[00:00:00] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Welcome to the Song Saloon. Each episode, I sit down with a singer songwriter and we talk about one of their songs. Today's guest is Brother James. Brother James is the spiritual singer songwriter moniker of LA based producer and songwriter Justin James Sinclair, who's equally influenced by classic songwriters like McCartney and Randy Newman, as he is by authors like Leo Tolstoy and Aristotle. 

Deeply inspired by monasticism, Brother James songs engage with mysticism, honest self searching, and the daily necessary struggle we all face to remain fully present and grateful.

His stories document and explore the messy human process of pursuing truth and attempting to love people well. Welcome, Brother James!

[00:00:47] Brother James: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad to be here.

[00:00:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, glad to have you on the show,

[00:00:51] Brother James: Yeah, always love hanging out. So, you know, What what better way to do it?

[00:00:57] Jordan Smith Reynolds: right? 

Yeah, we just actually did a co write with a friend, Jay Ives, on a song called Fool's Gold that I'll be looking at releasing sometime next year. So, 

really excited about that song.

[00:01:08] Brother James: I love that song. I've yeah, I'm that is a beautiful song I'm, so glad that you uh are trusting jay and I to work on it with you because it's it's gorgeous

[00:01:17] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I can't wait. It's, I've been playing it live a few times, and I'm going to be playing it with our friend Melanie at Writer's Block in a few weeks.

[00:01:27] Brother James: Oh killer

[00:01:28] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Will already have happened by the time this comes out,

[00:01:30] Brother James: Yeah

[00:01:31] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I'm very excited.

[00:01:32] Brother James: Make sure to send me the details on that. I want to be there for sure

[00:01:35] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, sweet. I will. 

tell us a little bit about the song you're bringing today.

[00:01:40] Brother James: Yeah. So Sunset and Slow Moving Days is the, the song that I'm gonna play. It's a song I wrote I turned 25. the very first line is, I guess it's been a quarter century since I came out wailing no one knew my name.

 It was a prompt as like a part of like a class I was a part of to, answer the question of like, well, what do I feel are the most important things I've learned in my life? I thought I'd try to, put that into words and song form.

the funny thing about that first line, too, that since I showed up wailing and no one knew my name, is that I actually, when I was born, my parents thought I was, uh, they were under the impression that I was going to be a girl. and so they had a female name for me and when I came out, they were like, Oh no, uh, we have to, like, they literally didn't name me for the, for the first few hours.

I think at least, uh, when, when we got home, they came up with the name, And so no one knew my name, uh, and so, yeah, I started writing the song going like, what, what, what have I learned in, 25 years it's about four years ago now. but I stand by a lot of the things that I, express here.

It all feels like mostly, I think the answer to what I've learned is. I've learned that I don't know much, and I've learned that, that we're all pretending, that we know what we're, what we're doing, and we know what we're talking about. So, the actual record, ending of Que Sera Sera, and my wife sings that chorus at the end, we had, we had gotten married not long before as I was writing the song.

And, she was walking around the house. It's like, she would kind of sing melodies sometimes, and she was singing this melody one time while I was writing this song, and I thought to myself, like, oh, that is, that perfectly nails what I'm trying to express here, like, that's better than I could have ever said it.

when I played a show the next time, I was like, what if we did it together? so it just like tied in perfectly. And so at some point when it came to recording it, we're like, let's just, put that on there. Uh, so when you hear the record, it'll have that on it today when I perform it.

I won't be able to sing the Que Sera part because it

is much too high for me. but you'll hear it when, you listen to the record. 

[00:03:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome. 

And because the song will be out I do have the song play at the end of the podcast but I encourage you all listening to go stream it. help brother James out, go stream it.

[00:03:59] Brother James: Awesome. Yeah. I mean, if you're listening to this right now and you're intrigued, go listen to it and then hop back and hear about it.

[00:04:06] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Right. 

so Que Sera, what year was that written? I'm just curious about the cover song component of

[00:04:14] Brother James: Yeah. Um, I actually don't know the specifics there. Um, I am working with a administration publisher that's, that's, uh, releasing my songs and they worked it out from what I understand. So, couldn't tell you, uh, but I think it was in like the forties or fifties, um, that the song,

[00:04:32] Jordan Smith Reynolds: So, there would be some stuff to work out.

