User:ANZOITE/Jamie X

Jamie X is a singer-songwriter-guitarist from Melbourne, Australia, who is also known for his work as a producer. His full name is Jamie Xenophontos

He spent years touring up and down the east coast of Australia, and built a reputation for the live energy of his jam out shows, but also regularly featuring musicians from the biggest bands around Australia, including Ollie McGill (keyboardist from Cat Empire), John Watson (drummer from Aussie Crawl and Kasey Chambers), Jonathon Zion (Bassist from Pete Murray), Nicky Bomba (drummer from John Butler Trio), James Mack (Percussionist who has played for Desree, Incognito, Kylie Minogue and Westlife), and many others.

These players (and more) also featured on the different Jamie X albums, most notably the acclaimed “The Trouble”.

Jamie was born at home, in the inner city suburb of Richmond. His Mother, a native Australian, was a homebirth midwife by trade, and his father a Greek Cypriot Migrant, was a Builder and Musician.

Jamie started playing guitar at 8, (after watching the movie “The Blues Brothers”) and then piano at 10.

Jamie was an elite junior athlete but at 16, due to already having chronic knee and back injuries gave up sport and started playing in a band with his best friends. They then started doing gigs at pubs and house parties around Melbourne.

After years of developing his skills by doing shows around Melboure and Sydney, in 2003 Jaime went into the studio with well known Australian engineer James “Oysters” Kilpatrick, and recorded the EP “It Wasn’t The First Time”. This disc featured the lendardy John Watson on drums and Adam Ventoura on bass, and the sound was roots-reggae. Martin Jones Chief Editor of Melbourne magazine Inpress review of it said the following:

"Though this is a tried and true reggae pop song formula, Jamie X infuses it with enough class and genuine personality to deliver a beguiling package. Unhurried reggae rhythm and sparse acoustic instrumentation deliver a warm tune topped by Jamie X's smooth breathy vocals and some sharp harmonies."

It Wasn’t The First Time was one of the top songs in that years Triple J unearthed in Melbourne, it was featured it with only a handful of other unearthed songs on the Triple J website.

In 2004 Jamie then produced and recorded the acclaimed album “The Trouble”. This album featured John Watson and Jason Heera on drums, Ollie McGill on keyboards, James Mack and Javier Fredes on Percussion, Jonathon Zion and Chris Bekker on bass. It was engineered and mixed by Oysters, Jason Torrens, Nicky Bomba and Jamie X. And it was then mastered by the Australia’s premier Mastering Engineer Don Bartley, then still at Studios 301 in Sydney.

Over the next two years, Jamie X relentlessly toured up and down the east coast of Australia, including acclaimed performances to packed audiences at The Basement in Sydney, The Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne, The Beach Hotel in Byron Bay, The Troubadour in Brisbane, and many others. They also played festivals around Australia including appearances at Woodford folk festival and Port Fairy folk festival.

The live Jamie X shows were devastating for their high energy funk and reggae grooves, unbelievable percussionists (Javier Fredes, Elvis Aljus and James Mack, the three premier players in Australia) and Jamie’s virtuoso and unique guitar skills, which incorporated Reggae and Funk into Blues, Spanish, Middle eastern and Celtic.

Wowing audiences from the country coasts of Victoria, to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, he and the band became known for their three-hour long shows that featured jam out songs of up to forty-five minutes, which whirled crowds into a frenzy.

Word of mouth spread, as did the rave reviews up and down the East Coast in all Street Press such as: Drum Media, Beat, Inpress, 3D, Rave, Time Off, Forte, plus many others.

The Trouble was played, on numerous radio stations, such as Triple J, Triple R, PBS, FBI, Triple Z, and ABC stations in both Sydney and Melbourne. This included many interviews and live performances on these and others stations. Jamie then signed a deal with distributor MGM.

In 2006 due to legal reasons, and after selling thousands of copies, The Trouble was taken off the market, and made unavailable.

From 2005 Jamie has been producing his eagerly anticipated follow up album, which is an ode to his former love, titled Hope I see you smile again.

This project has used stella musicians, producers, engineers and mastering from across the world, including his long time band members, Ollie Mcgill, John Waston, Jonathan Zion, Javier Fredes.

More recently in LA Jamie has been recording with Adam Topol drummer from Jack Johnson. Legendary Ben Harper bass player. Jaun Nelson. Also producer/ mixer Eric Sarasin (Ben Harper, Michael Franti, The Pharcyde), Engineer/Mixer James Oysters Kilpatrick (Ray Charles, Midnight Oil), world renowned Masterer Bob Ludwig. (U2, Cold Play, Jewel, Bob Marley, Masterer Dave Collins (Jack Johnson, Sound Garden) And Australian Masterer Don Bartley (INXS, Powderfinger, Silverchair)

After 5 years this album is reportedly in its last stages and is due for world wide release in September/October 2010.