Beverly Knight
After working on a track for Beverley Knight's new album, Jamie Hartman and the soul diva are now musical best of friends, so when he found out he was going to be doing an interview during his time at FemaleFirst, Jamie knew there was only one woman for him…
Hey Beverley, I’m sitting here and taking over FemaleFirst for the day so I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this for us…
Oh it’s a pleasure!
I just have to tell you that I came to see you at the iTunes festival at the weekend and it was amazing, I was down at the Roundhouse in London, you looked like you were having an amazing time, how was it?
Oh I was having a great time, absolutely great I loved every second of it! It was such a fun, legendary place to be but for me just being on the stage with new and old material was absolutely brilliant, I was so chuffed. I loved it.
You have an amazing voice too, the sound was spot on and you never know how it’s going to be when you come to see a gig, but watching you hitting every note and being so into the music was great.
Thank you so much Jamie, that means a lot, especially coming from you
And the audience seemed to go nuts for it as well…
I know! That was something I didn’t expect but you knew there was going to be certain songs that they would go off on, but when a crowd really gets behind you on a song they hadn’t heard before, or might have only heard once or twice, that is special and it was fantastic. I couldn’t be happier.
I was going to ask you, obviously we’ve written together on your new record, so can we tell everyone what the new record is like?
Oh yes sure, me and you wrote together on one of my favourite tracks called ‘Bare’ it was just brilliant and I wrote with Amanda Ghost and Guy Chambers and some completely new and up and coming people too, just a variety people as well as the legendary Jam and Lewis who I’ve wanted to work with since I was a child so it really was a meeting of minds and coming together to make this album happen and I cant wait until it’s out there in September!
Brilliant, and what’s the actual release date?
It’s September 14th for sure!
I have to just draw a comparison because I went my separate way from EMI as did you, and maybe it’s a good idea to talk through that process and I know how rewarding it has been ultimately, but it was a very tough initial break, how do you feel about it?
Well when it came down to it and I decided to go my own way, the hardest thing was the realisation that the safety net of the record label is no longer there! But once you get over that initial shock which I did before I started to work on the next records everything seems fine.
The work load is significantly harder to deal with when you’re working as your own person because you have to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and do all the kinda boring administrative things too.
But generally I have coped alright and I’ve really just enjoyed being able to pick up the phone to people like you and say, “Lets work together” and just see it happen!
It is a great feeling to have that bit of independence and have increased flexibility and the chance to work with more people. So you said on the stage that you had some favourites to play live, but do you have one favourite from the new album, like the one you wrote with Amanda, what’s that called?
That’s called Beautiful Night and that’s wonderful because people get to know it and you can see who knows it and likes it because they sing the bits you expect them to see like the ‘woahs’ and things. In time I have dreams of having my fans coming along to the shows and as one singing the chorus to Beautiful Night, that would be amazing!
Soul Survivor is another one which is really great to sing live, it’s just fabulous and loud and hopefully one day I will be able to be joined by Chaka Khan who sang it with me and I’m really looking forward to singing Bare that we wrote together but sing it right back so that it is bare and really is naked. I cant wait!
Yes, I’ve heard Beautiful Night and Soul Survivor and they’re great songs, really good, sound’s like the album’s going to be a cracker. So, how was it working with a legend like Chaka Khan, she’s fantastic!
Oh amazing, crazy voice, crazy singer, it was wonderful.
You also got up on stage with Prince, which for me would have been a pretty high point, so how was that too ?
Oh my, that was the highlight of my whole life! But singing with Chaka Khan, who is quite something else, she such an accomplished singer in so many different styles, flowing from jazz to soul to R n B all with a rock edge. She’s so versatile and she’s someone I’ve always looked up to and aspired to be as versatile as.
Getting together with her one the record was A-MAZE-ING, it was amazing! But I couldn’t get in the studio with Prince, I’ve done things live with him but if I could get in the studio with him, oh my God…
I know, it’s one of those things that’s such a total dream! But I hear you’re playing up at the Royal Albert Hall soon, so what’s going on with your live dates?
