Jamie Hartman (McClure 1984-89)

Multi-award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Jamie Hartman has been turning out hits since his band, Ben’s Brother’s first album ‘Beta Male Fairytales’ in 2007. He writes for a roster of international stars garnering two Ivor Novello Awards, countless nominations and accolades. As we go to print, Jamie’s most recent collaboration song ‘Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)’ has just been nominated for Best Original Song, Motion Picture at the Golden Globes. His songs have become anthems of our time most notably Rag’n’Bone Man’s hit singles ‘Human’ and ‘Giant’. We reminisce with him from his base in Nashville about his school days and his take on music industry

What are your earliest memories of MHS?

My time was amazing, I loved it at school. I came all the way up the hill (Goodwin, Belmont to MHS) and really found myself in the process. And I am still in touch with all my friends.

How did music feature in your school life?

I literally discovered playing and writing music at school, by teaching myself to play the piano. I took a few guitar lessons outside of school but generally I just wanted to do my own thing. Music was an escape from lessons! I’d often be in the McClure music school; no one ever told me not to, so I just did it. In the

5th form, I got distracted by girls and started writing songs for the ones I fell in love with (who shall remain nameless) and in the process fell in love with the idea of a song. Some friends and I formed a band called The Outsiders: Dan Goldberg on keyboards; Marcus Anselm on drums; Adam Lemon (Liman) on bass (he used to chain smoke B&H and looked like Bill Wyman when he wasn’t smoking); Madelaine Smith on backing vocals, and Sarah Dawson on sax. The school encouraged us to do gigs and concerts: we played in the Sixth Form centre and in the Large. I remember Dino Bravati turned the lights on during a gig in the Large. That was a funny moment.

Outside school our band played The Borderline several times and, with lots of the school crew supporting us, at Clapham Grand we won the Capital Radio Raw 94 Search for a Band competition. We got to play Wembley Arena and supported Status Quo on tour around England. My desire to please an audience was very influenced by my schoolfriends and family the Mill Hill way – that’s what I like about Old Millhillians. There was a strong sense of humanity and good life balance between work and family and they were always tremendously supportive of each other. My older brother was my creative yardstick. He was so honest. ‘No. It’s crap. Write another one. No. It’s crap. Another...’ Eventually I wrote songs he didn’t say that about and I knew I was getting somewhere. All those guys who supported me along the way, still tell me a song is crap. Love that.

Sport is a big part of life at MH – was it for you, too? I wasn’t built for rugby and had a hard act to follow: my brother Ben played cricket at county level. My sporting high point was at Belmont in my first ever game of cricket with my brother watching. I was put into bowl right at the end of the game and with the first ball I took the last wicket of the match. But it was just as much fun for me to watch my friends play rugby and cricket. I especially remember supporting my brother playing on Parks. To celebrate his 40th birthday, we got a couple of teams together of our old school friends and went back to school to play. It was good fun.

Did you join in on any other school activities?

I was always played the girl in school plays because I had good legs... although they were a bit hairy.

Did any of the teachers make a lasting impression on you?

If I was disturbing the class, Mr Prosser-Harries used to tell me to go and pick 27 daises or go to Top Field, or go and check if the library door was locked. The teachers were wonderful characters. Mr Mackay, Mr Stringer, BJ Dixon and Mr Dean… they all left such impressions on me. I thought the Headmaster, Alistair Graham, was fantastic. Before I left, having done OK at school – I was on school council but I cruised a bit academically – he brought me into his office and said something to me I have never forgotten: ‘Hartman, you are going to get three Bs at A level, go to an average university, you are going to cruise through, and then you are going to do something you love.’ He was spot on.

Have your academic studies benefited your life after school?

I studied English and Philosophy at Leeds and the grounding in English has been good for writing songs. I love reading and loved the library at school. My interest in poetry began age six when I read Keats’ ‘Ode to Autumn’ at a Goodwin school assembly. I won the Carr English Reading prize at Belmont in the public speaking competition which was a good start for getting over nerves. University was essential, it was my chance to break away from a bunch of stuff and find my independence, coming out from under my brother Ben’s shadow.

How did you get started in the music business?

