We were lucky to catch up with James Carrington recently and have shared our conversation below.

James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The Let’s be Bees project I started with Jesse String in 2016.

In 2013 I became a father to beautiful twins, Momo and Luna. Around the beginning of their second year as they were crawling around the sitting room in the home in Switzerland we were in at the time I found myself sitting at a piano and writing a fun reggae song called 530am Bug party. My daughter (who’s nickname is Bug) had been waking constantly at that time and I would find myself half asleep with a cup of coffee sitting on a rug watching her while she excitedly discovered all the things a small child does at that time. I didn’t really think the song had any legs until I returned to Los Angeles the following year. I played it after a lazy Sunday lunch party and a friend, whose opinion I respect enormously, kept saying he thought it was great and I should do something with it. He called me 3 days later to tell me he couldn’t get the chorus out of his head and when was I going to record it?!
A few weeks later I was in a recording studio in Playa Vista and found myself playing it to Jesse String who was the engineer that day. Jesse is an incredibly talented grammy nominated engineer/mixer/producer/songwriter/multi instrumentalist. The song must have had an effect because not long after that day, I ended up in his studio in Burbank listening to a song he had written a few years previously called Percival the Trapeze Flying Bear!

As we talked and began planning what we could collaborate on together, the beginnings of Lets Be Bees was starting to form. After the songs Reginald Grumpit and Sound Advice were added to the collection we realised we had a goal. To make an album of Original Songs for Kids (and their long suffering parents and carers!) As fathers we had had very similar experiences of being subjected to the same badly produced grating kids songs over and over again in a car or at home and felt that kids music could be done in a way that adults would be able to enjoy too and be ok with the endless repeats demanded by their children or the ones they were entrusted to look after!

Over the last 8 years, in between time consuming projects as artists, engineers, composers, being fathers and teaching full time we have tinkered away and completed a 12 song collection complete with animated videos of 4 of them after Jesse began to re visit an old passion of his which it turns out he’s very good at!

I really believe that, given the right kind of exposure, it would benefit and bring joy to many families around the world and we are working hard to find a way to make that happen. A few weeks ago we began to record versions of some the songs that we can perform live in schools and other suitable places and would like to embark on a tour of LA schools during this academic year.

James, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a singer/songwriter, composer, music teacher and a music game developer.

In 1998, after 2 years as a struggling actor, I formed my first band with Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, One Direction). Over 3 years we performed all over the UK, secured a publishing deal and were managed by Meredith Cork (Garbage). I embarked on a solo career in 2001 and after becoming the first unsigned artist to sell out the Shepherds Bush Empire Theatre in London in 2002 I went to New York where I was managed by Louis Levin and Brian Nelson and sold out shows at Joe’s Pub, The Cutting Room and The Bitter End. I then signed a publishing and record deal with Cheeky Music in the UK and went on to record my album The Dreamers Machine with Klaus Badelt at Henson studios in Los Angeles with Abe Laboriel, Abe Laboriel Jnr, Michael Landau, Tom Coster and Luis Conte and a 30 piece string section at Abbey Road in London

In 2008 I also began teaching singing, songwriting, piano and guitar in London before moving to Los Angeles in 2010 where I taught all over the city from under privileged neighbourhoods to clients such as Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Conan O’Brien and Hilary Swank while performing regularly at Hotel Cafe, House of Blues, Room 5 and The Baked Potato. I also spent many years co writing, and still do, with incredible writers and artists all over LA including John Trivers, Liz Myers, Paul Freeman, Mateo Laboriel, Ian Honeyman, Magnus Fiennes, Willow Robinson, Lola Lennox, Barns Courtney, Sacha Skarbek and Jamie Hartman.

In 2011 I created a game that helps people learn to read music in a unique way which is in the final stages of development as an App we are calling Letzplay that will be released this year in the App Store for iPad and iPhone. Born out of a desire to make learning to read music fun for a girl I had started teaching, and to create something completely different from the old traditional method I was taught growing up. It has been helping people to sightread and learn to play pieces on the piano and is bringing an enormous amount of pleasure and sense of achievement in the process.

In 2015 I met Jesse String and we slowly began writing for the project we eventually called Lets Be Bees. Having created an album’s worth of original songs for kids and their long suffering parents/carers and animated videos to accompany some of the tracks we are preparing to start touring schools and children’s venues initially in LA and London and consequently across the globe.

In 2023 I began to develop a series of masterclasses called The James Carrington Teaching Project. It comprises a series of online videos in which I put across my own unique take on teaching and helping others to learn what I have learnt as an artist and a teacher and will culminate in masterclasses in schools and colleges initially in LA and London.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Dancing with the Gods by Kent Nerburn
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

One on one Entrepreneur Coaching sessions with John Burroughes

Do Schools Kill Creativity? TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson

The Empowered Choral Rehearsal with Simon Carrington and James Jordan

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think it’s best summed up by the system they have in France. After having recently performed a concert in Le Lot area of France I got talking to an artist there. She told me that the French government supports artists with a monthly income. The requirement is that they produce evidence of x amount of shows per month (it was a very reasonable and doable number) and during the more barren quiet times of the year they still receive the same monthly income. This allows them to continue to create and develop their craft as artists without the constant worry of how to pay the rent and bills.

Artistic endeavours and creativity are extinguished so quickly when the overriding worry and anxiety of how to live pervades all aspects of someone’s life. Instead of the focus being on creating at the highest level the main focus becomes how to survive and for many people it is hugely detrimental to their ability to create original material and give themselves the best chance to succeed

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jamescarrington.net
• Instagram: jamescarringtonmusic
• Facebook: jamescarringtonmusic
• Linkedin: carringtonjames
• Youtube: jamescarringtonmusic
• Soundcloud: james carrington

Image Credits

Scott Mitchell for the photo of me with guitar at the mic

the rest are all my photos