James Russell Mercer (born December 26, 1970 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American guitarist and indie rock musician. He attended high school in both England and Germany; in an interview in The Guardian he stated that he lived in England from 1985-1990, and that the family moved there because his father was in the Air Force .
In the early 90s, Mercer belonged to a group called Blue Roof Dinner; then in 1992 he became a founding member of Flake Musi...
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James Russell Mercer (born December 26, 1970 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American guitarist and indie rock musician. He attended high school in both England and Germany; in an interview in The Guardian he stated that he lived in England from 1985-1990, and that the family moved there because his father was in the Air Force .
In the early 90s, Mercer belonged to a group called Blue Roof Dinner; then in 1992 he became a founding member of Flake Music. In 1997 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mercer began The Shins as a side-project. In 1999, Flake (by then called Flake Music) disbanded and Mercer and the other band members focused completely on The Shins, of which he is still the lead singer/songwriter. In 2002, the band relocated to Portland, Oregon, the given location stated on the band's official MySpace page . Mercer named his band The Shins after the family in the musical The Music Man, a favorite of Mercer's father. Mercer is married to writer Marisa Kula of Hawaii. They had their first...
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