Arts & Culture

Featuring Spanish artist Balam Kiel, Bonita is the latest release by rising Richmond singer/songwriter Cole James.

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Cole James destined for musical bliss

By Don Fennell

Published 2:09 PDT, Fri July 2, 2021

Last Updated: 12:19 PDT, Mon July 19, 2021

After keeping his talent a secret, local R&B/reggaeton artist is making up for lost time

Cole James has always been on the fast track. Only now the dream of possibly playing pro hockey or basketball one day has been replaced by an emerging career in music.

The Steveston-London Secondary School grad started speaking when he was just six months old, and by nine months was already stringing together short sentences. At the same time, he displayed a keen love—and aptitude—for music, singing along with famed children’s musician Fred Penner (The Cat Came Back) from the age of one.

While learning to read was a little more challenging, singing lyrics for two or three hours a day helped. And soon he was even writing his own tunes.

But unsure how his friends would react, James kept his hobby a closely-guarded secret—until just a few years ago. At 21, he finally gained the confidence to share his talent and now seems destined for musical bliss.

One day, about four years ago while playing basketball with high school friend Benton Robertson, the two began a discussion that led to them to collaborate. In just a few weeks they had completed their first song.

James (born Cole Johnston) has just released his newest song, Bonita, in collaboration with Balam Kiel. The appropriately fast-paced track is an energetic and engaging blend of reggaeton and hip-hop and a well-imagined collaboration of English and Spanish-speaking singers.

A friendship struck two years ago with Kiel, a Toronto-based Spanish artist who has worked with the likes of Snow, led to the team effort after James decided to transition his music from hip-hop to reggaeton—a music style that originated in Puerto Rico during the mid 1990s. The style evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip-hop, Latin American, and Caribbean music with vocals including rapping and singing.

Until now, James had been writing and creating songs he thought people wanted to hear.

“I tried to make music that was popular with my friends,” he says of a song he wrote in just a single session last October. “What I thought they would like and what might get me some buzz. But it wasn’t the music I was listening to. I like reggaeton and hip-hop—cheery and breezy. So, for the first time, I have created what I like. And I hope to find others that like this too.”

James grew up a big fan of NSYNC (fronted by Justin Timberlake)—so big, in fact, he would wake up his dad many mornings asking him to put on a video of one of the late ’90s mega teen pop group’s concerts.

“Throughout elementary school I mostly listened to mainstream music and whatever was on the radio, but as I grew older and had more of an ability to search for music I liked, I really gravitated towards R&B and reggae as well as a bit of rap,” he says. “I remember playing an NBA video game in Grade 8 and hearing the song My Elephant Man and I immediately fell in love with reggae/ dancehall music. My favourite artists through high school were Sean Paul, Chris Brown, George Nozuka, Ne-Yo, Tyga, Big Sean and Shaggy.”

James says he relates to such artists because “I truly appreciate when an artist can make you feel a certain emotion or is able to paint a picture just by listening to a song.” He strives to do the same while creating a new song, or at least working on his music, every day.

“I use experiences and emotions that I’ve felt. I love to create lyrics and melodies for songs. I often just freestyle onto a beat and keep my first version. Some nights I can write five songs and they can each be quite different.”

By now, James figures he must have penned somewhere between 300 and 500 songs.

“I remember being 13 years old, recording my voice on an iPod touch and using beats that I found on random apps to create something of a song. Or I would cover songs that I already liked. But my mom found a cassette on an old Fisher-Price kids’ recorder where I was singing. My mom thought it was my cousin Taylor—a girl—as it was a high voice creating a song. But we knew it was me when all of a sudden I yelled, ‘Hey Craig, get out of here.’ My brother must have been coming into the room. I think I was about five years old.”

James says he focuses on creative visuals to go along with every new song he drops—all recorded in his bedroom with a small home studio set up.

He is currently working on a song for a songwriters’ challenge with musician Carbon-L. Through the first stage, they are now being paired with mentors Chin Injeti and Farshad (Shadi) Edalat to perfect the song. Injeti collaborates frequently with DJ Khalil and produces for Drake, Eminem and Pink. Edalat is a songwriter for Dirty Radio. The winner(s) of the competition get their song professionally recorded.

James also just finished filming a video for V12, a song he released earlier this year. Faze Mito—a film editor for YouTubers and video gamers Faze Clan—came up with the video idea for James, then filmed and edited it.

Finally, James is also currently in the middle of collaborating on a song with Francis Ofili Antetokounmpo, whose brother Thanasis plays in the NBA.