This piece was originally published at THUMP in March 2016.
Seated at a veritable command station of computer screens, James Hinton gestures to a nearby wall where four white erase boards are hung, each canvas sparsely annotated with notes and assignments. On one of them, he's scribbled a mathematical equation that he's trying to solve in his spare time, something along the lines of 1+2+3+... = -1/12. "How is it not infinity?" he wonders aloud.
Best known for his work as The Range, Hinton appears curious to the point of distraction. He multitasks subtly as a photographer maneuvers around his modest studio apartment, taking pains to find the best angle. On one monitor, he's tinkering with a mix that has to be finished and submitted soon for promotional purposes. Another displays an amateur YouTube video of a young female singer. His latest album, Potential, draws significantly from the video-sharing site by sampling and repurposing vocals by online performers with monikers like OphQi, Naturaliss, and Kai.