 September 18, 2018
Secret Show Update!
Due to a major life event, I'm sorry to say we've been forced to postpone the show on October 24. Please watch the video for a full explanation. A new date will be announced before long as things return to normal. Thanks for your patience!
July 18, 2018
Secret Show on October 24!
Omigosh! Well there hasn't been an update in a while I realize. I need to get caught up. Everything these days is Facebook, but that's shortsighted and I need to keep up the website. Big news is the James Steele Project will be performing a "soft launch" show in October. Info is below. The graphic was for Facebook, so rather than leave a comment, use the Contact Page of this site to shoot me a message that you want the details. Thanks!
December 6, 2017
2017 Christmas Postcard Signup Links!
It's that time of year once again! Each year I mail out 1,000 signed Christmas postcards to friends/fans. To get one sent to you absolutely FREE, sign up at one of the following links:
If you live in the United States use this link:US Christmas Postcard Signup Form
If you live in another country use this link:International Christmas Postcard Signup Form
September 18, 2017
14,000 Facebook Page Likes!
Just reached another milestone. The James Steele Facebook Musician Page recently passed 14,000 page likes. It's actually 14,237 today! Thank you so much!!
September 13, 2017
Everchanging Wind Lyric Video!
Hey everyone! Gosh, I have been bad about keeping the website up-to-date. I use Facebook so often, I don't keep this site up like I should. Here's my Facebook page so you have it: James Steele Facebook Page. Anyway, I wanted to share a song with you I recorded over 30 years ago with my old band American Steel. It was on a complilation album called No Substitute for Steel of some of the best metal bands in San Diego during the 80s. I'm planning on modernizing and re-recording this song. Hope you like it!
December 31, 2016
Happy New Year!
Wishing all of you a very happy and prosperous 2017!!
September 15, 2015
Andy Nossal, new bassist for JAMES STEELE
Behind the scenes footage of recent JAMES STEELE PROJECT rehearsal, as well as interviews with band members, Tracy Tripp (drums) and Andy Nossal (bass). We're excited to be coming at you soon!
July 19, 2015
JAMES STEELE featured Dean Guitars Official Facebook Page
The Official Dean Guitars Page shared my cover photo! Woohoo!!! Please click this link to go over there and "like" the post and put in a good word for me in the comments! I'm trying to suck up and get another V! Haha! But seriously, if you like my music, let them know!
July 4, 2015
Andy Nossal, new bassist for JAMES STEELE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - James Steele is very pleased to announce the newest addition to the live band: joining James and Tracy Tripp (drums) is ANDY NOSSAL on bass guitar and vocals. Andy was an original member of the renowned San Diego band, Crystal, and currently anchors FX5—a top area cover band. "Andy was the guy I always wanted on bass—he's a monster player and great singer on top of it—but the timing just hadn't worked out previously" says James. "I'm thrilled to now be working with him. Honestly, without someone of his unique abilities, I had real concerns I'd be able get the live show to it's full potential and live up to the recordings." This is a video of Andy ripping it up with FX5!
December 18, 2014
Merry Christmas!!
Just a silly Christmas video we made during the 2015 Christmas postcard photoshoot. On behalf of myself, drummer, Tracy Tripp and bassist, Mark Bock... a very Merry Christmas!
November 19, 2014
Video lighting test fun!!
I just posted a little joke video in the BACKSTAGE area of this site. It's a lighting test for a future project and it may give you a chuckle. If you forgot the username and password, click the "JOIN EMAIL LIST" link at the top of this page and fill out the form. You'll get a confirmation email from e-list-responder@jamessteele.com (check your spam filter) that will have that info in it! \m/
August 25, 2014
Your 2013 Xmas Postcard Pics FINALLY posted!!
Yeesh... I'm embarrassed! With Facebook becoming so prominent, the website updates havent been happing much. These pics have been on my Facebook album since Christmas, but just now uploaded them to the Photos page of my site today. I'm trying to keep up on the website more these days! \m/
July 15, 2014
More LA Sessions
I had a productive evening tonight in LA with Jim Watson, who played drums on my recordings thus far. Jim is also is mixing and co-producing the CD with me, which will include a track featuring Billy Sheehan on bass, as well as a song from the American Steel days featuring my live drummer, Tracy Tripp! \m/
March 12, 2014
James Steele enters into endorsement agreement with Rocktron
This was definitely a great early birthday present! I have a number of Rocktron effects processors in my rack and will be soon adding a Patchmate Loop 8 and MIDI Raider pedal as I put together my rig for upcoming live shows. I signed and sent this back today and now it's a done deal! Just as with Dean Guitars, I've been a devoted user and fan of their products for years and I'm thrilled to be part of Rocktron's artist family!
