James Ferraro (born November 7, 1986) is an American musician, singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, contemporary artist and video game developer. He has been credited as a pioneer of the 21st-century genres post-noise, hypnagogic pop and vaporwave, with his work exploring themes related to hyperreality and consumer culture. His music has drawn on diverse styles such as contemporary classical music, new age, electronica, drone, sound collages, R&B and hip-hop. Ferraro began his career in the early 2000s with the formation of the Californian noise duo the Skaters, alongside musician Spencer Clark, after which he began recording solo work under a wide variety of aliases. He released music on several self-owned labels such as New Age Tapes and Muscleworks Inc. His work with the Skaters was credited by music critic Simon Reynolds with catalyzing an "international post-noise network". In 2010, he released the album Night Dolls with Hairspray. In 2011, Ferraro began working with the label Hippos in Tanks, gaining wider recognition when his polarizing album Far Side Virtual was chosen as Album of the Year by The Wire. The album marked a shift from his previous lo-fi music style to a clearer, more electronic sound described as "lurid HD postmodernity" by Tiny Mix Tapes. He later explored styles such as hip-hop through the group Bodyguard with Yves Tumor, and under the alias BEBETUNE$. He released other projects under the label such as Sushi and NYC, Hell 3:00 AM, before pivoting to solely releasing projects independently like Human Story 3. In the 2020s, he collaborated with Bladee on his album Cold Visions and developed an interactive game known as Sanctuary; he additionally released the game Desolation Seed as early access.
Biography
Early life and the Skaters Ferraro was born in Rochester, New York, to Italian and African-American parents. He came from a musical background; his father was a musician, DJ, and record enthusiast, while his mother was a singer. He began making instrumentals in high school with the program MTV Music Generator (1999). When Ferraro was 18, he moved from New York to San Diego, California, where he met Spencer Clark. He explained that "we had this conversation and it ended with us collaborating on visual art and paintings and stuff together." When Ferraro was 20, he formed a drone noise music project with Clark called the Skaters. After a year of recording, they began touring around the country and issued releases from that year of recording. Physicalities Of The Sensibilities Of Ingrediential Stairways (2008), issued on Eclipse Records, was the last record released by the Skaters. The group and Ferraro's work from this period would later be referred to by writers as "post-noise psychedelia" or "post-noise". In 2010, music critic Simon Reynolds stated the Skaters had catalysed an "international post-noise network", a phrase which had been featured in writer David Keenan's 2009 article Childhood's End in issue 306 of the British music magazine The Wire where he coined the term hypnagogic pop. The article would reference the group and Ferraro's work.
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