the Music of James Möbius - MöbiusBandwidth.com

Möbius Müsicus page 1

James Möbius plays about a dozen instruments. Some of them not as well as others. some of them frighteningly well. Sometimes people don't quite understand what he is playing at first, more often they don't understand how he is playing them. James has composed over 300 pieces of music since 1980, has performed in the US, China, the UK, Japan, Canada and on several planets you wouldn't've heard of. He has scored 2 music videos and one documentary and performed on 4 CDs. He holds a degree in performance from the Berklee college of music in Boston, but cautions they didn't have too much influence on his compositions.
James occasionally does studio work as a Bassist primarily, playing 4, 5, and 6 string fretted and fretless Basses, including some he built himself, and a ten string Chapman Stick.
James also teaches Bass and beginning guitar. click to contact James about lessons, film scoring, and session work as well as gig bookings. Scroll down to read a more detailed history of James's career in music.

Discography:
Najarian CD(new MySpace page.)
M3 CD
Mason Vincent CD I played on one of Mason's discs. gigged extensively with his 4 bands, Cannibal kings, Primatek, Conjurman, and the Happy campers.
Colleen Sexton I played on her debut release.

an animated tour of my stringed instrument collection, many of which are customised. (I've acquired a few more since making this.)

Musical Biography:
James's first band was called "Three guys who play music", a name he still fancies. It featured brothers Barton and Tarso Ramos on Guitar and Drums respectively, Barton even in high school was a fericous guitarist who played a customised BC Rich mockingbird with a three octave neck, he used every fret and every finger to play them, dazzling everyone, later he got more interested in acoustic latin jazz, but at the time he easily could have sat in for Eddie Van Halen. The band played one concert at their school to a fairly favourable review; "...the '3 guys who play music' didn't drive anyone out of the auditorium..."

In the years that followed, James worked with a number of musicians and upstart bands, most of whom didn't become world famous mega wealthy rock stars. Also, huge throngs of voluptuous groupies failed to emerge and demand James run away with them, even briefly, however, what did happen, is that after every performance, people would consistently come up to him and tell him how amazed they were to hear anyone do such things on a bass guitar. By the time he started playing in clubs with Purple Planet, it was unusual if after a show no one told him he was the best bassist they had ever heard, this is not boasting, James is quite humble, but swears it's true. Someone from another band said to him once "our bassist is scared of you"

In his last year at Berklee James met John Karr and formed Slugbunny with Eric Paull on drums. They recorded a lot of material, and got some of it played on the local radio, an expanded version of the band performed at Berklee including Makiko Hirabayashi on violin (now a noted jazz pianist) and several others. After graduating James joined Purple Planet who performed at every major and most minor rock clubs in Boston and eastern MA, including Bunratty's the Paradise (twice), the legendary Rat, the Channel, Necco Place, Club 3, and many many more venues. James left Purple Planet to move to Japan for half a year, nearly joining the Moors just prior to leaving, but he already had his flight booked and paid for. At Berklee, he nearly joined the Blake Babies as well, classmate Juliana Hatfield's band. James has nearly joined a number of bands who went on to some notoriety, he started to consider offering not to join bands to ensure their success, for a small fee. In Japan, James worked with a few musicians, performing in the subway (somewhat illegally), as well as in clubs, with a coterie of international musicians.

On returning from Japan, James joined world pop outfit Najarian, and shortly thereafter started working again with Bob M. from Purple Planet, on a new project, M3, with drummer Greg Mag, and through him, started working with Mason Vincent's various projects. Najarian became one of Boston's premiere acts, packing the Middle East downstairs nightclub in Cambridge on Friday and Saturday nights, one of the best gigs in town. Their CD was released to critical acclaim, their career highlights included a performance at the Hatch shell, and they received airplay on WAAF, among other stations, playing live radio concerts and at innumerable venues in the Greater Boston area. Playing a variety of instruments on the folk scene James met Colleen Sexton early in her career and offered to play bass for her, which he did on her first recording and on a number of gigs.

Najarian disbanded, eventually M3 decided to call it a day, but a few years later reformed as "supergods", trying out a number of drummers before realising no one other than Greg was crazy enough to play this kind of music. James continues to work with them playing music written by himself and Bob, as well as performing as guest bassist on ocassion with Celtic Breton band TrouzBras which features Sharynne NicMhacha, of the Moors, on voice and woodwinds. James also does the ocassional solo acoustic performance of something he refers cryptically to as "Folk music from outer space" on a variety of stringed instruments. He is much more famous than there is any evidence to suggest.