February 15, 2014
Live Project Update!
I missed Michael Schenker at Ramona MainStage last night. Tracy and I are auditioning bassists this weekend and we wanted to tighten up our own parts on the songs we're auditioning with beforehand so we decided to woodshed last night instead. I am very fortunate to have been working with excellent drummers for my own music. First, my friend, Jim Watson, is playing on all the recordings that you've heard posted online. He's an outstanding drummer and I only wish he and I lived closer and his busy schedule would have not prevented him from being part of the live band. I sincerely hope he'll agree to come up and sit in at some shows. Jim is also co-producing the CD and is mixing all the tracks. Still, it's not a bad fall back position at all to be re-united with someone I've worked with for many, many years, Tracy Tripp. Back "in the day" as the saying goes, he and I, along with Andy Jermstad, were in a progressive, Rush/Zebra-inspired trio in the San Diego area called American Steel. (The similarity to my last time is purely coincidental.) In fact, I may be mining some of that old American Steel material in the future. It was good stuff. I have to give a lot of credit to Tracy for stepping up and putting in a lot of work to perform these songs as closely as possible to how Jim played them on the recordings. It's like learning a cover song. Jim did an outstanding job on the drum parts and the songs just don't feel right played any other way. I've been pushing hard on Tracy recently to play it EXACTLY like the recordings and he's doing a great job! Every part is there for a reason, nothing is accidental. Tracy is playing to a click and we're using backing tracks right now for the purpose of rehearsal and as we add members to the band, we're simply muting tracks until the only parts we'll be flying in are keyboard parts and perhaps some sound FX and percussion. The best part about playing with the sequencer for me is that I have numerous tricky patch changes going on with the effects in my guitar rig and those can all be done over MIDI by the sequencer, thus freeing me from the pedal board "tap dance" WHILE I'm trying to focus on my lead singing and guitar playing. I'm truly excited about where this is headed right now. We're really doing the work to make this project TIGHT. This isn't a "get up there and wing it" situation. I don't do that. Don't like that. Never WILL do that. We're getting this locked down, nailed down, tighter than tight. Once you've achieved that, in my opinion, that's just being "competent." Every note happening when and where it should is the starting point. THEN when you have it down cold, you begin to "perform" and "emote" and are free to then imbue the song with feeling. As a singer you can then start really focusing on the meaning behind the words you're singing and staying connected with the ideas and emotions you're conveying and then expressing that with HOW you sing those words and the attitude you put into them. As a band, you begin to do the same thing. As the mechanics of playing the right parts become more and more effortless and part of "muscle memory" you can move on to more advanced aspects of performance, like: paying attention to your dynamics; being aware of where you are on stage in relation to other band members; coming up with not so much "choreography" (this ISN'T pop music after all), but analyzing the songs for opportunities to incorporate some visual flash to emphasize what's going on with the music. It's a long haul and I take the long viewpoint on this. I'm not motivated to rush something out the door, nor do I expect to make tons of money. The goal is to do something I can be proud of. That's the reason, frankly, I haven't been in a real hurry in terms of finding the right members. I can tell you from experience that I have always, and I mean ALWAYS, lived to regret it when I compromised and brought someone into a band that I had reservations about because I was in a rush to get something, ANYTHING, on a stage. Homey don't play that. With that, we have our first bassist/backup vocalist candidate of this weekend coming in later today. May the best thumper win!
October 1, 2013
James Seele - Flying V Radio Band of the Month!
It was a big honor to be voted Band of the Month over at Flying V Radio and have a page there dedicated to my music! Thanks so much to all of you who voted and Todd Page at Flying V Radio. :) You rock!
August 28, 2013
An update: What a crazy few months it's been!