I used to travel down every weekend from Leeds to London to play with the band. After uni, I tried a job in the City for six months but I nearly killed myself from drinking too much on Friday evenings, as I hated it. Having moved out of the family home I went busking, and even cleaned people’s houses to support myself because I really knew music was what I wanted to do. I set up a showcase in back of a juice bar on Portobello Road and a music publishing company found me and offered me a deal for a tiny amount of money. On the back of that I took my band at the time to New York and played a few shows. I returned soon afterwards with a demo and started making connections with people in the industry. I got a job in a big New York jingle house called JSM. In the day, I wrote music for ads and in the evening, I’d write songs for artists and myself. Eventually, after being rejected from every major record label in the world, I wrote a song ‘All Time Love’ alone in my friend’s empty flat in New York. In the song I vented all my issues and frustration. I came back to the UK after that and Will Young’s record label asked to have this song. I said no because it meant so much to me. Then I called one of my friends who said ‘And you did give it to them didn’t you Jamie?’ She wisely cajoled me into ringing back to recant, by saying, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll write another song and this one will open doors.’

It was good advice as the song was the first number 1 radio hit for me and got me a record deal. I learnt from that you have to give to receive. It’s about not holding on too tightly, but being generous with what you are given. Songs aren’t yours – they really are gifts.

How do you choose the artists you work with?

I am contacted by various publishing and record companies and my publisher Reservoir Media has established contacts round the world. But there’s no set path. When I worked with Celeste she wasn’t signed to anyone yet but was managed by someone I know and had worked with. He managed a band I also work with and love. I turn away 19 out of 20 new artists if it’s new stuff. If it’s established artists I want to work with I will do my best if I feel I can bring something to their records.

What do you look for in the singers you work with?

The most important thing to me is working with amazing voices such as James Bay, Rory [Rag’n’Bone Man], Celeste, Justin Jesso. It’s all about knowing that you have a person who can deliver and can express a song and sell a song, to be honest. Just as you would carefully choose your husband or wife or pet, an artist has to have something special. Lots of people have good voices. It’s about finding exceptional voices which are genuinely one in a million. Star quality doesn’t necessarily equate to singing ability and vice versa: Robbie Williams is not the world’s greatest singer but he will hold a crowd like no one else. You can’t teach it. A star just has ‘it’.

How do you approach your song writing?

In recent years I have concentrated on working in a format of just myself and an artist in a room together, getting their stories and turning them into songs. Or I just start with a conversation about what is going on in their life and figure out a way to express that. When I worked with Justin Jesso for the first time with my friend Stuart Crichton, we wrote Justin’s story, the day we met. I thought it was a perfect pitch for DJ Kygo – so I sent Justin’s manager a really beautiful demo with vocal, piano and strings but no beat.

He sent it to Kygo and the next morning they asked for the vocal and the piano. We left it to Kygo to do the rest.

With Celeste we were holed up in my very small LA studio – you literally couldn’t swing a cat in it – and I had bought an upright piano for the first time to have at home for my family. Before Celeste and I met that morning I sat at the piano in my living room and played a riff which I thought might work and from there we created most of Stop This Flame in that one day. It is the first thing you hear on the record – that original little iPhone recording from my home piano and my voice going “uh!” Then the riff starts.

She got signed by Polydor as a result of the music we made together – it took about two years to write 25 songs of which 9 of ours made it onto her debut album. We have a chemistry, which is great. With Rag’n’Bone Man – who came to me through Columbia records – I just sort of knew immediately what to do with him. Luckily in LA I’d written the first verse and chorus to ‘Human’ – originally for CeeLo Green – but when I heard Rory’s huge unmistakable voice, and then on meeting him in London at the Dairy studios, we just wrote the second verse and bridge together without any hesitation, about an hour after we met – it was one of those special moments.

Your band Ben’s Brother was very successful, but you don’t perform now. Do you miss it?

I do miss performing but actually I have got a new song out, and an EP coming! So, we will hopefully tour at some point soon. I still do the odd gig here and there. Through the Ivor Novello Awards I am mentoring someone for the Rising Star awards this year, which is exciting.

When I hear ‘Human’ being played yes, I still feel connected to it. It’s my baby. That’s actually why I got into producing so I get the whole joy – I don’t want someone else taking it on without understanding a song, or what it needs. They’ll often miss the point. A song and a recording need to retain what is magical about the original idea all the way from its inception to its final delivery. People can screw that process up. So at least if I produce or co-produce it, I know it’s going to sound how I heard it.

Do you have advice for other OMs wanting to get into the music industry?

