James Urie. The young prospect who was quickly compared to his older brother Matt Urie from multi-platinum selling rock band Suburban Sunrise made his in entrance into the music industry being the leading man for rock bands The Walls and a few other local bands that never really got off their feet, The Walls also being one of the bands that couldn't get of their feet.. Fighting the "shadow" of his older and more successful brother, James's big break came in late 2010 when he eventually signed a deal with Junction Records that would finally give him the chance to what he does best, rock out.

The young rocker proved to us that he could be just as successful as his brother when he released single 'Dig Me A Hole', an unapologetic and controversial tune that explained how bad the world is coming to be. With the terrible economy, crime rates, death, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and more, James Urie encourages himself to dig a hole for himself, and be woken up when all the pain and suffering comes to an end. The song didn't suffer when it shot up to #1 and gave Urie his first number 1 single as a soloist and his first #1 ever. Hunger and determination was the main factor in him pushing forward, which gave his debut album Climbing a nice anticipation.

Things were looking upward for Urie, but not for his label Junction which was losing money and eventually began closing down, promo for the album was kept to a minimum and this began to sabotage the release of the album since the label was closing down before the actual release date of the album. In a shock move, Urie was bought of his contract and moved over to rising Rock label Nomad Records and released the album, still under Junction. Nomad records couldn't do much to save the sales of the album since the album was still under Junction and wouldn't want to face big time legal issues over the sales, and funding of the album.

The album debuted at a disappointing position at #14 on the chart heat album chart(under genocidalking) and sold only 200,000 copies within the next three months. The album re-charted in 2011 at yet another disappointing position at #22 selling only 30,000 copies. Although this wasnt exactly his fault since James possesses great talent and drive, James Urie, as well as figures over at Nomad Records decided to cancel plans for the album and start fresh. Junction, disappointing album sales, and the album itself is way behind Urie. Cheers to new dawns, especially in an era where rock is doing quite well with Jason Smith, Infinite, Lily, Misery Loves Company and Reported Failure among others leading the way.

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As the "dust" settled from the disappointing sales for Urie, he most recently took a break from music for most of 2011 (to record maybe?) And re-emerged and began touring with Reported Failure some of the popular tunes from his debut and a lot of people have been wondering exactly where has James Urie been. Well, this is the answer. Urie is back, and certainly not dead.


'I'm Not Dead' is the leading single off of a yet to be titled new body of material James has yet to confirm, and the first release off of Nomad Records that gives Urie a new sound. The sound isn't exactly too far off from the Progressive Rock that we saw in his first single, but leaning more toward the greatness in the more indie driven Urie that we may just fall in love with. And after hearing this single, may have a listener thinking, why didnt we get more of Urie in 2011?

The song starts off with a light, long and spanned out strum that gives a slightly dramatic beginning that is continued on with James's emotional vocals as he starts the song off with words like "The night I woke up cold, and starting looking ...looking for you baby" a listner may just think this is any emotionally filled rock, love song but things turn when the beat picks up and breaks into a strong, full on range of guitars and drums as Urie sings " I haven't found you, instead I'm looking at myself laying on the ground, dead and down" which finally gives us the synopsis of the song. A ghost of a male, or spirit if you will, who's looking at himself dead.

The song continues on with these strong guitar, drums and organ instruments as James sings about not being able to come to terms with his own death hence continually singing "I'm Not Dead" as the song keeps going in and out of either the, slow and beautiful drums, or the full on monstrous repertoire of the electric guitar and haunting drums.


If you thought the song was great, a real treat comes to you as James blasts out with his own electric guitar solo which goes on for quite a while as us listeners completely drown into the song, listening to the deep words and perfect placement of the instruments which could be credited to the producer of the song, Vin Peters.

The song continues with the great instruments played by James and his backing band and features uncredited vocals by up and coming wonderful talent Amanda Rose Murphy who's incredible vocals play as the angel in the song James is hearing as she belts out notes in the track that goes on for about 5:00 with a nice dramatic ending, having James And Murphy finish the song off with a long note. What happens next?

The song will be released this Sunday to radio and on Digital outlets and one may like the title for James himself, him letting everyone know, he's NOT dead. He's actually back, and better then ever. What do you think?