James Elliot Bourne, born 13 September 1983 in Rochford, Essex, England. Now living in LA, is a singer/songwriter and co-founder of the two former Pop bands Son of Dork and Busted. He is currently pursuing a solo career under the name Future Boy while working with a new band called Call Me When I'm 18. His albums have sold over six million copies.
James, who moved from Rochford to Southend-on-Sea in Essex at age ten months, was born to Peter and Maria Bourne, and has three siblings - Nick, Chris and Melissa. Chris, his youngest brother, appeared in the music video for "Year 3000" as the neighbor who builds the time machine. Nick appeared in a few Busted videos such as "Who's David" and "You Said No". James attended the independent fee-paying Thorpe Hall School in Southend-On-Sea.
James main instrument is the guitar, however, he states his best instrument is the piano. He also plays the drums and bass guitar. James claims that he is still good friends with the members of Busted and McFly. James is the owner of a De Lorean DMC-12 and a golf cart. He also owns an American skating and apparel company called Sic Puppy, named after a band he was once a member of. James paid over £16,000 for his own record company, Sic Puppy Records, which, in 2007, gave unsigned UK bands a chance to play on the Sic Tour 2007 in Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The event was hosted by David Gest and Matt Willis.
James started to get into music at the age of 6, when he discovered his main idol, Michael Jackson through a Bart Simpson song. He was intrigued by the line "dancing like Michael Jackson" and was eager to find out who it was – When he did, and started listening to his music, he was amazed. After seeing Jackson live a year later, James soon decided that his new aim in life would be being able to play his songs.
By the time he was twelve, he decided to form a band called Sic Puppy with his friends, Nick and Jeremy. They started off without a bassist and had band practice in his friend's bedroom. As time passed by they found themselves a bigger rehearsal space and a bassist called Stewart, but as they got older, they lost interest in rehearsing and Sic Puppy eventually fizzled out.
At the age of 17, James dropped out of the South East Essex college course in Music Technology to try to make his dream of being a professional musician happen. He eventually met Matt Willis through Busted's manager Matthew Fletcher, who told him he'd found someone with the same ideals as him and they soon started writing songs together at James house in Southend. Two-thirds of Busted was born.
Matt and James soon decided that they couldn't form a band with just two members, so they decided to place an ad for a third member in NME magazine. They soon held auditions and after listening to a few songs the two had written together, Charlie Simpson joined the band.
After signing to Universal in 2002, Busted released their first single, "What I Go To School For", from their self-titled debut album in September that year, which quickly became No. 3 in the UK charts. "Year 3000" soon followed and became a hit as well.
By the end of the band's career they had managed to get 8 top 10 hits and 4 of them number 1. "You Said No", "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?" and "Thunderbirds Are Go" were singles that reached number one.
The band split when Charlie Simpson decided to leave the band to concentrate on his career with other band Fightstar. After Busted split up in January 2005 due to Charlie deciding to leave, and continue with his band Fightstar who he had been involved with during Busted, James decided he didn't want to leave the music scene already so he formed a new pop band in the summer of 2005, named Son of Dork.
They released their first single, "Ticket Outta Loserville" in November that year, followed by their debut album, fittingly named Welcome To Loserville a week later. A deluxe edition of their debut album which was intended to be released April 17, 2006, but was cancelled, it was to include 5 new songs, one of which was We're Not Alone and a DVD which featured making-of videos, interviews and music videos (including the non-released We're Not Alone). Son Of Dork have split up, after three of the members leaving the band; they have not toured or performed together for over a year.
With the split of Son of Dork, James is now pursuing to continue his musical career as a solo artist. He played a small solo gig in the USA in October 2007, and is currently setting up a solo gig for the UK for later this year. On 17 June 2008 James announced via his MySpace account that he began recording his debut solo album. James has a new song "Want Me Like That" which can be heard on his myspace account. His new album, according to his myspace page, is "NOT a rock album. It is 100% electronic." James also announced via his official myspace page that he had just finished recording his debut solo album. It is expected to be released early 2009. On December 3, 2008, James revealed the track listing for his yet to be named eleven-song album on his official MySpace.
On January 29, James revealed his solo career would be under the stage name of Future Boy and that he is unsigned and looking for a deal. It was announced via his twitter the first single will be named Karate on my Heart. This was released for Promo in Japan on 17 June, 2009.
Although James had said he would upload the new track to MySpace on June 18, when this did not happen, on July 3, 2009, Bourne wrote in his blog on MySpace that he was nearly done with the album artwork and figured it was better to get it all finished than release it bit by bit. The song was finally uploaded on July 19.
