Today we’d like to introduce you to Karli & James
Hi Karli & James, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Born from a serendipitous meeting in a Nashville coffee shop, their musical journey is as unique as their sound.
Hailing from Bolivar, Missouri, Karli Chayne’s rich, emotive soprano voice and passion for songwriting took root from her early days performing in her parents’ Truman Lake Opry show. A lover of 90’s and 2000’s Country music, Karli moved to Nashville at just 15 to kickstart her music career. Partnered with James Sinclair-Stott, a UK-based musician with an indie rock influence and knack for creating radio-ready hits, the duo creates a sound that they like to call leather and lace country – a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll – Straight-laced roots with a bit of edgy truth.
The duo, originally known as Cross Atlantic due to James’s British roots, have already gained recognition from Billboard, CMT, and MusicRow. Their early singles found success on streaming sites, earning spots on playlists like Spotify’s New Music Nashville and Apple Music’s Country Wide. Their debut single “Mercy” launched them to the top of the CMT Music 12-Pack Countdown and secured them an opening slot on Brandy Clark’s UK and US tours.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has been bumpy, that’s for sure! Starting off with the whole Atlantic ocean in-between us was a huge challenge to begin with. James was back and forth from the UK to Nashville during the two year period of us working to get his Visa. Without a specific 0-1 Visa for James, we were not allowed to play shows or promote ourselves as a duo at all, so during the first two and a half years it was full of working part time jobs and playing four hour solo gigs for the both of us, while trying to make a name for ourselves as a duo and writers in Nashville when we could. Once James was able to officially move here as a resident with a music visa, we were able to start playing shows in 2017 and we took off with amazing opening slots for acts all over the country and the UK. We had some struggles and lessons with management as most artists do after that, and then we got married! It was all happy days for a couple years and finally enjoying the grind together and getting somewhere when Covid hit in March 2020, the day we were doing a big photoshoot… and we all know what happened then.
We did our best to stay relevant with our current fans during that time with online shows and zooms, but discovered we weren’t made for the social media/Tik Tok world of constantly talking to a camera, so ever since things turned around, we’ve been trying to find our feeting again and take on the creation of content the best way we know how as we continue to write, produce, and play shows in Nashville and around the country! We aren’t ones for giving up even when the road is bumpy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Karli is a songwriter full time writing for a company who specializes in custom songs for occasions, while James is a full time producer in our home studio, producing full tracks for artists/songwriters all over the world. So, lucky for us now, we both get to be creative full time after many years of taking any part time job we could get.
Karli is more of the writer and gets in the Nashville rooms to collaborate while James brings the full sound and song together as a producer. Music & Lyrics. Can’t have a song without both, which is what makes us a great team.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
The definition of success changes for us. When little, we would have said ‘sold out arena tours around the world with 20 number one hits’ because we are the big dreamers and would still give anything to have that.
But once we started making music together, and the business changed drastically since the time we became a duo 7 years ago… we would say success is creating a life doing what you love with the person you adore – and we get to do that each day. Success is enjoying life so you can be inspired to create. It’s keeping goals and working towards them so you know which direction you want to take. Success is feeling secure and being happy with the art you’re making, which isn’t always easy, but with each other, it’s fun.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.karliandjames.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karliandjames/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karliandjamescountry
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarliAndJames
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@karliandjames?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