[00:04:34] Brother James: Exactly. Yeah, from what I understand. Um, so who knows? I don't know who that money ends up going to if it does, but uh, maybe they'll get pennies off of my song.

[00:04:43] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, and it may actually be that I can't put on the podcast if it's, if

[00:04:48] Brother James: Oh, interesting.

[00:04:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: that might be something for us to look at. And if you don't hear it at the end, then you have to go

[00:04:53] Brother James: that's why. Great. Um,

[00:04:57] Jordan Smith Reynolds: cool. That's, it's funny. 

It's kind of nerdy, but I kind of like that. The nitty gritty songwriting business side stuff.

So

that's cool. 

[00:05:07] Brother James: Yeah. You're, you're like, so I feel like most songwriters hate to think about all that, but you're someone who you enjoy talking about or 

[00:05:16] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I think it's probably the same part of my brain because I also do programming, you know, like the web development stuff that I kind of like figuring out how things work. And so it's probably that part of my brain that is intrigued by that

[00:05:30] Brother James: That's great. us songwriters and artists, we need you. We need people who understand what's going on.

[00:05:35] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

[00:05:35] Brother James: Uh, yeah. So, yeah,

[00:05:37] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I don't know if I understand what's going on. I'm mostly interested in it.

[00:05:40] Brother James: yeah, yeah, yeah,

[00:05:41] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I wish I understood it better.

but that's cool. I'm excited for the song. And you did you say you wrote this on your birthday?

[00:05:47] Brother James: I wasn't on my birthday. 

[00:05:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: hmm around your 25th year of life,

[00:05:52] Brother James: yeah, yeah, yeah,

[00:05:53] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome.

I've actually done, the past two or three years on my birthday, I'll write a song. 

[00:05:59] Brother James: that's 

[00:06:00] Jordan Smith Reynolds: kind of just a reflection thing, yeah. And it's never turned into a song that I'll, like, release. But, yeah, it's been a good, it's a nice little reflection exercise.

[00:06:10] Brother James: Yeah. That's really great. I love that idea.

[00:06:13] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah

[00:06:13] Brother James: I'm probably going to steal that from you.

[00:06:15] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, please do Yeah, well, I'm super excited to hear the song. 

Would you like to perform that now?

[00:06:21] Brother James: Yeah, I'll play it. Let's do it.

[00:06:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome

 All right.

[00:09:54] Brother James: and that's, this is the part where we sing Que Sera, but alas you'll have to listen to the record for that. 

[00:10:00] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Thank you. 

That was awesome. 

I noticed the lyrics change on that second chorus or the last chorus, huh?

[00:10:06] Brother James: Yeah. Mild lyric change. 

[00:10:09] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. As we turn back to children, we fade away. 

[00:10:11] Brother James: Uh huh. 

you know, there's a chance, on the record, I might, it might be learned to play both times, but, uh, 

[00:10:17] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I liked it. It was a nice twist that made me all wistful. 

[00:10:21] Brother James: Yeah, 

[00:10:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yeah, 

[00:10:23] Brother James: I'm glad. There's always, there's so many lyric changes that happen throughout the process that it's like, I don't, I actually don't even remember what ended up being recorded.

[00:10:31] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I definitely have that problem often. It's the worst when I'm playing live, yeah, and I just... I cannot remember the, the phrase that I stuck with. I love the water our worries evaporate. Somehow they freeze into snowflakes. That, that line, just the alliteration of the water our worries and, that transition into freezing to snowflakes.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you were thinking while you wrote that? Mm

[00:10:55] Brother James: Yeah.

I guess that, you know, sometimes when I write. I'm trying to get a very specific thing across and I'm trying to like, articulately say this. I feel like this was just a really nice image for me that was like, that feels like it. It, uh, expresses what I want this to feel like. there's something just like, beautiful and wistful and childlike about snowflakes and the idea of, like, that our, that our worries, evaporate.

But I, like, another way of saying that they go away from us is that they freeze and they're, they're no longer active. so I guess it's somehow I'm saying something about our worries going away. Uh, but I just kind of like all of it, like being interconnected to the movements of nature and, uh, kind of the, the, the wistful beauty of, snowflakes. 

[00:11:44] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's the part that I was struck with, was that our worries crystallizing into something that was beautiful. 

