Kuya James

Multi-faceted and iconically recognised artist and music producer Kuya James (aka James Mangohig) grew up in the tropical and multicultural city of Darwin; the capital of the Northern Territory on Larrakia land. 

The first born son to a Filipino migrant father and an Australian born Dutch mother, James would earn his stage name early in life simply by being the eldest. “Kuya” in the national Filipino tongue means “older brother”. A term of endearment and respect that he would gain not only from his biological family, but from the families he has made within communities spanning music, dance, culture and theatre; locally in Darwin, nationally and internationally. 

Starting out as a bass player in church, he went on to play 100s of gigs with bands of many different genres, leading him to joining a Hip Hop collective in the late 90s and realising that he wanted to do more with the music than just bass lines; he wanted to produce. Kuya James is both an ARIA nominated producer and artist and has produced for many recording artists including Tasman Keith, Caiti Baker, A.B Original and Daniel Johns amongst others.

In 2016 he started CLUB AWI as part of the Darwin Festival and it continues to be the festival's late night party spot attracting some of the finest selectors from across the nation.

Kuya James co-created IN BETWEEN TWO with Chinese/Australian rapper, producer and songwriter JOEL MA aka JOELISTICS working with Dramaturg William Yang. Produced by Contemporary Asian Arts Performance, this critically acclaimed show which explored what it means to grow up Asian in Australia through an autobiographical 'slide night like no other’, was a hit of the 2016 Sydney Festival, toured nationally from 2016 - 2019, and was nominated for a Drovers Award.

With a twenty year career behind him, in the past five years, James have been committed to projects and new performance work which centre around Asian/Australian stories and are collaborations with Asian/Australian artists. This has been hugely important to him and has included a strong emphasis on partnering with and advocating for Filipino artists.

Kuya James started 2023 co-producing acclaimed singer-songwriter Emily Wurramara’s new record and has also released 2 of his own projects throughout the year - SALIN SALIN (meaning leftovers) and JEEPNEY ROCK (a homage to Asian psychedelic rock music). Amongst other projects, Kuya James has Musical Directed and DJ’d for the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair’s Country to Couture Runway shows in 2022 and 2023. In the same week, he Musical Directed and played bass for the entertainment at the 2023 NATSIAs.  

In May 20223 he premiered his brand new theatre show - HYMNS FOR THE WITCHING HOUR at Brownsmart. The show garnered amazing reviews from locals and many punters returned to watch the production for a second, sometimes third time.

“…at this point, Kuya James is basically a musical dodecahedron with the number of sides we've seen from him and the artists he's so expertly collaborated with.” Triple J’s Abby Butler sums it up perfectly.