I have been writing and recording original music since I was about 12 years old. The music I made at first was mostly Hip-Hop, which I will always say was my first true love. The first few home recorded albums I made throughout my teenage years were distributed only to friends and family. As I grew older I began listening to many more genres of music that I would also fall in love with. At the age of 16 I picked up the guitar and bass and began playing in an alternative rock band with a few friends. I recorded my first rock album with my friend and band mate Brent Holden in 2009 called “Step into My Office.” Although these early projects may sound rough around the edges now, they were all essential in allowing me to grow my skills as a songwriter, instrumentalist, mixer and audio engineer. 

In 2013 I hit a wall. It had been over three years since I had completed any music projects. I was struggling heavily with anxiety, depression and insomnia and found it difficult to recreate the passion I once had for making music. After battling with myself for a long time I realized the best way to fight these issues was with music itself. So in 2014 I began writing and recording a hip-hop album called “Inverted Palette.” I put my all into this project and many of the lyrics on the album reflect my mind state at the time. It was this album that reinvigorated me and also where I reinvented myself as James P. Maxwell; A version of myself who wasn’t afraid to share my music with the world. 

After “Inverted Palette” was released in the Fall of 2014 I decided that I would move to Arizona to achieve a formal education in audio engineering. There I attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences where I learned a lot about the technical aspects of recording music. After the school’s nine month program ended I was able to get an internship at Resonate; a recording studio in Burbank, California. The internship went well and I was eventually kept on as a freelance Audio Engineer. While at Resonate I got to experience working at a professional recording studio. I even assisted on a few neat sessions with recording artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, Chaka Khan, Debbie Gibson, and several artists signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records. 

After a year and a half of living in Los Angeles County I decided that the big city wasn’t the best fit for me. I missed my friends and family in Rhode Island and decided to move back home. Before leaving I released my second album as James P. Maxwell, “Drowning in Thoughts,” in April 2017. The album was started in Rhode Island, worked on in Arizona and finished in California. Many of the different life experiences I went through during this journey made their way onto the album. 

When I returned home to Rhode Island in the summer of 2017 I reconnected with old friends Brent Holden and David Saltzman. Together we formed the band Quasar and the Missed; a rock band inspired by Shoegaze artists from the early 90s along with a touch of Alternative Rock for good measure. In this project I play bass, sing lead vocals and handle the majority of the recording, mixing and songwriting aspects. Quasar and the Missed’s first EP “Take My Hand” was released in June 2018. 

My next album, Memories Grown Distant, was released on CD and as a digital download on 09/13/18. It combined singing over electronic hip-hop production, with a few rap verses scattered throughout. After that I began working on several different solo projects, all with different sounds and styles. These projects would turn into five different albums that were released a month apart from each other from June-October 2020; Patterns (Hip-Hop), Greytide (Alt-Rock), Signs on Fire (Hip-Hop), Meanwhile... (Alt Rock), and Everything Falls (Dreampop). 

I began working on a new album immediately after finishing the five album project. The music came together quickly, but when I was about halfway done with it my dear cat Luna passed away in an unexpected and traumatizing way. I found it difficult to work on music for a while after that, which is why this album took me four years to complete. I did complete it eventually though! "Greywave", released on 12/13/24, is a sonic sequel to 2020's “Greytide.”

- Travis DeBlois