[00:11:50] Brother James: Yeah, I love that. I, I don't know if that's exactly what I was thinking about, but I think that's great. yeah. Huh. 

Yeah. I feel like sometimes, the best writing, that I appreciate and try to emulate it's enough of like a playground in which there's not total clarity and, you know, you can kind of like, Uh, wade around in it and, find interesting ideas and meaning in it.

Uh, where it's like loosely connected to what, uh, the, the original writer intended or had in mind. But it, like, it's just like a, a beautiful place to play around in, you know? I think that's what I, what I like to do,

[00:12:26] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I love that. Yeah, having a song be open enough that there's room for people, right, to, to put their own thoughts and feelings and, stuff that they have to work out into the space.

[00:12:38] Brother James: Right. 'cause I think the, you know, each. person has their own set of experiences and thoughts and things that they're working through and, and dealing with, and they're always going to be different than mine. And so I want to capture my own experiences and name those And, you know, obviously people will connect, there'll be, we all go through very similar things often.

And maybe, by name to it in my own life, it'll help someone else. But also, I hope that my music reaches folks who are experiencing very different things than me. And, uh, maybe this can help them put words to something that they didn't know how to, without me ever having.

That specific thought, 

[00:13:23] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. 

[00:13:23] Brother James: um, and, Uh yeah, I, I think the music, the best kind of music allows us all to kind of read our own experience into it the best art does that. 

it reflects myself back at me. It's more of a mirror than anything, helps me understand my inner life. 

[00:13:39] Jordan Smith Reynolds: For sure. 

And like you mentioned in the bio, there's a spiritual component to it, kind of like a meditative state for your songwriting. Can you talk about how Brother James became the moniker? about that space and why that's important to you?

[00:13:54] Brother James: Yeah. So, well, first of all, my first name is Justin. My middle name is James. and, James is a name that, only my dad uses to refer to me. no one else ever uses that name for me. Um, and even still sometimes people, now, of course now that I go by Brother James, people sometimes will.

mistake me as James, which is fine. like, it.

just, it feels like a very, Yeah.

intimate, intimate name for me. so there was something about that in like, in those songs that I was writing when I was starting to think about my artist project, it all felt very like personal and intimate and like tied to my, the, the, the youngest version of myself, you know, all of the.

inner child, all the good ways and the bad ways, and so I think that I'm also a brother of, uh, I have two brothers, and that, that feels very central to my identity. Again, fortunately and unfortunately, there's, you know, ways in which it, it, it affects me, uh, in, in great ways, and, and otherwise.

Um, But I think that was, that all was kind of secondary, like it just, it made sense afterward, It was going to be like little brother Justin or brother James, It was because I had, uh, around the time I was solidifying a sense of, of an artist project, uh, and to, to fit my songs into, I was visiting monasteries frequently.

I visited my first monastery, at the end of college. I went to a private Christian college, and I studied great books, a lot of great Western literature, as well as music, and so I did a lot of, you know, thinking and processing kind of my own tradition and all that in that space.

And there were certain things that, a lot of things that I think are wonderful and beautiful about that tradition, and also things that, I think felt problematic and limiting and, um, You know, ways in which people abuse the systems, all of the traditions and systems we grow up in. I mean, I could, you know, I could talk about that for a while, um, but, as I started visiting monasteries, you run into two kinds of people. You run into, first of all, monks, of course, and, and I was visiting, Benedictine monasteries that are, that are very based in, um, a rule of hospitality and, uh, their, their primary mission is to pray, all day. You know, they, they pray five times a day and, read the Bible and connect with God.

And then also. Take care of the poor, uh, the marginalized, uh, the, the, the widow and the, the orphan, they spend all of their energy, caring for those in their community who have needs, um, and they give up all of their resources in order to do that, um, they, they surrender it to the monastery and say, we're just going to care for our community, and I think it's just such a beautiful thing.

Again, obviously, in each tradition, there are, issues that come with them. Um, but I thought I just found such beauty in that way of life and it started, I started visiting other monasteries and, um, in one of them, there was a particular monk named Cyprian he traveled the world doing interfaith peace building house concerts before he became a monk.

he's just kind of this guy who understands like the depths of every tradition. And so he kind of, like, sent me on this journey of, like, reading all the great Eastern texts. he's just, he's able to translate, the beauty and the wisdom of Daoism and show how it intertwines with Buddhism and with Hinduism and how that can affect our view.

