Review Fix Exclusive: It’s Karma It’s Cool’s James Styring Talks ‘Coffee Cup Circles’ And More

September 7, 2021 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with It’s Karma It’s Cool Frontman James Styring, who discusses the band’s origin, goals and new single, “Coffee Cup Circles.”

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music? 

James Styring: I grew up listening to my parent’s record collection, so music was part of my life from an early age. I joined my first bands at school, and have always been involved in music in some way since then.  

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like? 

Styring: Martyn (Bewick, guitarist) and Mikey (Barraclough, bassist) will send over a bunch of guitar ideas, I’ll write to the ones that grab me, adding melody and lyrics. We’ll normally get together with Danny (Krash, drums) in the studio and work on the arrangements. 

Review Fix: What inspires you? 

Styring: It’s hard to pick one particular subject, as ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere. I write about life and everything that comes along with living in this modern world. There’s plenty of inspiration in there.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you? 

Styring: I can’t really imagine a life without it. Once it’s in your blood, it’s with you for good. 

  

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you? 

Styring: We often get asked what kind of music we make. We don’t write to a formula; we allow the ideas to go where they want to. We write melodic, guitar-driven, emotive rock/pop. We’ve been called indie, power pop, alternative rock, and a whole lot more. We’d like people to enjoy the music for what it is, not which category it falls into. As long as people are listening and connecting with our music, we don’t really mind what they call us. 

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work? 

Styring: We always try to take the songs some place else when playing them live, if the crowd are really into it, and we’re feeling it, they come alive and become something bigger than the recorded versions. If we do our job right, there’s a connection between audience and band, and an electricity that we all create together.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single? 

Styring: A failed relationship. Being left behind with nothing but their coffee cup circles. And a broken heart.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2021?  

Styring: We have a new album coming out,  ‘Homesick For Our Future Destinations’ on Friday 5th November, once again on the Kool Kat Musik label. We’ve been locked away in the studio working hard and recording our best songs to date. We hope people will enjoy them.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Styring: Promoting the new songs and album, rehearsing for forthcoming live shows. 

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?  

Styring: You can find our music on bandcamp

Music | It’s Karma It’s Cool (bandcamp.com) 

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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