James Downham was born in 1976 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At the age of 6 he moved to Pembroke, Ontario. James met longtime friend and co-writer Mark Smith in school and the two started writing music together in the seventh grade. What started out as a hobby, quickly became a passion.

When the two lived together attending the University of Waterloo, songwriting became an everyday thing and they were quite prolific. At first the two wrote for themselves and for fun, but increasingly yearned for an outlet for their songs. In the summer of 1996 they formed the university band Reson, with Steve Wells (lead guitar), Rob Simmons (bass), and Steve "Sludge" Banks (drums). The band quickly took their place atop the campus music scene, winning the Bombshelter Pub's Battle of the Bands in the fall. Reson released it's debut CD, Messing with the Muses, in January 1997. Messing contained 8 songs penned by James and Mark, as well as three tracks written by the band as a whole. The CD was released in retail outlets accross Ontario, including HMV, Sam the Record Man, and Doctor Disc. The track "Hot Dog" was included in the CBC/Nickelodeon show, Caitlin's Way, Episode #25 Icicle. Reson broke up officially in 1998 as members moved on after their university careers, but most of the members regrouped for 1999's EP recording, Scream.

James stopped performing for a number of years, but was not far removed from the music world. Mark Smith's solo debut strangExit (under the name Mark Carbon) was released in 2000 and included 5 tracks co-written by James, as well as a soaring backing vocal performance on "Storming." James was a constant fixture at Carbon shows, often joining the band on stage for a number or two. Subsequent releases by the band featured two more songs penned with James, including "Tourist" and "Telephone."

In about 2003, James and Mark formed another group, Digital Stim, with Kitchener drummer, Troy Little. While the band never took off, James and Mark continued to write material that eventually formed Mark's 2007 album, Digital Stim.

2005 saw James' music career take a decidedly new and interesting direction when he joined the Tim McGraw tribute act, McGraw Live, as the lead singer and Tim McGraw impersonator. While membership in the band changed up with some regularity, the main players were Mark Smith (keyboards and guitar), Glenn Affeldt (lead guitar), Emmanuel Brown (bass), and former Carbon drummer Chris "Mac" McDonald (drums). The group performed accross Ontario over the next four years, with James occasionally filling in on vocals in another Tim McGraw tribute.

2009 has proven to be an active year for James, working on a couple of interesting projects. In September 2009 James teamed up with Toronto songwriter, Aaron Hughes to record "Highway of Heroes" a moving tribute to the Canadian soldiers who have perished in the war in Afghanistan. The song refers to the stretch of Ontario's Highway 401 between the Canadian Forces base in Trenton and the Coronor's office in Toronto, along which the funeral procession travels. The stretch of road was renamed the Highway of Heroes in 2007 after people started to gather along the route and its overpasses to honour the fallen soldiers as they passed. The song has been featured on CBC, CTV, Rogers TV, 570 News' Jeff Allan show, and has been getting airplay on KIX 106 in Kitchener, ON.

In November 2009 James will be back in the studio recording once again with Mark Smith for the soundtrack of the musical, Century Street, based on a story concept and characters conceived by James and Mark (originally entitled Friends and Lovers) and further developed and written by Mark. James will sing the parts of Anthony.

James is currently writing and working on his first solo country album, due out in late 2010.