Eli James

Eli James is an American fashion designer and founder of the lifestyle clothing brand Ghost Circus Apparel.

Previously, he was the drummer for Tim Sköld's industrial solo project, SKOLD; the electronic rock/indietronica/dance project Julien-K; and Dead By Sunrise, the alternative rock side project of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington.

James also performs as a solo artist as The eli james Experience and with fellow drummer Elias Andra in their joint project E.L.I.

Eli James was born in Seattle, WA, and grew up in the Pacific Northwest, moving from place to place with his brothers and his father Izzy Rehaume, bass player for the metal band Rottweiller.

He and his brothers were raised exclusively by their father, which meant stays with extended family members and sharing the limited resources they had as children.

James was frequently brought to his father's band practices and rehearsals.

Having been immersed in the 1980s hair-metal musical culture of his father's band, James realized his calling was to be a musician as well.

He found that by performing music, he could transform his traumatic childhood memories into encouraging words for young people today.

By the age of seven, James's proclivity for performing was evident; he and his brothers put on acrobatics shows for neighborhood and school friends in their backyard.

These backyard performances continued until the age of 12, when he received his first drum kit.

Throughout his years in elementary, middle and high school, James took advantage of any opportunity to perform, including marching band, jazz band, choir, and drama performances.

He was also active in school athletics, particularly football, soccer and wrestling.

James aspired to become a pro athlete until a football injury sidelined him and he was forced to re-examine his options.

James moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and spent the next four years acting in both commercials and films.

To date he is credited with 250 stage performances, seven films, and a television show appearance.

By the year 2005, after attending the Tsunami Disaster Relief and witnessing and participating in the effects of goodwill first-hand he decided that music was his true calling, and through it he would realize his humanitarian efforts.

Attending the International Music Convention in 2006 with David Campbell, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Juliette Simms and many others in Barbados only re-affirmed that he'd chosen the right path.

At this time, Eli put himself in a position to travel all over the U.S. and Canada to write music.

After a few years of traveling and creating his studio he had the opportunity to work with producer John Ryan (Styx, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Doobie Brothers, Seal, etc.).

By 2008, Eli was living in downtown LA in an artist loft with his brothers, Joseph and Patrick, and friends Davan and Sonny Moore.

It was during this time Patrick, aka DJ Magi, taught Sonny the DJ skills he would go on to use as Skrillex.

As Sonny began to play more and more gigs and eventually book a tour as a DJ act, Eli decided to go on tour with him to drum tech for drummer, Sean Friday, however illness kept him from doing so.

While he was recovering, he realized he needed to focus on making his own music again and once better, he hit the ground running full speed in that direction.

In May 2008 Eli ran into a close friend, Jason Spallino, aka Zuzu Gold, at a local LA show where Sonny Moore, Dead Sara and Endless Hallway were performing (The Knitting Factory).

This is where Jason and Eli spoke about drumming for Little Red Radio.

After Eli joined Little Red Radio – whose members included Jason Bradly Shaffer (keys/programming), Jason Spallino (lead vocals) and Lara Meghan Anderson (lead vocals) – the band was on a non-stop ride towards success getting "Local Track of the Day" on LA's Indie 103.1 FM within 6 months and performing with bands such as Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, The Pussycat Dolls, Mickey Avalon, Neon Trees, Kelis, Skrillex, Steel Panther, Spazmatics, Policics (Japan), Ebony Bones (UK) and many others.

During this time Eli James began working with lighting designer, Adam Williams.

Adam and Eli worked hand in hand continually pushing the envelope with Little Red Radio's level of live entertainment.

With the energy and music of the band, plus the light sequences that Adam helped Eli develop, there was no other show in LA quite like it.

Little Red Radio played many packed out venues such as The Key Club, On The Rox, The Roxy, The Viper Room, House of Blues, Silverlake Lounge, The Satellite, The Echo, The Echoplex, Club Avalon, Steve Aoki's Dim Mak, countless warehouse parties and club nights.

Creative differences amongst its members proved to be too much for the band's survival, so Eli left the band in April 2011.

In doing so, and with Adam Williams' help, The eli james Experience!

was born.

Playing a packed house at his first show in Los Angeles (Club Bardot) lead to Eli immediately going on 4 solo tours nationwide.

He wrapped his 3rd tour headlining The Viper Room at The Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF) 2011 where he and good friend/sponsor, Scott Dowers (Hairroxx), met DJ Ashba.

After Scott Dowers and DJ Ashba caught a few of Eli's live shows they both later decided to join AWP and help support/sponsor "The eli james Experience!"

with their companies, Hairroxx and Ashba Swag.

After Eli finished his 4th tour doing double duty as The eli james Experience!

and drumming for (UK's) Viva City, he was referred through friends to replace Elias Andra drumming for the bands Julien-K and Dead By Sunrise.

Instead of going with just one drummer, it was decided to have two, Eli and Frank Zummo of Street Drum Corps.