James Dewees

Dewees graduated from Liberty High School in Liberty, Missouri in 1994. He started college at William Jewell College in Liberty later transferring to the University of Missouri to study music composition. In 1995, he was asked to replace Sean Ingram as vocalist for the Kansas City hardcore band Coalesce. This angered Ingram, and caused a fight that eventually broke the band up. However, in the summer of 1996, the band decided to re-form, but this time with James Dewees as a drummer. With them, he recorded the band's first two full-length albums Give Them Rope and Functioning on Impatience. Dewees was later kicked out of college for missing too many classes while touring with the band.
In 1997, Coalesce played a music festival in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania with fellow Kansas-Citians The Get Up Kids. At the end of Coalesce's set, they began smashing all of their equipment, and James pick…