James Pants

The son of two Presbyterian ministers from an American backwater called Spokane, James Pants went from being the teenage DJ for a black nationalist rap group to a multi-instrumentalist who can count on fans as diverse as Flying Lotus, Zane Lowe, Erol Alkan and Tyler The Creator, who calls James “one of the most creative fucking people to walk this earth”.

James met Stones Throw Records head honcho Peanut Butter Wolf after his high school prom and dropped a debut album in 2008, Welcome, which told the tale of a lone music obsessive who synthesized a staggeringly broad record collection into a coherent LP in a style he dubbed “fresh beat”, taking in ’80s boogie, synth experiments, garage rock and much more.

Since then James has toured the globe, released Seven Seals (a tribute to his beloved ’70s cult and New Age records), a self-titled third album, and uprooted from Colorado to Cologne, where he works as a studio engineer.