I shouldn't say how it intertwines with those things, Yeah, I think what, what Cyprian has helped me to see is that each tradition has its own deep well and source of wisdom, but they're distinct from each other.

And there's, there's not a sense that they're all the same but they each give us a different side of what is true about being a human and, about how to engage with the world well. And each of them comes with their own set of pitfalls and issues, but we can learn from each of them, whether or not we adopt them as our own.

Yeah.

he sent me on this journey of reading all these other great Eastern texts, that, you know, I, I spent a lot of time, again, like reading, like Aristotle and Plato and, the great writers of the Western tradition during school. it was just kind of amazing to me that I had never like actually gone and, and read the Tao, you know, and like, it just like blew my mind. It's such a short, simple, beautiful book, I like, I can't believe no one ever told me that it was out there, you know, um, and it's, you know, you can pick it up for, a dollar, anywhere on the internet, you can pick up the Tao, and it has just these deep wells of wisdom that, can change your life.

I'm going on a rant about that, but, um, but I, I think as I started to think about, what to name my project, visiting monasteries, meeting monks, started to, Like deeply affect my worldview. so I mentioned there are two types of people you meet there.

There's monks then there's also the visitors. so people who visit monasteries I've just found to be incredibly interesting. I'm usually the youngest person there when I visit. Um, there's this just people with like these deep wells of like experience and wisdom who are like actively searching truth and, uh, like seeking how to live well and love people.

And, And they're not always Christian at the Benedictine monasteries I've been to, um, they're often like from other traditions and learning about, the Benedictine way of approaching life or if they are often, they're just kind of like, they're, again, people who like want to seek out understanding, um, spirituality and God from several perspectives.

it's just a really interesting, beautiful space. And I feel like that kind of inspired a lot of, seeking for me, um, expanding beyond, what I grew up with. Um, you know, I think there were ways in which I was sort of, um, I was recovering from things that I think were, were difficult or problematic for me in growing up in the evangelical church, um, and I think there, there are many people probably listening to this podcast who, who relate to that experience, um, and, I think the, uh, visiting a monastery just was a very healing experience for me, gave me a lot of, um, perspective and, and, and new places to orient my pursuit of life and, and truth and goodness.

and just like sitting in silence was just like a game changer. Just like spending more time in silence, in prayer and meditation, it just makes you see the world differently. it was just, yeah, there was just such a peaceful experience there. But anyway, all to say. I, like, was transformed by just, like, visit I started visiting once a month.

Um, there's a couple monasteries near L. A. that I would, you know, visit several different ones. And, you know, make friends there and at some point I thought about the idea of becoming a monk. you know, at some point some of these, monks would be like, so, you know, like, are you going to?

Try it out, you know, because you can kind of do like, um, you know, where you, you, you start to go, go along the process. Yeah. And you commit for a year. Um, depending on the monastery, it's different. Um, and 

[00:20:52] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's a big commitment.

[00:20:53] Brother James: yeah, it takes about, uh, seven years before you commit for life. Um, and, and so I, I looked a little bit into it, but I kinda knew it was never for me.

even though I'm like, so like inspired by and drawn to the way of life. mean, for one, I'm just sort of a romantic and I've, you know, I'm always in a relationship or always was around that time. You know, there was a different relationship every year, which is, you know, what it was.

And, and I knew that I was going to get married. I knew I was going to have a family and, uh, and so, and I, and I have gotten married now. We've been married for, for about three years. and so I just, yeah, I just kind of knew that I was never going to become a monk. And so I. it was sort of just a fun way to be like, Hey, if I'm not going to become a monk and take on the name of a saint, As a monk, I'll just do it myself for my artist project.

And so, uh, I did a bunch of research too into the different St. James's there are in the Christian tradition. And I thought there was like, there was just kind of like a fun lore and beauty to it in my eyes at that time. And so, uh, yeah, Brother James just kind of made sense of... So much of, like, where I was at at that time, and, and the path that I'm on now, and, So I see myself as, or I see Brother James as also a way to, you know, share.

the beauty of monasticism and the tradition I grew up in as well of, you know, the Christian church, um, while also, uh, you know, kind of like, yeah, maybe opening people's hearts to, to a tradition that has hurt them or, or one that they see as, as problematic. I hope to show the beauty of, of that way of life, but also, you know, for, for folks in the Christian tradition, I think my, my songwriting is, uh, a way of, of inviting others to seek truth elsewhere as well.

