which, if you’re playing poker, is like, the 4th best card. I would humbly deal myself a Jack for producing/audio engineering, a 10 at trumpet, maybe a 7 at guitar, and like a 5 (of spades) at piano. Always working on getting a few more trades to jack-level, and of course, always picking up new trades (kickboxing, plants, and Elden Ring to name some of the most recent).
Similarly diverse is mine and the band’s music tastes. We play covers from Luther Vandross to Mac Miller, and my vinyl wall (joke about being hipster, joke about needing to show off my superior and eclectic music taste) spans MCR, Bon Iver, Daft Punk, Prince, Car Seat Headrest, and Kanye West, to name a few. With Tony having been in a metal band and Drew still playing in his church band, who’s to say you won’t hear a blend of Satanic and Christian rock from us at some point? For real though, this diversity in musical influence really shows and shines in our originals, which I cannot wait to share with everyone who wants to listen.
Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, educated in Champaign, and currently living in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood with my bandmates Jack and Tony, and my dog Henry. That’s all neatly contained in Illinois, but I’ve also spent over a year of my life in Tinos, Greece, where my mom is from. As I’m writing this, I realized I’m yet to directly incorporate Greek influence into my music, but I think that’d be cool if I did that at some point. Stay tuned.
“J Devil on the beat”
-A few different people from a different musical timeline of mine
“A modern renaissance man”
-Tyler one time at a band practice
“You’re fine at trumpet”
-Jack, the other trumpet player
“What animal do you think you could win a fight against 50% of the time? If you answer a wolf you’re crazy. Mine is a rattlesnake or a coyote. Rattlesnake, half the time it gets the 1-shot bite off, other half I get a clean stomp off, a true reflex coin flip. Coyotes are only around 40 pounds, they get a scarier rep than they deserve. Wolves are like 200 pounds. You’re not winning that even 1% of the time.”