Page 13 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 114

BV114 pg 10-13 James Bruner Interview.qxp_BV114 pg 13 10/06/2026 19:15 Page 4

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song with, ‘We could be great friends. We could stay with were older people. They were people in their 30s,
up all night. Everything’s great,’ but you don’t really and I was this kid who was 14, who went up to the
know that you’re signing your life away in the grand skate park, listening to the stuff that they liked listen-
scheme of things.” ing to. In a lot of ways, I felt like the black sheep, and
James sings, ‘You’re going to be a star. I’ll give I think that was probably a good thing.”
you everything, let you live out your dreams’. He says,
“I just thought of the sleaziest shark and what they’d ut those years of skateboarding and rock
say to a young artist or a young band and promise Bmusic loving have made James the man he
them everything, you know.” is today. And that man wraps his EP up with ‘I Get
We ask what it’d take to make James sign a Everything’, a song that sees him looking to social
record deal. Is there anything he’s looking for a record media, and its effect on everyone. “Everything is for
label to have or do? sale, nowadays,” he says. “Think about it, on social
He replies, “If they can get me on stage with media. There’s a line in there where I say ‘Everything
Lenny Kravitz I think I’ll die a happy man, so… I guess I sell, you will buy’. That’s like everything you scroll
if that could be arranged, I’d be tempted, but… I don’t on, it’s sell and sell. It’s marketed. That’s just me ob-
know, ultimately. I think I’m in a pretty good spot, right serving that. Me and my buddy Elijah Settles wrote
now.” that one. Our observations about social media and
And what does he think makes somebody a star? how greed is taking over.
“It depends,” he replies. “I’m quite literally living He sings ‘Everything I sell, you will buy for your
my success, right now. I’ve got the greatest people I pathetic little life’. He thinks people believe what peo-
could ever ask for around me. I’ve got my dream ple sell them without questioning it. “Even the world’s
team. So, in my little head, I am a star already, for my- news, it’s now just in our pockets.” He picks up his
self. But there are levels to that. Do you want to be phone and waves it. “It’s right here. You’re constantly
Robert Plant? Do you want to be Mick Jagger? Do consumed by it, ultimately.”
you want to be so-and-so? But, for me, I’m a star in Is there anything that James wants that he hasn’t
my own brain and I love that. But, to be a star, I don’t got yet?
know… it’s just, staying true to yourself, again. I feel He thinks for a second. “I’m always looking... I’m
like I keep going back to that, but really staying true always looking for more boots, I guess,” he laughs.
to yourself, because, when you’re true to yourself and “I’m always looking for more velvet pants, those are
authentic, no one can take that from you. It’s so obvi- the things I wish I had. But I’m pretty happy. I can’t
ous. A guy like Robert Plant owned the stage when complain. I’m kinda living my dream life and I’m very
he got on it. That guy knew what he was doing. Or thankful for it.”
Prince, that’s a good example of a star. After all, he He tells us that he’s most grateful for his family
had a song called ‘Baby I’m A Star’. In that song, he, and friends. “Those two things I really can’t live with-
quite literally, is a star.” out.”

n ‘Big Shot’, James sings, ‘Did you forget your n ‘I Get Everything’, he sings, ‘Butcher cuts with
Ihumble beginnings?’ so let’s go back to James’s Ia knife, the animal sacrifice’. It’s quite an intrigu-
own humble beginnings. The singer/songwriter heard ing lyric. “That is Elijah Settles’ line, who co-wrote the
Lenny Kravitz’ ‘American Woman’ on the school bus song with me,” he explains. “The line that follows is
when he was seven years old and Black Sabbath’s ‘I’ll take what I get from the God of my appetite’. I think
‘Iron Man’ hooked him at the age of 12. Both were in- it’s very much settled around lust, and the lust for con-
strumental in the person that he would become. sumption.”
He tells Black Velvet, “My parents, to this day, are We ask what his thoughts are on animal cruelty.
very supportive of what I do. I grew up in Springfield, “It’s terrible. It’s heartbreaking,” he replies. “If I
Illinois. I grew up in the farmlands of Springfield, I could go vegan… I thought about going vegan after I
guess, ‘cause it’s very flat, very Midwest, very corn had some really, really, really good vegan buffalo
and football everywhere. American football, I guess. wings at The Black Heart in Camden, where I was
Yeah, they were super supportive of me getting into playing and that changed my life, and I thought about
it. Skateboarding really sparked everything. Going to exactly what you’re saying about animal cruelty and
the skate park and hearing Black Sabbath, and hear- everything. If these could be accessible all the time,
ing Slayer, and hearing Metallica, and hearing Led I’m in.”
Zeppelin, and all these songs that were so much Funnily enough, his inspiration, Lenny Kravitz, is
cooler than anything coming out at the time, it was vegan.
awesome. That was definitely my humble beginning, “Yeah, 100% plant-based,” says James. “And he
I’d say.” ages in reverse. Have you seen what he looks like at
He picked up the guitar at the age of 15. “I sat it 61? He is very much an inspiration for this next
on my lap, because I didn’t know how to play it, and I record, too.
just sounded out the open E string, ‘Iron Man’, and Lenny Kravitz meets Jet is kind of what I’ve done,
that was pretty much it from there. I practiced count- trying to put it together.”
less hours to try and play a song on one string and He says that he’s inspired by Lenny. “Lenny is just
then adapt it to a power chord, and then to bar chords a powerhouse of a personality. Everything for him
and it kept going and going and going. It wasn’t a boils back to love and being around good energy. I
thing of me keeping track of how long I’d practice, it’s mean, I love to get mad in my music, I love to scream,
just that I couldn’t stop, ultimately. I couldn’t stop play- but, at the core, I love doing it. So, all coming back to
ing, because I wanted to keep figuring out more love is a really cool thing that I think he does to a tee.
stuff… My sophomore at high school, I put down a lot I love his outlook. I love his style. I love his outlook on
of hours just to figure out songs, and to figure out life. I think it’s great.”
chord shapes.” And, if James could inspire others, how would he
like to inspire them?
hile living in a little town in Springfield, IL, “Man, take risks,” he says. “If I could inspire
Wwhile hip-hop and rap was still at the top of someone, I’d hope they can look at me and say, ‘This
the charts, in high school, discovering rock saw him guy has taken a lot of risks. I’d like to get my hands
go down the path less trodden. “I had a few people dirty and do the same’.”
that really enjoyed listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink
Floyd, like I did, a few buddies of mine, but not a ton. Visit https://www.jamesbruner.com for more info.
I felt, in a lot of ways, like the outcast, which almost
made me like rock music even more. I was already Words By Shari Black Velvet
doing things that people my age didn’t do. Skate-
boarding was one of them. The people I skateboarded
JAMES BRUNER