Um, and to not be afraid of, things beyond the walls of the church. 

[00:22:40] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, that is something, I mean, I've, I come from a, very religious background as well. And that is something that, um, I encountered quite a bit was this fear to explore anything else. Right. Cause they want to keep you in there. I say they, whether that's societal pressure or pressure you put on yourself or whatever.

but yeah, there's this, there is that feeling of, oh no, don't. Don't look for other things because then you'll change and but like that's what we want, right? We want change. We want progress. So

[00:23:11] Brother James: Change is important and good. And, uh, you know, it's not always good, but I feel like usually change is necessary on our path, not usually, always change is necessary on our path to becoming fully human and fully ourselves. totally growing up. We were terrified of, things beyond the walls of the church, you know, I wouldn't say that I experienced like the worst of that.

Like I, I've seen like my, I think my family was fairly open and, been to a lot of churches where it there's a fearful way of living and, um, 

I think that's. I think that's just not, good. 

[00:23:45] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah

[00:23:45] Brother James: I think living in fear is not good, and I think, I think the Bible would agree with that. 

[00:23:50] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yep Yep, absolutely 

[00:23:52] Brother James: yeah. 

[00:23:53] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I want to bring attention to one of your other songs as well. You released love everybody. Was that your most recent single 

[00:24:00] Brother James: you know, technically my mo most recent single was a re-release, uh, of a song called Give Yourself a Break. The couple reasons why I re rereleased that, but love everybody is it's part of, so, so the, the, the release of this song, sunsets and Slow moving Days is part of a, an EP release. It's just a short, a small collection of these three songs. Love Everybody, Give Yourself a Break, and Sunsets. 

[00:24:20] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Oh This is closing it. This is closing the EP.

[00:24:22] Brother James: closing this, yeah, small EP. I've been doing these little bite sized EPs and the idea is that they'll culminate in an album early next year, he says, tentatively.

Yeah. 

[00:24:34] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's really cool. with Love Everybody, you talked about knowledge acquisition and stuff too, and learning how to, be a human around people. And what I love about your song, Love Everybody, is It's really about that, that knowledge acquisition, but without that extra component that I'm, what I'm hearing from you, you kind of discovered in your monastery 

adventures of this person that like has all this knowledge, but isn't applying it.

[00:25:01] Brother James: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 

[00:25:03] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. What do you think? What's your take 

[00:25:04] Brother James: I love the, that's a, that's a great way of saying that. Love everybody. I wrote as a reflection of like some of my what you can call my shadow qualities, you know, uh, tendencies that I'm drawn toward that are, um, not as healthy or good. And, It was, it was, I wrote it, yeah, around the time, like, as I was working through my spiritual journey and, and, and trying to understand life, it was a ref, yeah, it was a reflection on my tendency to, Seek wisdom and truth and goodness and, and to, to like be, you know, like try to understand the world again, which also this, this song, I think reflects on that very much, which is why the, the, the EP is called grow.

I'm growing out of this tendency to just like seek truth and, and, and understanding without. applying it and without actually, like, there's so, like so many, I've read so many books and ideas and thinking, you know, the greatest thinkers in the, in the history of humanity. And so many of them talk about loving and caring for those around us.

And it's so easy, especially when you're a nerd who likes to read books to just like. Get stuck in the quest for knowledge and understanding and to like to just miss what you're actually reading and to miss the importance of like caring for others and listening and, Truly being loving and kind and good, uh, applying the ideas that?

the great thinkers offer.

there's also an element of it that like, I am an introvert, and I needed to accept that about myself and, and there's a healthy element of, of like, I need, I need my space. that's how I thrive. And then I, I, I'm at my best that way when I've, when I've had my space, but I was, noticing that, um, Like, whenever I had roommates or whatever, I would, like, I would kind of just retreat into my space and ignore my roommates, and then I'd go out and do my thing, and then I'd come back and, like, ignore my roommates and, you know, retreat into my space, and, like, that was an example of a relationship where I wished that I were more, like, caring and actually paying attention and listening, and, um, it comes down to, like, Some personality things, but some ways in which it's like, I, I, I, I could grow, but also, I feel like there's a sense in which this EP also represents the idea of me growing out of myself, growing out of my self criticism, I would say even self hatred that I grew up with in high school.

