James released his debut album, Set The Tone in 2005 which is heavily influenced by soul artists such as Marvin Gaye, Prince and Stevie Wonder.

[1] His album, written mostly by James, covers a range of music influences; from the bassy R&B of Set The Tone, the upbeat pop of Universal, the retro soul of The Message, the classic ballad sound of Justify Me to the rocky vibe in I'll Decline.

James has also worked with several noted co-writers that included David Brant (Mis-Teeq, Liberty X, Jamie Scott), Eg White (Adele's Chasing Pavements) on Universal, David Sneddon (Hurts, Lana Del Rey) and Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, Wiley (rapper)) on The Message, Andreas S. Jensen (Writer of Armand Van Heldens: MyMyMy), Peter-John Vettese (Annie Lennox: Walking On Broken Glass), Jamie Hartman (Will Young's All Time Love) on Justify Me and Emily Friendship (Sarah Connor's: You're the Kinda Man).

His headline gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire had to be rescheduled due to the 7 July 2005 London bombings but went ahead in October 2005.

The album title track Kingdom Falls was influenced by James's experiences on a charity mission to Rwanda in 2006, where he witnessed a mix of joy and sadness, seeing the country and its many orphans recovering from the atrocities committed during the genocide of 1994.

The album was mixed in Los Angeles by grammy winning Outkast collaborator Neal H Pogue and was released first in Japan and subsequently in the UK & Italy.

[6] In Spring 2008, James embarked on his first tour of North America and played live shows in New York City, Toronto, San Diego, & Los Angeles.

On 4 July 2008 James headlined the outdoor stage of the Montreal Jazz Fest, performing to an audience of over 120,000 in the Quebec city.

[7] In 2018, James appeared on the Netherlands hit TV show The Voice of Holland, where he performed "Issues" and turned all four chairs.