Santa Cruz rock singer James Durbin gained international recognition when he became a contestant on season 10 of American Idol. He ended coming in fourth place that year. Since then, Durbin’s become a local idol, performing in various bands and as a solo artist around the central coast. Now he’s got a new single out called “Capitola on My Mind,” about his personal memories in the Santa Cruz beach city over the years. Durbin dropped by the KAZU studio recently to play some tunes and talk about his American Idol experience. He began by talking about the personal memories that inspired his new single "Capitola on My Mind":
"My family has a memorial bench [in Capitola Village] with my dad’s name on it, and my grandma and grandpa…I sat there and just had this feeling of wanting to write something about Capitola and I wrote in my phone: “on this beach I wander while I’ve got no sense of time with my feet in Capitola, cold Corona twist of lime."
Listen to a live performance of "Capitola on My Mind" above.
Click the audio player at the top of this story to listen to the interview or read the highlights below.
On his experience as a contestant on "American Idol:"
Dylan Music: I wanted to go all the way back to 2011. You auditioned for season 10 of American Idol. In your original audition, you sing “Dream On” by Aerosmith in front of Steven Tyler from Aerosmith who was a judge on Idol at the time. That must have taken a lot of guts and nerve.
James Durbin: Yeah, the whole reason that I went and auditioned for Idol that season was because of Steven Tyler being there and so I was like ‘oh well, he’ll probably love me or he’ll despise me,' but either way, it was super nerve-wracking.
DM: You ended up placing fourth on season 10 of American Idol. so that whole experience must have been such a whirlwind
JD: You know it was crazy. I mean, back then we were going to movie premieres…I got to shake Muhammud Ali’s hand. I sang with Judas Priest on the season finale. So many celebrities suddenly wanted to put their number in my phone and never responded when I texted them, stuff like that. The big thing I’ve learned from all of that kind of stuff is like it’s not built to last. Enjoy it in the moment, learn what you can from it and then try to apply that to the roller coaster of life being a working musician after the fact.
Listen above to Durbin's single "Hold Me" performed live in KAZU's studio B.
Singer and songwriter, and local idol James Durbin's new single ‘Capitola on My Mind" is out now, available where you get your music. Durbin will be performing on November 14th at El Vaquero Winery in Corralitos with the songwriting group The Coastal Highwaymen…and he’ll be doing his annual new year’s show at The Back Nine in Santa Cruz later this year…tickets for that event go on sale November 1st.