One of the best and most long-established UK sources for information and help is PRS for music and BASCA. But I have just invested in a new music education company called The Wrd. Go to sharethewrd.com and check it out. Whether you want to get into writing songs and meet people in the industry, or work as a manager, a producer, a publisher, a live agent, a publicist –anything in the industry – it can teach you so many things that open your mind to what you could achieve and also make that happen for you. Anyone over 16 can apply to take one of more of the four courses – equivalent to A levels – and earn equal points towards University admission. The courses are 80% online learning and 20% in person. We have joined up with 600 UK music venues as well as many other music industry workplaces and the modules are like TED talks meets Til Tok – and you are being taught by people in the current music business.

“I remember that even right back from the beginning, Jamie had the ability to just pick up a guitar and out of nowhere come up with beautiful melodies and choruses. He’d sit there as we all stuffed ourselves with McDonalds and strum on the guitar and out it would come. I vividly remember him collecting me in a big old Ford estate car that just about got us to rehearsals and us joking that one day… “

Marcus Anselm, McClure

Being in the music industry isn’t all about being a pop star: if you can’t sing, you could write, or be a tour agent, or guitar tech or merchandise person, or a lawyer, or a music accountant. There are so many different jobs that are still very creative and very fun. Dare to dream! The only reason that ‘Giant’ happened for me was because I sent the song to Calvin Harris’s manager and it found its way because I went for it.

With The Wrd, our aim is to level the playing field for young creators. Money is raised through ads on the site and the proceeds of that money go to providing free arts education for young people in the UK.

What makes it really special is we have an app called Parkr (inspired by Lady Penelope’s chauffeur, Parker, from

Thunderbirds). It’s brilliant, you say to Parkr, ‘I want to be a song writer’ and an AI system responds by asking you a series of questions. It checks out your level of education and maps a path to introduce you to a new music community, shows what work would suit you in the music industry and what skills sets do you need. It’s really quite revolutionary. Lots of big names are involved and committed to the project – from artists like Celeste to some of the world’s top songwriters and publishers etc. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Music in Secondary Schools Trust is another partner.

Last thoughts on being an OM?

What I think keeps the OM community alive is the overall attitude of the school to education. How it helps to form you and then how it informs you for the rest of your life. When I look back over my peer group of what they’ve achieved, I think it is astonishing. Daniel Feller, whose son Harry was born with a very rare condition called Usher Syndrome, has created the Genetic Cures Australia to find treat and cure it, doing ground-breaking research. David Mercer created an entire system for trading for the worldwide stock exchanges. Eddie Latter is the Director for Haringey Shed, an arts centre for some of the country’s most disadvantaged kids. Nick Keller set up the Beyond Sport Foundation to promote, support and celebrate the use of sport to address social issues in communities around the world.

Charlie Green set up The Office Group addressing the needs for flexible working practises for the future. Marcus Anselm has set up the Tri for Life organising triathlon and duathlon events aimed at newcomers to the sport and has raised millions for many different charities. I’m amazed by and so proud of the fact that they are my friends and peer group, and that they are OMs.

“Jamie was always very humble about his talents, and still is. He’s now writing with some of the biggest artists out there, winning awards left right and centre yet you can see how grateful he is for all of it and that truly he takes nothing for granted.

Tuning his guitar, that’s a strong memor.! He always used to think his guitar was out of tune, even when it wasn’t, and almost in between every song, even when we were doing gig, he’d tune it up…”

Marcus Anselm, McClure

Do you have an ambition to send your kids to MHS?

We were living in the UK recently in Oxfordshire and my kids went to a school called Kitebrook house in Oxfordshire. It reminded me of MH – with a lot of the same approach and philosophy. We are now in Nashville where they are at Linden

“While all of Jamie’s friends were off doing law degrees, becoming accountants, setting up their own businesses, he chose the route that arguably was the hardest and he stuck at it and persevered and persevered and his break came. I think the first real one was writing for Will Young and Natalie Imbrugli. It shows that in the end, talent prevails.”

Marcus Anselm, McClure

Waldolf School – happy to be here but who knows what happens next. Maybe we come back to Mill Hill in a year or so. I’d love to come back in April and have a place in England and be settled back there. We’ll see. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t apply to Mill Hill if we’re back…

‘Here I Am’, Jamie’s latest composition, came out on 20 August. It is the end title song for the film ‘Respect’ an Aretha Franklin biopic and was written by Jamie, Jennifer Hudson (who plays Aretha in the film) and the legendary Carole King.