Bens Brother
Jamie Hartman aka Ben’s Brother, follows a packed few months with the release of epic new single ‘What If I?’ on April 25th and EP ‘Glow’ follows on May 3rd. Having worked with Island Records for last year’s collaboration with Anastacia, this new single and EP will once again be released on Jamie’s own Flat Cap Records.
The build up to release follows one of the most hectic periods in Jamie’s life, encompassing work with a broad array of exciting musical talent, and some that took him into new and previously uncharted territory. You might not have known it, but Jamie’s songs are everywhere!
The fruits of this intensive creative period emphasize the sheer depth of Jamie’s songwriting talent. His co-write with US singer Rosi Golan, titled ‘Think Of Me’, is a feature on the soundtrack to US box office smash movie ‘Dear John’ and looks set to spur a run of exclusive film work; perhaps most excitingly, a Columbia Pictures film score is already on the cards. Meanwhile his songs continue to inspire some of the most exciting new talent here in the UK ; look out for forthcoming single ‘Haunted’ as performed by singer-songwriter Ben Montague, already Record Of The Week on Radio 2.
More established performers haven’t been slow to recognize his continuing ability to deliver either; Lee Ryan has chosen ‘I Am Who I Am’ as the song to re-launch his solo career, whilst ‘Scars’, considered by many critics to be the choice pick of Natalie Imbruglia’s album, will get the single treatment later this spring. As if that weren’t enough, Jamie even had time to write and produce two songs for newly crowned French ‘artist of the year’ Christophe Willem.
“It’s been a wonderful few months” said Jamie “I never stop songwriting but even by my standards the last few months have been pretty prolific. I’ve always loved writing for other artists, and what writer doesn’t dream of moving into movies? But it’s nice to get back to taking control of my own stuff once more, and ‘What if I?’ is one of my personal favourites from the Battling Giants album. I remember writing it sitting down with Steve Robson, writer of Take That’s ‘Shine’; he and I drank tea, ate Kit Kats and wrote about my life falling apart. But we had a laugh doing it.”
Why then, with all of this activity, look to release the next single/EP himself? “Majors are great at what they do, but as an artist you can’t beat the creative freedom of releasing your own material, when and how you want to. We only licensed the last one to Island because we always knew the plan was to retain a level of control. So here we are!”
And what a way to come back, ‘What If I?’ is the monstrously broad sounding critics choice from album ‘Battling Giants’, from an artist described by The Times as ‘undeniably catchy, unusually soulful.’
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