About Me

“A city boy with a guitar and dreams of making it to Nashville” perfectly sums up James Watling. Born and raised in North London, England - the furthest from the country back road that you can get, James might be a newbie on the UK Country Music Scene but he’s been performing on stage his entire life. Beginning at stage school at 4 and continued performing all through his educational life. James fell on every career path imaginable and in early 2018 finally decided on country music.
But not everything was as plain sailing as it seems, trials and tribulations struck James at every corner, but James learnt from everything and grew stronger and more determined to succeed. Living by his father’s words “Work Hard, Play Hard” all the time, James built an unrelenting work ethic. James has a natural born hunger for taking risks, if it's in school, in life or in his music, risks are at the centre of every decision James makes. This includes his decision to go to university and the decision to write and produce his Debut EP - The Stories We Tell - Out Now.
James believes that you need to “reach for the star because you might never leave the ground”, a brutally honest sentiment about the music industry but one that he hopes will fuel his dream to make it to the home of country music, Nashville, and make it onto the famous Grand Ole Opry Stage and stand in the same circle that the greats of the genre did before him. In the end, James hopes to be doing this same career in 50 years’ time but first, he needs to take the first step on this long and eventful road.