Life experiences have helped to shape the person James Sawyer has become, and the music he writes, plays, produces and sings. The talented singer/songwriter is native to Ontario born in Etobicoke and raised in Campbellville. He started to play piano at the age of six and then picked up guitar in his early teens. His unique sound comes from the combination of rock, acoustic and indie. His eclectic sound has enticed audiences with the release of his debut album Next to You. The album is a peak into Sawyer’s life and a story of personal growth. Sawyer just wants his audience to see him, “As a singer and a songwriter painting an honest picture is all you need. If the singer believes in the song, the audience will believe in the singer.” It’s a philosophy Sawyer lives by in developing his music and one that he attributes his success to. The title track “Next to You” was produced by John Jamieson and Sawyer in SoundHouse Studios, Kilbride, ON in 2005 and 2006. In the summer of 2006, Sawyer received a Songwriter Workshop Award from Factor Canada to attend a three-day song-writing N.S.A.I. workshop, in Nashville, TN, USA. The album also includes the single “Save His World” written for Michael Papaioannou who was diagnosed with a rare disease called Lesch-Nyhan. The song earned commercial radio airtime in 2006 on 97.3 EZ Rock in Toronto in support of the Sick Kids Radio-thon