James Shaw is the lead guitarist of the popular Canadian indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band Metric

Metric (band)

Metric is a Canadian indie rock and New Wave band founded in 1998 in Toronto. The band has also at various times been based in Montreal, London, New York City and Los Angeles...

, and also a member of Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...

. He was born in London, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and raised in Bellevue, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

.

He met Metric bandmate Emily Haines

Emily Haines

Emily Haines is a Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter. She is the lead singer and keyboardist of the band Metric and a member of Broken Social Scene. As a solo artist, she performed with her own name and under the alias Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton...

 in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, and the two began dating and making music immediately. His early efforts to make sure that former high school friends Haines and Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew

Kevin Drew

Kevin Drew is a Canadian musician and songwriter who, together with Brendan Canning, founded the expansive Toronto baroque-pop collective Broken Social Scene...

 helped the evolution of that band resulted in Drew referring to Shaw as "his husband."

Shaw produced the debut album of the Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 band The Lovely Feathers

The Lovely Feathers

The Lovely Feathers are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2004 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band toured with Metric in late 2005. Their first release was an independent release titled My Best Friend Daniel. Their second album , Hind Hind Legs, was released on April 18, 2006 by Equator...

 (who toured with Metric in 2005)

He is also a partial owner of Giant Studios in Toronto with Sebastien Grainger

Sebastien Grainger

Sebastien Alexandre Grainger from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada is a Canadian singer and musician, best known as drummer and singer of the dance-punk duo Death from Above 1979 and the singer and guitarist for his current band, Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains...

, member of Death From Above 1979

Death from Above 1979

Death from Above 1979 are a Toronto-based Canadian dance-punk/noise rock duo. Their album, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, was released in late 2004. The band broke up in 2006, but announced a reunion in 2011.-History:...

.