Xadie James is a Chicago based musician, composer, songwriter, animator, and piano technician.
Xadie James' burgeoning solo project, Xadie James Orchestra, aims to process ‘the great grief’ of our current world. Grief of lost time, of better possibilities squandered, of capitalistic thinking, of things that are out of our control. Xadie’s chamber ensemble is made up of strings, piano, bass, percussion and electronics featuring lush instrumental based compositions interlaced with vulnerable songs that aim to bring hope, humor, and perspective to being alive today.
Xadie performs as ‘meek’, is a subversive queer performance that uses sensors attached to drums to trigger samples of synthesizers and drum machines, while simultaneously singing distorted and effected vocals.
Xadie is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed double bass with the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other projects on piano, electric bass, guitar, cello, and is a well rounded engineer and producer. They are also a visual artist who specializes in music videos using various forms of stop-animation.
You can find them in their home studio building sets, cutting up old magazines, playing piano, and staying up too late drinking tea.