Well, the live tour kicks off in November in Ipswich and it goes off around the country and it will cumulate in final leg of the tour in 2010, and on April 7th I play the Royal Albert Hall which I’m really excited about, I played it before on my last record and I loved it. It’s such a special venue and to go back there… oh I cant wait, it’s going to be fantastic!
Wow, that sounds very exciting, I was going to try to steal a ticket for that too! So wrapping up, do you have any advice for the females out there looking to get into the business?
Well everyone knows that you need to hone and perfect your craft, but it is so important to get on stage and sing in front of an audience because you can only really improve by getting in front of an audience. It sounds obvious but I think the point is important to push home.
The second thing is to know the industry you’re entering into, it ain’t easy. As a woman you’re so going to be accepted as a dolly bird. Know the in’s and out’s of how the industry works because you need all the knowledge you can get when they’re trying to put you into an outfit that you actually can’t bear and what makes you look stupid you can turn to some other great female and say “Actually this is a great model that I’d like to follow, this is the path and direction that I want to go in, so I want to keep it marketed on this level. If you go in there thinking, ‘ I don’t know what marketing means, you’re going to have a hard time.’
Never a truer word, thank you so much for doing this. So finally remind us then the record is out…
The album is out on September 14th and the single is out a week before that on the 7th of September.
Fantastic hun, thanks so much for this and I hope to speak to you soon, I look forward to seeing you soon and best of luck with the record.
Jamie Hartman
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After working on a track for Beverley Knight's new album, Jamie Hartman and the soul diva are now musical best of friends, so when he found out he was going to be doing an interview during his time at FemaleFirst, Jamie knew there was only one woman for him…
Hey Beverley, I’m sitting here and taking over FemaleFirst for the day so I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this for us…
Oh it’s a pleasure!
I just have to tell you that I came to see you at the iTunes festival at the weekend and it was amazing, I was down at the Roundhouse in London, you looked like you were having an amazing time, how was it?
Oh I was having a great time, absolutely great I loved every second of it! It was such a fun, legendary place to be but for me just being on the stage with new and old material was absolutely brilliant, I was so chuffed. I loved it.
You have an amazing voice too, the sound was spot on and you never know how it’s going to be when you come to see a gig, but watching you hitting every note and being so into the music was great.
Thank you so much Jamie, that means a lot, especially coming from you
And the audience seemed to go nuts for it as well…
I know! That was something I didn’t expect but you knew there was going to be certain songs that they would go off on, but when a crowd really gets behind you on a song they hadn’t heard before, or might have only heard once or twice, that is special and it was fantastic. I couldn’t be happier.
I was going to ask you, obviously we’ve written together on your new record, so can we tell everyone what the new record is like?
Oh yes sure, me and you wrote together on one of my favourite tracks called ‘Bare’ it was just brilliant and I wrote with Amanda Ghost and Guy Chambers and some completely new and up and coming people too, just a variety people as well as the legendary Jam and Lewis who I’ve wanted to work with since I was a child so it really was a meeting of minds and coming together to make this album happen and I cant wait until it’s out there in September!
Brilliant, and what’s the actual release date?
It’s September 14th for sure!
I have to just draw a comparison because I went my separate way from EMI as did you, and maybe it’s a good idea to talk through that process and I know how rewarding it has been ultimately, but it was a very tough initial break, how do you feel about it?
Well when it came down to it and I decided to go my own way, the hardest thing was the realisation that the safety net of the record label is no longer there! But once you get over that initial shock which I did before I started to work on the next records everything seems fine.
The work load is significantly harder to deal with when you’re working as your own person because you have to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and do all the kinda boring administrative things too.
But generally I have coped alright and I’ve really just enjoyed being able to pick up the phone to people like you and say, “Lets work together” and just see it happen!
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