Power Through

What do you do in the face of hardship? Singer-songwriter James Lee retaliates by releasing a new EP.

- John Ng

The more you dwell on the past the more conscious you are of how important it is not to dwell on the past. Seemingly on an upward momentum, in early 2017, James Lee announced his departure from Royal Pirates. The decision was anything but made on the toss of a coin. Of course, Lee felt guilty but – still recovering physically and psychologically from a tragic freak accident which left him fighting for his life with a near-amputated arm – he got to the point where he knew he needed to focus on himself first.

“I remember I went to a meeting for some drama a few weeks after my accident. At the point, I was so mentally broken and lost I just followed along,” says Lee. “I had so much pain in my hand and shoulder because the ligaments were torn. I didn’t know how to think for myself – even though my mum was telling me not to go back to work yet. I shouldn’t have done the comeback [with Royal Pirates for a six-track EP titled 3.3] either. I was a shell of myself, and to be honest, leaving was the best thing I could do to focus on rehab.” As much as he cares about the band and the team which supports it, Lee admits that, in retrospect, that he shouldn’t have rushed back to work when he was nowhere near the right frame of mind.

Since then, Lee has been putting his mind on recovering and healing. Last year, he started a Kickstarter project to assist him in relaunching his music career. “After the accident, I returned to LA and I had a ton of songs but no fund to produce them; there was no way I would release them without being satisfied with the quality.