I was so quick to find things that I was doing wrong and criticize them. And so there's a certain sense in which love everybody represents another thing I was growing out of, which is criticizing myself. Um, it's all part of the same narrative of growing, and learning to live well.

I don't know, I don't remember your specific question, 

[00:28:11] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense. We were talking about love everybody. but yeah, that is another pitfall, I think, of evangelism in particular. What we're talking about is you can get stuck in this, um, trying to, and just constantly berating yourself for not getting to a certain place, which is, obviously not going to be helpful in your own progress.

One of the things you have to kind of. check in on yourself, which I think this EP does a really great job of, you know, it's something that you're gonna, you're probably gonna have to tell yourself multiple times, right?

Um,

[00:28:42] Brother James: That I think that's why I write songs is to set in stone an idea that I need to remember for the rest of my life. I'm curious, you know, you talking about having grown up with some of that stuff and noticing these patterns in this song, did it, did it help highlight something for you that you're currently working through?

Or like, um, were these songs Like personally helpful or connected to some part of your life and journey. 

[00:29:08] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes. Um, the line, he loves everybody, but the one in front of him, I think is really potent. and one that just constantly needs refreshing for, for anyone. just cause it is very easy to, theoretically love lots of people and then you, get in your car and drive anywhere in LA and it's out the window.

[00:29:28] Brother James: Yeah, right. Yep. Exactly. 

[00:29:30] Jordan Smith Reynolds: So, yeah, I think that is one that's just, it's really good to. Just have in front of you to remind yourself and keep going because we are kind of goldfish that way and And forgetting some of these these truths and the only way to continue to grow is to just remind yourself and remember. 

[00:29:47] Brother James: Absolutely. Yeah, I realized when you asked about the song, Love Everybody, I started talking about the ideas behind it and, uh, folks maybe listening don't know anything about like what the song is about, but that that's the, that's the primary idea is that, it was, it was inspired by, uh, Ironically or unironically, um, uh, by a book by Dostoevsky, um, called, The Brothers Karamazov, in which there are two, two different characters in the book who are like kind of, they kind of loom as these, these primary characters that are like, full goodness and, something to be afraid of, like an enemy. Um, there's these two characters. One of them is a monk, uh, again, ironically or unironically, I don't know. Um, and then the other is, uh, the older brother of the, of the main character. And each of them express, uh, this idea that, again, they're like very opposite characters, very opposite ideas of the world.

But both of them at some point in this book say that the easiest thing in the world is to love everyone. it's so easy to just like love all of humanity. Yeah. I, I love everyone. Um, but the hardest thing is to love any one particular person. that's, that's what's really difficult. And, uh, it's, it's really funny that, you know, you said this main, this main character on this path of, of searching and growth is he's trying to understand, the world and, and to, from two different.

One, I think, so I think his older brother is an atheist and then the other is, uh, again, his like monk mentor, both of them say like, well, you know, it's great that you love everyone. It's great that you love the world. But, uh, loving people, loving us specific people is the hard thing. And so that's what inspired that idea inspired this song.

Um, but it's, you know, again, it's like, it's, it's so funny. Cause then my, my writing of the song is all about, you know, Reading books and not getting the idea out of them, right? Like that, uh, not applying this idea of loving people. And, um, so I, Yeah,

I would encourage folks to go check out the, the, that song and the whole EP to, you know, the, the, the whole path of growth, I think is represented at least my path of growth.

And I, and I hope that it helps, you know, as I think good art should, like, I hope that it helps each person, specifically identify some part of their life that, that, um, something they need to explore, I guess would be the thing. yeah,

[00:32:12] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yeah Wonderful. 

Did you release it? Or are you planning on releasing kind of like, was it kind of waterfall effect thing? 

So the new song has the three? Okay.

[00:32:21] Brother James: So this one will have all three on it. So the, the, 

[00:32:24] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome.

[00:32:25] Brother James: EP is called Grow and it has these three songs on it. I think it ends with Sunset and Slow Moving Days. Uh, and so it ends with Que Sera Sera. Whatever will be will be. The future is not ours to see. Que Sera. 

