James Ellis Ford: The musical ups and downs of my life

James Ellis Ford shares the pivotal moments that have made him the artist he is today.

Talking to Nemone, who combines her roles of DJ and qualified psychotherapist, James dives deep to share his story and the songs that have moved him and soundtracked the ups and downs of her life. In particular the making of his recent solo album Lost In Another World, which he made in hospital whilst receiving cancer treatment.

We first heard his musical outings as the co-founder of psych rock band Simian, which means he’s responsible for We Are Your Friends vs Justice. He then brought his own musical sensibilities even more to the fore with the imperious Simian Mobile Disco with songs like Hustler, Cruel Intentions and Audacity of Huge, through his just over a decade of releasing music with Jas Shaw.

He also produced some of the biggest records in the last 20 years, like Arctic Monkey’s ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’, Depeche Mode’s ‘Memento Mori’, Foals ‘Total Life Forever’, worked with Damon Albarn on Gorillaz sixth album ‘The Mountain’ and Blur’s ninth ‘The Ballad of Darren’.

He released his first solo album ‘The Hum’ on Warp in 2023 but couldn’t have envisaged how different a set of circumstances he’d be making the follow up in. In 2024 he was diagnosed and treated for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells involving nine months of treatment with only a 30% survival rate, during which he recorded and made his second solo album ‘Lost In Another World’, a process he reflects on in detail now he’s out the other side.

In this series Nemone also talks in depth to musicians Mark Oliver Evertt from Eels, Julia Jacklin and Aja Monet.

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