Hey all. Well I tend to update my Facebook page a bit more as far as news goes. It has been a crazy few months in my personal life and much of it was consumed with helping someone very close to me get through some difficult times. Between that and my other work in the film/video production industry, getting work done on my band has been challenging. However, things have settled down a bit and things are moving forward again. Yeesh... I can't wait for life to be somewhat NORMAL again! :)
January 16, 2013
2013 Going Great So Far!
2013 is turning out to be a decent year so far. Financially it's going well--knock on wood! I've also been approached to endorse a guitar-related product that looks very cool and I'll post some photos as soon as I have it in my hands. It's taking a little while because I'm asking them to etch the Dean Guitars logo on it for me! (Dean Guitars gave me permission of course.) The "wings" just make everything cooler! :) On the performing side, Tracy Tripp (my dummer for the live project) and I are conducting a search for a bassist. The search has been a little sporadic as so many things are going on right now that we haven't made a concerted effort on that front, but soon! Still... 2013 is already looking a heck of a lot better than 2012!
October 23, 2012
Search for Bassist Underway
The search for a bassist in the San Diego area for live shows in now underway. Check out the Bassist Wanted page for the details and how to arrange for an audition.
October 17, 2012
Rehearsals Underway
Hey all! I realize it's been quite some time since I posted in the news items (I tend to be more active on my Facebook profile and my Facebook musician page. As an update I've begun rehearsals with my friend and former drummer from American Steel, Tracy Tripp and we will soon be auditioning musicians to start doing shows! Exciting things underway. Thanks for your support! :)
January 15, 2011
2012 NAMM Meetup at Dean Guitars
If you're attending the NAMM show this year, please stop by the Dean Guitars booth (5466B) on Friday, January 20th between 2:00-2:30pm. Dean has allowed me to loiter about and do an informal meet and greet. I'll have some photos with me and demo CDs, so stop by! 
December 2, 2011
Music Artery Interview
Was interviewed by Athena Schaffer for Music Artery. Fun stuff and it was really nice to chat with her. You can read the interview here.
November 16, 2011
Inteview with James Steele... in Slovak
Chances are you may not be able to understand this, but it was kind of cool to see an interview posted in Slovak. You can check it out here. I don't recall this interview. It seems to have resulted from a transcription of an on air interview and the translation, but hey... I'm happy to see the word get out!
November 13, 2011
Waimea Baby called best of YouTube
Terra King had some nice things to say about a video I put up in a bit of a hurry for Waimea Baby in a short article at Examiner.com.
November 12, 2011
A nice mention of It Goes To Eleven on the net
There was a nice blurb by Athena Schaefer about It Goes To Eleven at Growgrll Entertainment Source which includes a link to the video.
November 11, 2011
Music Video for "It Goes To Eleven" released!
The music video for my new song is now online people!! Check it out!! Turned out pretty good I think for writing, recording and mixing the song and shooting the video in about 4 days! I need to sleep!!! LOL Long live Nigel Tufnel and the Tap!!!! :)
November 10, 2011  "It Goes To Eleven" in honor of Nigel on 11/11/11!
It's now LIVE on iTunes and Amazon.com! A special song to celebrate Heavy Metal Day and 11/11/11, and also the greatest rock guitar legend who ever lived-- Nigel Tufnel! I worked my ASS off on this and been up two days shooting the video to be uploaded soon. Get a copy, play it in celebration, and leave me a review if you please! :)
November 9, 2011  "Can It Be The Same" featuring Brad Gillis
Just a reminder that I have released a single from the upcoming CD that features a blistering guitar solo by that shredder extraordinaire: Brad Gillis from Night Ranger! Make sure to go get it on iTunes or Amazon.com! It does severely rock!
October 23, 2011  "Can It Be The Same" on ROCK 105.3
Yippe, skippy! It's nice go get some airply over a terrestrial radio station. Tonight San Diego's ROCK 105.3 played "Can It Be The Same" which features a guitar solo by the amazing Brad Gillis of Night Ranger! Feel free to use this form to request "Can It Be The Same!" ROCK 105.3 has a live stream you can listen to at their website!
October 17, 2011
James interviewed on Up Close & Personal
James Steele was recently interviewed on the Up Close & Personal internet radio show. If you missed the live broadcast, you can still listen to the archived show at this link: Up Close and Personal with James Steele. James talks about his vocal and guitar influences and gives some insight as to events in his personal life that inspired songs like "Absolution (Save Me)" and "Waimea Baby." Check it out!
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