Pop Life
Hoosier transplant, BMV employee is a musician, podcaster on the side
When legendary singer/songwriter Prince died in 2016, he left behind a literal vault’s worth of unreleased recordings that might put the entire catalogs of other mainstream artists to shame.
Enigmatic, esoteric and an unabashed perfectionist, “His Royal Badness” reportedly left enough music behind that he could have released an album every year or so for the next century.
But it was not to be.
The shocking death of Prince Rogers Nelson due to an accidental fentanyl overdose silenced forever one of the most creative and dynamic musical forces of his generation, and those who remain could only take stock of the loss and mine the musical remnants – like thieves in the temple—of another auteur gone far too soon.
James Ledesma was one of those who mourned the passing of the Purple Rain singer on that gray April day.
“Prince is hands down my favorite all-time artist, as well as my biggest influence,” said Ledesma, himself a versatile musician. “His death was a shock and I still can’t believe he is gone.”
BMV employee James Ledesma is a musician, podcaster, and writer. He currently performs for two different church bands and is working on a variety of creative projects. James Ledesma primarily plays bass, but he enjoys multiple genres of music and has experience with several other instruments. His favorite musician is the late Prince.
Let’s work
Making it in the music industry is no picnic in the (Paisley) park, as anyone who ever picked up a guitar with dreams of performing in front of sold-out crowds can attest. It’s a brutal, dog-eat-dog industry that can exact a hefty physical and mental toll on even the most talented—and driven. But that hasn’t stopped many from trying, and you’d be hard pressed to find any among them that didn’t make the effort out of a genuine affinity for sharing with the world their contribution to humanity’s one common language: music.
James, a Carmel resident who’s worked for the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles for the last three years, is one such artist, having shared his talents in multiple bands and solo pursuits from his earlier days in his native California to his current projects with two different Indiana churches. In many ways, he’s been around the musical world (though certainly not in a day), and it’s been quite a journey all along the way.
It’s one that takes a lot of heart—and perseverance.
“The best advice is ‘do it because you love it,’” Ledesma said of pursuing music as a hobby or a career. ”I have known very few successful musicians in my time, and if they didn’t love music then they wouldn’t even bother because the industry is so destructive and soul-deadening.”
James believed his musical aspirations had gone as far as they might before moving to Indiana a decade ago.
“Frankly, I didn’t ever think I’d make music or do creative things ever again when I came out to Indiana,” he said. “I was married with a child and my studio was packed up in boxes. It never crossed my mind that I could expand upon what I’d been doing in L.A.”
But since then, he’s backed up several bands with his skills on the bass and, more recently, has started to become known for his own work.
“As for myself, I have only begun to make any money off of my music or skills in production after nearly three decades of sweating it out,” he said. “The move to Indiana in 2010 marked the beginning of a new phase where I was good enough to make money here and there, without having to do things free ‘for exposure.’”
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
Like his late idol Prince, Ledesma plays multiple instruments including guitar, drums, and keyboard. Ledesma also has an archive of his own compositions he’s compiled throughout the years, and similar to his all-time favorite artist’s expansive breadth of work, James prefers to dabble in multiple musical genres. He also cites David Bowie, The Beatles, Wu-Tang Clan, and Pink Floyd (among several others) as influences.
That said, James is content with his work at BMV and isn’t necessarily planning to take on any music gigs full time.
“I don’t have any hope for a career,” he said. “I am doing this for fun.”
But the prospects for collaborating and creating are perhaps sunnier than ever for the former Los Angeles resident. Whether that’s as a bass player for another band (“It allows me to get out and play without having to spearhead anything,” he said) or continuing to find his way in solo pursuits, Ledesma is happy with the way his musical side projects are developing.
He has plenty of good stuff in the pipeline, too.
