Contrary to what the name suggests, The James Clark Institute is only one person. Singer/songwriter
James Clark, while confronting the ghosts from his past, puts them to song and twists and turns them into witty pop tunes. His strong songwriting sensibilties have been compared to Neil Finn; Elvis Costello; and Warren Zevon.

It was as a young boy in suburban Toronto, listening to his brother’s Beatles and Monkees records, that the idea of playing music struck him. That desire was solidified when his father arrived home from his job at a toy manufacturing plant with a makeshift drum kit he had built out of industrial drums covered in a psychedelic plush wrap. When James wasn’t banging on those drums, he could often be found scribbling down the little songs that he was writing in his head. But it wasn’t until the death of his father years later that he began to take his songwriting seriously. He taught himself guitar and became much more introspective lyrically.

While spending six years as the drummer for Toronto’s western Surf band The Sin-Tones, James was also busy writing songs of his own, some of which would eventually end up on 2004’s ‘Home is Where the Heart Attack is’. In 2005 that record received airplay on campus radio across Canada and charted in Ontario. Tracks from the CD also received considerable airplay and widespread recognition on internet radio stations around the world. The song ‘The Worst Photograph Ever Taken Of Me’ hit #5 on MP3unsigned.com operating out of the U.K. and the CD reached #3 on the Pop Album charts of MP3.com.au based in Australia.