On 27 February 2009, Bourne announced in a myspace bulletin that he's starting a new band, called Call Me When I'm 18. The location in Hollywood, CA, United States, instead of in the United Kingdom. The band uploaded their first song, "Dumbstruck" on the same day. They uploaded a demo of their version of the song "Go Home Monday", which had previously been intended for the cancelled deluxe edition of Son Of Dork's Welcome to Loserville album, on March 1. On April 13, the group took off "Go Home Monday" and replaced it with a new song; Break It.
The band says on myspace that they are in the middle of recording their album. Another song from the duo, "Dumbstruck" can currently be heard on James official site along with "Break It".
James wrote the majority of Busted's two albums with Matt Willis, Charlie Simpson and Tom Fletcher. Busted's style of music can also be identified in songs with his next band Son Of Dork’s poppier tracks.
James has helped write at least one song on every McFly Album Room on the 3rd Floor, Wonderland, Motion in the Ocean, he also helped write several songs on their latest album, Radio:Active. He takes a lot of writing credits for artists such as Mel C for which he wrote "Immune" for her fourth studio album "This Time".
Other artists include MC Lars, with whom he wrote the song "Twenty-three" on the "This Gigantic Robot Kills" album, and Pat Monahan, with whom he co-wrote "Great Escape" on the album "Last Of Seven". Bourne has recently been writing with his girlfriend's band Avenue B and JC Chasez as well as unknown artists as a part of Metrophonic.
He has also helped write songs for the British Drama Brittania High. He also wrote Eoghan Quigg's debut solo single "28,000 Friends", which was originally performed by Bourne at The Living Room, New York on 11 October, 2007.
In February, 2009, James announced that he, along with his friend Elliot Davis, were writing a musical based on the Son Of Dork album, Welcome To Loserville. The tickets for the August 20 premier went up for sale on May 7.
The slogan used for the musical is 'I guess it really pays to be a slacker...', and is centered around 17 year-old Michael Dork, who is called a nerd, geek and slacker by others. Socially marginalised by the entire school and constantly picked on by Eddie, the coolest boy in school, Michael is desperate to find his ticket outta Loserville.
But when stunning new girl Holly arrives, Michael is introduced to a whole new world of cool. It is presented by Youth Music Theater UK in Association with South Hill Park Arts Centre.
James, who moved from Rochford to Southend-on-Sea in Essex at age ten months, was born to Peter and Maria Bourne, and has three siblings - Nick, Chris and Melissa. Chris, his youngest brother, appeared in the music video for "Year 3000" as the neighbor who builds the time machine. Nick appeared in a few Busted videos such as "Who's David" and "You Said No". James attended the independent fee-paying Thorpe Hall School in Southend-On-Sea.
James main instrument is the guitar, however, he states his best instrument is the piano. He also plays the drums and bass guitar. James claims that he is still good friends with the members of Busted and McFly. James is the owner of a De Lorean DMC-12 and a golf cart. He also owns an American skating and apparel company called Sic Puppy, named after a band he was once a member of. James paid over £16,000 for his own record company, Sic Puppy Records, which, in 2007, gave unsigned UK bands a chance to play on the Sic Tour 2007 in Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The event was hosted by David Gest and Matt Willis.
James started to get into music at the age of 6, when he discovered his main idol, Michael Jackson through a Bart Simpson song. He was intrigued by the line "dancing like Michael Jackson" and was eager to find out who it was – When he did, and started listening to his music, he was amazed. After seeing Jackson live a year later, James soon decided that his new aim in life would be being able to play his songs.
By the time he was twelve, he decided to form a band called Sic Puppy with his friends, Nick and Jeremy. They started off without a bassist and had band practice in his friend's bedroom. As time passed by they found themselves a bigger rehearsal space and a bassist called Stewart, but as they got older, they lost interest in rehearsing and Sic Puppy eventually fizzled out.
At the age of 17, James dropped out of the South East Essex college course in Music Technology to try to make his dream of being a professional musician happen. He eventually met Matt Willis through Busted's manager Matthew Fletcher, who told him he'd found someone with the same ideals as him and they soon started writing songs together at James house in Southend. Two-thirds of Busted was born.
Matt and James soon decided that they couldn't form a band with just two members, so they decided to place an ad for a third member in NME magazine. They soon held auditions and after listening to a few songs the two had written together, Charlie Simpson joined the band.