“I am working on several things always,” James said. “Right now, Chromata 4 is an electronic prog-rock duo consisting of me and a drummer friend. We have projects on Bandlab that will be finished soon. Also on Bandlab, I started a new collaboration with an old musician friend named Nick Culp, a jazz pianist based out of California. It’s called Hippie Funk, and we’ve started to trade back and forth using the Bandlab program. Then of course, I always work on The Magic Christians when I’m not working on church material or indulging in projects.”
The Magic Christians is Ledesma’s primary focus at the moment. He’s a paid performer in a Christian praise band at Faith Presbyterian Church (located on Hague Rd. in Indianapolis), and he volunteers his talents at his own place of worship, Faith Church. The latter is located on College Ave. in Indianapolis.
In spite of his musical resume, Ledesma said he remains most known for his work behind the scenes as a producer and as a podcaster.
Some of that work dates back to his childhood.
“I was actually more of an aspiring recording engineer at first,” James recalled. “In my preteens I used to play with tape recorders and make skits and fake radio stations with family and friends. As I got more into music I realized that (1) I can get paid to record music, and (2) I can learn to play and record myself in the process. By the time I was 16, I started playing guitar regularly; but it was years in the making, probably dating back as early as 10-years-old.”
Ledesma’s podcast is called MPS (Mixtape Preservation Society/Music Podcast Series) and can be found on almost all podcast platforms. A video version can be seen on this YouTube channel.
MPS focuses mostly on Ledesma’s own music these days, delving into a decades-deep back catalog.
“I have a large wealth of music that I have personally worked on, so I will probably never run out of material,” said James. “The trick is to find the time to do it.”
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
James has a 12-year-old son from his previous marriage, and he’s helping raise his fiancee’s teenage daughter while balancing his work for the state with his creative projects. So time is certainly at a premium these days for the 47-year-old. Finding that balance is helping James better enjoy every aspect of it all, though, and that can only lead to good things down the road—musically and otherwise.
“If I didn’t love being creative and working with others, I would’ve stopped playing/recording years ago,” James remarked.
Thankfully, he didn’t, and now Ledesma has reached a point where his passion projects can come to fruition in due time-- emphasis on time.
“I guess I just have a lot of energy,” James said of how he manages to keep his busy life in balance. “Yesterday (Jan. 27), I did an eight hour shift at work then rehearsed with one church group, then drove to another rehearsal after that, got home around 8 p.m., and still stayed up until almost midnight! I’ve always been like that. Once I get motivated, it is hard to stop me.”
Having a job he enjoys has proven itself to be a boon to his musical pursuits as well. The creative process behind his music, his podcast, and even his long-in-the-making novel is complemented by his work for BMV rather than being complicated by it.
“I like helping people with their transactions and gaining knowledge about the ins and outs of motor vehicle laws,” James said of his BMV career. “I like the benefits and the fact that I can leave the job at the office and not bring it home with me. I like the people I work with and they seem to like me.”
Prior to working with BMV, Ledesma worked for seven years at a major book retailer. It was a bit more labor intensive than some of his other work, and he joked that he didn’t want to stick around the store with little more to show for it than a bad back.
As is the case with his church band gigs, James’ work at the bookstore dovetailed with another of his creative projects -- a novel he’s been writing off and on for the last two decades. Like some of his music, it’s anything but conventional.
“During the quarantine last year I decided to start transcribing [the novel] to an online format,” said Ledesma. “It is about two-thirds of the way finished. I don’t know if I will pursue publication, seeing as it may very well have a life as a digital book when all is said and done.”
James describes the book as “a post-post-post-modern bildungsroman with intertextual hyperlinks that serve as footnotes.” It’s told from the point of view of a fictional character named Fabian Rourke that utilizes first and third-person perspectives.
But music is James’ first creative love, and now that he feels free to commit the time to his craft, he’s finding new opportunities to share it with the world.
Those kind of cars don’t pass you every day.
“The lesson there is that sometimes the more you chase after something, the more elusive it gets,” James said. “The minute you stop chasing, it comes to you.”