[00:32:37] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. So, very excited for you to have that released. Congratulations. I'm excited to have everyone listening in to go check it out. Yeah, so what's next? You said there's possibly an album in your future. Um, is there a live shows connected to this single release?

Anything that you'd want people to know listening in?

[00:33:00] Brother James: Yeah. So, um, to answer the first question, the hope is to have an album Um, culminating all of the, the songs I've been releasing slowly for a few years, you kind of call this the, the first, the first phase of, of Brother James, uh, wrapping up in?

early 2024. it'll contain all the songs that I've released so far, um, in this kind of seek, love, grow.

There are these different EPs that are there along these lines. Um, so the, the album, uh, tentatively, tentatively titled be. W have those songs and then a few more, um, I'll definitely do like a, a big show for, for that. That's a good reminder that I don't, I don't have a show lined up for this EP release, um, but, uh, you know.

that would be a great thing to do. Um, I've been sort of preoccupied with several other music projects at the moment, um, and kind of just slowly still, still getting Brother James, you know, moving, um, I'll hopefully have a show to announce by the time this podcast comes out.

I probably won't do it that, that day, but, um, uh, yeah, I, I'm hoping to play some more Brother James shows pretty soon here, so, 

[00:34:08] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Wonderful. What and how can we find you? where are you at online?

[00:34:12] Brother James: yeah. So where I tend to be most active, which is still not very, is, Instagram, and so you can search Justin James, one word, And That's where I, yeah, tend to post things and share about what's happening. Um, I also have an email list where I'll, whenever there's like important releases or shows, um, I try to do a little bit more of, of some of the, I'll, I'll, I'll write about the things a little bit more.

And, um, so that email list can be found on my website, just jamesstinclair. com. you can find it on a lot of the different pages there. I also have a Patreon, where I share, a song demo once a month, uh, so, I don't do much beyond that, but I'll share a little bit about what's going on in my life, and, um, and I'll share a, a new song once a month, it's usually a song I wrote that month, and they're often songs that don't end up getting released, you know, I think, as you know, Jordan, we write a lot of songs, that we don't have the resources or time to record and release all of them.

And so, uh, I definitely have a good, uh, probably close to a hundred songs on my Patreon, um, from over the years. And so if you want to hear a backlog of, of, uh, all the Brother James songs, they're all there. Um, 

[00:35:31] Jordan Smith Reynolds: great. I'm glad there's a way to bring attention to them for you because I do feel like an abandonment kind of complex with all the songs that I've kind of had to just like let go, you know? 

[00:35:41] Brother James: absolutely. Yeah, I think Patreon is a great way to, to like, at least share them with people who would love to hear them, you know, and so if you, if you like my songs, you want to help me keep creating them and want to hear all the songs that I've, uh, worked on, you know, all the songs I've written, whether released or not, they're on Patreon.

you can search on, on Patreon, Brother James or, uh, Justin James. I think we'll, we'll find it. 

[00:36:06] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Is there a link to that on your website? 

[00:36:08] Brother James: There is, there should be. So on, on JustinJamesSinclair. com slash Brother James, there's links to, to all of these things, um, to Patreon, email list, and, uh, Instagram. So, 

[00:36:19] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Great. And Instagram was at Justin James. Correct. Okay. Yeah, I just want to reiterate, so, and you're not going in there going for at Brother James. 

At 

Justin James. 

[00:36:29] Brother James: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think if you search Brother James, it might come up, but yeah, I think At Justin James. is the, is the thing. So. 

[00:36:38] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. Um, loved hearing your song and, and getting into your, your monastery experience. that was really cool to hear about.

[00:36:46] Brother James: Yeah, I'm really glad, glad to be here. Glad to share. You know, those are some of those things that, I don't share often And so it's really great to have a space to talk more deeply about, you know, what's behind this project and these songs. So I really appreciate you, uh, you having me here.

And as I mentioned, the songs are for me, a Good.

reminder of things that I need to remember and learn. And this was a great space to be reminded of, lessons I've learned in my life and things that I, I, I always need to be reminded of and reapply. So, yeah, thanks for having me. It was a great time.

Thanks, Jordan. 

[00:37:18] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Absolutely. Alright. I'll see you, Justin. 

[00:37:21] Brother James: All right. See 

[00:37:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Thanks.​