After signing to Universal in 2002, Busted released their first single, "What I Go To School For", from their self-titled debut album in September that year, which quickly became No. 3 in the UK charts. "Year 3000" soon followed and became a hit as well.
By the end of the band's career they had managed to get 8 top 10 hits and 4 of them number 1. "You Said No", "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?" and "Thunderbirds Are Go" were singles that reached number one.
The band split when Charlie Simpson decided to leave the band to concentrate on his career with other band Fightstar. After Busted split up in January 2005 due to Charlie deciding to leave, and continue with his band Fightstar who he had been involved with during Busted, James decided he didn't want to leave the music scene already so he formed a new pop band in the summer of 2005, named Son of Dork.
They released their first single, "Ticket Outta Loserville" in November that year, followed by their debut album, fittingly named Welcome To Loserville a week later. A deluxe edition of their debut album which was intended to be released April 17, 2006, but was cancelled, it was to include 5 new songs, one of which was We're Not Alone and a DVD which featured making-of videos, interviews and music videos (including the non-released We're Not Alone). Son Of Dork have split up, after three of the members leaving the band; they have not toured or performed together for over a year.
With the split of Son of Dork, James is now pursuing to continue his musical career as a solo artist. He played a small solo gig in the USA in October 2007, and is currently setting up a solo gig for the UK for later this year. On 17 June 2008 James announced via his MySpace account that he began recording his debut solo album. James has a new song "Want Me Like That" which can be heard on his myspace account. His new album, according to his myspace page, is "NOT a rock album. It is 100% electronic." James also announced via his official myspace page that he had just finished recording his debut solo album. It is expected to be released early 2009. On December 3, 2008, James revealed the track listing for his yet to be named eleven-song album on his official MySpace.
On January 29, James revealed his solo career would be under the stage name of Future Boy and that he is unsigned and looking for a deal. It was announced via his twitter the first single will be named Karate on my Heart. This was released for Promo in Japan on 17 June, 2009.
Although James had said he would upload the new track to MySpace on June 18, when this did not happen, on July 3, 2009, Bourne wrote in his blog on MySpace that he was nearly done with the album artwork and figured it was better to get it all finished than release it bit by bit. The song was finally uploaded on July 19.
On 27 February 2009, Bourne announced in a myspace bulletin that he's starting a new band, called Call Me When I'm 18. The location in Hollywood, CA, United States, instead of in the United Kingdom. The band uploaded their first song, "Dumbstruck" on the same day. They uploaded a demo of their version of the song "Go Home Monday", which had previously been intended for the cancelled deluxe edition of Son Of Dork's Welcome to Loserville album, on March 1. On April 13, the group took off "Go Home Monday" and replaced it with a new song; Break It.
The band says on myspace that they are in the middle of recording their album. Another song from the duo, "Dumbstruck" can currently be heard on James official site along with "Break It".
James wrote the majority of Busted's two albums with Matt Willis, Charlie Simpson and Tom Fletcher. Busted's style of music can also be identified in songs with his next band Son Of Dork’s poppier tracks.
James has helped write at least one song on every McFly Album Room on the 3rd Floor, Wonderland, Motion in the Ocean, he also helped write several songs on their latest album, Radio:Active. He takes a lot of writing credits for artists such as Mel C for which he wrote "Immune" for her fourth studio album "This Time".
Other artists include MC Lars, with whom he wrote the song "Twenty-three" on the "This Gigantic Robot Kills" album, and Pat Monahan, with whom he co-wrote "Great Escape" on the album "Last Of Seven". Bourne has recently been writing with his girlfriend's band Avenue B and JC Chasez as well as unknown artists as a part of Metrophonic.
He has also helped write songs for the British Drama Brittania High. He also wrote Eoghan Quigg's debut solo single "28,000 Friends", which was originally performed by Bourne at The Living Room, New York on 11 October, 2007.
In February, 2009, James announced that he, along with his friend Elliot Davis, were writing a musical based on the Son Of Dork album, Welcome To Loserville. The tickets for the August 20 premier went up for sale on May 7.
The slogan used for the musical is 'I guess it really pays to be a slacker...', and is centered around 17 year-old Michael Dork, who is called a nerd, geek and slacker by others. Socially marginalised by the entire school and constantly picked on by Eddie, the coolest boy in school, Michael is desperate to find his ticket outta Loserville.
But when stunning new girl Holly arrives, Michael is introduced to a whole new world of cool. It is presented by Youth Music Theater UK in Association with South Hill Park Arts Centre.