James Mercer (musician)

James Russell Mercer ( born December 26, 1970 in Honolulu) is an American indie pop musician who is known primarily as the frontman of the band The Shins from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Life

Because Mercer's father worked in the United States Air Force, his family moved around a lot. Mercer grew up in Germany and the United Kingdom. At the age of 15 he began in England with the piano lessons.

In the early 1990s he returned to the United States, where he played in the band Blues Roof dinner. In 1992, Mercer with drummer Jesse Sandoval, keyboardist Marty Crandall, and bassist Neal Langford, the band Flake Music. Her album When You land Here, It's Time to Return received good reviews and earned the band appearances as the opening act of Modest Mouse and Califone one.

In 1999, Mercer in Albuquerque, New Mexico the band The Shins. After the initial success with The Shins Flake Music is dissolved in the same year. In 2002, the band members moved to Portland, Oregon to.

In addition to The Shins Mercer is also active as a solo artist. At Roskilde Festival 2004 Mercer learned the U.S. DJ and producer Brian Burton aka DJ Danger Mouse know. Together with Burton Mercer produced from March 2008 first pieces of music. Their joint project Broken Bells was announced in September 2009. The debut album Broken Bells was released in March 2010 and peaked in the United States, Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the album charts.

On the album We Were published in 2007 Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse, he took over three pieces of the backing vocals: Florida, Missed the Boat and We've Got Everything.

2010 took over James Mercer starred in Matt McCormick's film Some Days are Better Than Others. 2011 James Mercer had a guest appearance in the comedy series Portlandia as a band member of Echo Echo ( Episode 5 /1).