Photographer: Enoch Chuang
James the Seventh is an alternative pop artist based in Pittsburgh. Her 2025 single “Trauma Olympics”, taken from her debut EP Mind Your Business, amassed more than 14 million views across platforms and 2.6 million Spotify streams, drawing attention from Lady Gaga and Marina & The Diamonds. In August, she released Science, her first EP for Ricky Reed’s Nice Life Recording Company, whose roster includes The Marías and Tinashe.
Before she began making music, James trained full-time in ballet from the ages of 12 to 20. An injury changed those plans, and she started writing songs while recovering, drawing on influences including Kate Bush, Talking Heads and Wolf Alice. Her artist name pays tribute to her father, James VI, continuing the family name.
Science took shape after James first sought help for anxiety and depression, during a period of self-reflection and rediscovered joy. Produced entirely by Oren Yoel, her collaborator since 2022, its seven tracks are grouped into Facts, Studies and Experiments. Through these categories, she considers the need to be wanted and understood, the questions we ask about our feelings, and the unpredictability of relationships.
You describe Science as a way of trying to make sense of your feelings. What’s the story behind the EP?
Science came to be after I sought help for my anxiety and depression for the first time. It was a massive period of self reflection, and joy that I had forgotten I could feel. Each song is a story and a character of feelings that I believe to be natural and primal to the human condition, categorized as Fact, Study, and Experiment.
The project begins with 2 Facts: Pity Fuck and Coolest Cat. In these tracks, I dive into the primal desire to be wanted and understood. They are Facts because this desire is inevitable just as a fact is bound to be true. The Studies; Goofy and Science, explore the theorization of our thoughts and feelings. “Why do I feel scared to be myself?” “Why do I love this person?” Lastly, the Experiments: Let’s Get Acquainted, Catastrophic, and Race Car Driver. Relationships are experiments between people, and life is constantly experimental.
If Science was part of a playlist, what other 3 songs would be part of it?
Fly Trapped in a Jar by Modest Mouse, Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones, Hot You’re Cool by General Public
What’s your best networking tip to connect with the right people in the industry?
In Pittsburgh, just going to shows and getting involved with your community and seeing what the local music scene is like. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there both online and in real life.
What’s your favourite part of making music, and which part would you happily skip?
That’s so hard to pick because I love everything about making a song. But some I do love melody ideation, recording harmonies, and writing the bass and guitar.
I wouldn’t skip any of it, because the hardest moments of making a song, like being stumped on a lyric, usually helps me navigate what I don’t want in a song, so I can determine what I do want.
Photographer: Enoch Chuang
What advice would you give to an artist that is just starting out?
Get in touch with your morals and never forget the feeling making music gives you. This has guided every decision I’ve made in my career thus far.
It helps me determine how and why I want to put myself out there, the types of relationships I want to facilitate, and the artistic decisions I make. And, when you hit a hump, it’s all good. You can transmute it into inspiration, learn, and use it as a vehicle to reconnect with your why.
What’s one thing you’ve learned about the music industry that you wish you’d known before releasing your first song?
I wish I knew that collaboration isn’t scary! My first year making music, I felt very intimidated by working with other people because making music felt so new and vulnerable to me. However, it’s meant to be that way because it is artistic expression.
Working with my producer Oren Yoel since 2022 has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. We have a creative synergy and a friendship that I am so grateful to have found.
How do you wind down on a challenging day?
I like to journal about it. There’s something comforting about writing about something that made me feel awful, and in writing it, I think “One day I might read this again with the knowledge that it was gonna be okay.”
What three things always have to be in your bag when you’re on tour or heading into the studio?
Journal, lip balm, and a hoodie.
Photographer: Enoch Chuang