Listen weekday afternoons from noon to 6 for your chance to call in and win a spot for you and a guest to see Jamie N Commons live at 1063 Studios Saturday, February 9th!
BIO: Jamie’s life history matches that of a vagabond’s, even though much of his traveling wasn’t by choice. Born in Bristol in the late ’80s and following that with a stint in Chicago, he returned to England set on a music career. He studied at Goldsmiths in London, notorious for its host of luminary alumni, but notably an influx of hot new talent during his years studying there, including James Blake, Katy B and Noah And The Whale to name but a few. When it was his turn to emerge with 2011 EP ‘The Baron'(followed by 2013’s ‘Rumble And Sway’ EP), he did so against the backdrop of a fire-and-brimstone style universe. He wore wide-brimmed hats and sang with a whiskey-laced growl about death and taxes, in thrall to his heroes Tom Waits, Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. With an encyclopedic knowledge of music, Jamie seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, seeking to justify where he fit in that canon of established greats. “There’s a certain amount of intensity required to rock,” he says, smiling and chill. “It’s not entirely me. I’m more of a happy go lucky character.” He felt compelled to take it perhaps too seriously, aching to sit alongside his sonic ancestors. “When you’re trying with lyrics and sound to keep pace with Dylan, Waits, etc. and you’re just starting out, it’s impossible.” Unsurprisingly, it stopped being fun. When it came to sitting down again to work on his own material without this prior mask on, it took a while for him to find a reason to be standing beneath his own name again. He thought about protest music but eventually he drew from a different side of his musical heritage: shameless, romantic, ’80s blue-eyed pop. Think Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, Steve Winwood, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, etc. “Music is supposed to be fun,” he offers. “That’s what I want to achieve: fun, joy, levity, a lightness.” His latest material is a far cry from the Jamie of yore. It’s almost an answer to the thick, heavy swamp laments. “It doesn’t mean it’s not about heavy things, but it’s about moving forward, rather than singing about murder and death.” These songs that started as a personal revitalization project soon started to get a positive response from the label and friends.
Jamie’s workmanlike approach has been fed further by the work he’s doing for others. Among his successes, he co-wrote the hit ‘Jungle’ for X Ambassadors with Alex Da Kid and Sam Harris, and toured with the band. That song was synced on “Orange Is The New Black” and “Pitch Perfect 2,”and it was remixed with a verse from Jay Z. He also had a Beats by Dre ad, and was featured on Eminem’s ‘MMLP2’ album. He won Music Week’s Sync Artist of the year in 2016. This year he has a song with Kygo coming out. These experiences opened his ears to a spectrum of genres, making him more interested in the path pop music is taking. The downside was that these career wins gave him permission to go deeper into himself and become more of a workaholic, escaping through the jobs he’s inundated with, hiding from his own perceived ‘self-indulgent’ writing. It took him out of the live space too where he’d previously opened for everyone from Bruce Springsteen and BB King to Catfish And The Bottlemen. Recently he’s been getting into the mindset of touring again, but it’s been a minute and he needs to gear himself up.
The songs –“Paper Dreams,” “Closer,” “Won’t Let Go”(hilariously written after watching that scene in ‘Titanic’) and “Heartbreak”–are ’80s redolent with lots of space and a rhythm-led structure. They position him close to the likes of Francis & The Lights and Jack Antonoff style production and match his drive. “A mad ambition brought me to LA,” he says. “Not knowing what else to do with myself I put so much of my self-worth into music. The songs are meditations on trying to find a deeper connection with someone, trying to find out who you are and become a mature adult.”