James William Lindberg (born July 26, 1965) is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the 1980s, when he played in local bands in his early career, he is best known as the songwriter and lead singer of the punk rock band Pennywise, which he fronted from 1988 to 2009, and has again since 2012. He also founded The Black Pacific, who released a debut album in 2010.
Lindberg became Pennywise's main lyricist after the death of bassist Jason Thirsk, who was responsible for encouraging the band's message of positive mental attitude and self-reliance. A UCLA English major graduate, Lindberg often cited American transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau as major influences on his lyrics. With titles such as "My Own Way", "It's Up to You", "Date With Destiny", and "My Own Country", Lindberg's lyrics often reflected the transcendentalist credo to live life by one's own rules and not adhere to the materialistic constraints of society or authority.
Biography
Pennywise
After years playing in local bands, Lindberg joined Pennywise in 1988 with Fletcher Dragge on guitar, Jason Thirsk on bass and Byron McMackin on drums. Some of the members were previously alums from two South Bay High Schools, Redondo Union High School and Mira Costa (where Lindberg graduated in 1983). In 1989, the band released two EPs, A Word from the Wise and Wildcard, that attracted the attention of Epitaph Records, who signed the band a year later. Lindberg left the band briefly after the release of their first album, Pennywise, citing the escalating violence of the L.A. punk scene and was married. Randy Bradbury filled in on bass while Thirsk moved over to vocals. Lindberg returned however to record their sophomore release, Unknown Road, after the band's music was featured in a number of surfing and skateboarding videos attracting a less violent following. After they released their third studio release, About Time, Thirsk left the band in late 1995, and was again replaced by Bradbury. They had moderate chart success, with the latter album reaching the Billboard top 100. It was hoped that Thirsk would return on bass, with Bradbury switching to rhythm guitar; unfortunately, Thirsk died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 29 of that year at the age of 28. Although Pennywise considered disbanding after Thirsk's death, the band decided to continue on with Bradbury as his permanent replacement. Since then, Pennywise continued to record and perform, releasing six more studio albums and a live recording.
Along with contemporaries and fellow Epitaph Records labelmates Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid and The Offspring, Pennywise were one of the five main stage headliners that helped establish The Vans Warped tour as one of America's longest running traveling music festivals.
In August 2009, Lindberg announced that he was leaving Pennywise. He released the following statement:
It was later revealed that Lindberg left Pennywise due to creative differences and the fact that he didn't want to tour as much as his bandmates aspired to.
In October 2012 Pennywise announced that Lindberg would return to the band after his replacement Zoltán Téglás was sidelined by back problems.
The Black Pacific
In June 2010 Lindberg unveiled his new band The Black Pacific. The group signed to SideOneDummy Records and debuted two tracks, "The System" and "When It's Over". Black Pacific features Alan Vega (from Good Guys in Black) on drums and Davey Latter (from Everest) on bass, with Jim writing all of the songs, playing guitar, and singing. Produced by Far guitarist Shaun Lopez, Black Pacific's debut album features a variety of musical styles. Black Pacific played their debut show at Epicenter 2010 in Fontana, California. Their self-titled debut was released on September 14, 2010.
The Black Pacific toured in support of the album performing with Sum 41, The Riverboat Gamblers and Veara on the Eastpak Antidote tour in October 2010, and playing Groezrock festival, Pukkelpop and various other European festivals in 2011, in addition to select dates on the Vans Warped tour and opening for Rise Against and Flogging Molly for a fall tour of Canada.
Songs from the Elkhorn Trail
Lindberg released a solo acoustic album Songs from the Elkhorn Trail in November of 2021. Produced by Ted Hutt, the album includes introspective songs about friends and relationships and features Lindberg on guitar and vocals, along with Marc Orrell, Joe Gittleman, David Hidalgo Jr, Connor Vance, and Glen Marhevka on accompanying instruments.