James Donald Davies (born 18 October 1973) is the former live and studio guitarist for English band

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

. He is also a former member of

Pitchshifter Pitchshifter are an English industrial rock band from Nottingham, formed in 1989. The band was started by lead guitarist and programmer Johnny A. Carter, and bassist and vocalist Mark Clayden. The band’s early material was characterized for ...

Career

The Prodigy and Pitchshifter (1995–2002)

Davies first played live with The Prodigy in 1995, including that year's

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. After a year of touring worldwide with the band, he contributed to their ''

The Fat of the Land ''The Fat of the Land'' is the third studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy, released on 30 June 1997 through XL Recordings. The album received critical acclaim and topped the UK Albums Chart and the US ''Billboard'' 200. I ...

'' album. This included playing guitar on the subsequent single releases " Firestarter" and " Breathe". In 2010, ''

Total Guitar ''Total Guitar'' is a monthly music magazine based in Bath, the United Kingdom, that has been in circulation since 1994. The magazine is owned by Future plc, who publish many other magazines ranging from drums and video games to technology mag ...

'' magazine voted Davies' "Firestarter" riff as one of the top 10 guitar riffs of all time. Davies joined Pitchshifter in 1998, and played on five tracks on the band's '' www.pitchshifter.com'' album. He toured worldwide in support of the album. He went on to co-write the band's next two albums '' Deviant'' (

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

) and ''

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...

'' (

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is as of 2013 a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest m ...

) ''Deviant'' charted in the Top 40 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

and tours in support of the album included a three-month stint on America's 'Ozzfest' alongside

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

Incubus An incubus is a demon in male form in folklore that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; the corresponding spirit in female form is called a succubus. In medieval Europe, union with an incubus was supposed by some to result in t ...

and

Pantera Pantera () is an American heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas formed in 1981, and currently comprised of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-kn ...

. ''PSI'' was Davies' last studio recording with Pitchshifter, although the band released a partial

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''

Bootlegged, Distorted, Remixed and Uploaded ''Bootlegged, Distorted, Remixed & Uploaded'' is a compilation album by England, English Heavy metal music, metal band Pitchshifter. It was released in 2003, on their own label, PSI Records. It comprises two discs. The first disc is a live alb ...

'', which was recorded at the

London Astoria The London Astoria was a music venue at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. Originally a warehouse during the 1920s, the building became a cinema and ballroom. It was converted for use as a theatre in the 1970s. After further developme ...

and featured Davies' final performance with the band. Pitchshifter went on an "indefinite hiatus" in 2002. Davies returned to play live with The Prodigy in 2002, including the

Reading and Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

. He contributed to their ''

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned ''Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned'' is the fourth studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was first released on 11 August 2004 in Japan, on 23 August 2004 in the United Kingdom by XL Recordings, and on 15 September 200 ...

'' album on the track "You'll Be Under My Wheels". When Prodigy frontman

Keith Flint Keith Charles Flint (17 September 1969 – 4 March 2019) was an English singer and member as well as one of the vocalists of the electronic dance act The Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer, he became the vocalist of the group and performed on th ...

recorded a solo album under the name

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

in 2002, Davies provided guitar work for the album. Although Flint played a number of gigs and festivals, the attendant album, entitled ''Device #1'', due to be issued by

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

, was never released. The Flint track "Razor" was re-worked by

Liam Howlett Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is an English record producer, musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic band The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ. Early years Howlett was born in Braintree, Essex, Engla ...

and featured on the Prodigy's

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

album as an exclusive track.

Solo and session work (2007–2011)

In 2007, Davies formed the band Victory Pill and released a self-titled album. Two years later his

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

album, ''Electronic Guitar,'' was released by Mascot Records. 2012 saw the release of Victory Pill's second album, ''The Digital Divide''. During this same period, Davies also provided guitars for DJ Hyper's live band alongside former Prodigy dancer Leeroy Thornhill. The band toured including festival performances at Japan's Fuji Rock festival, Denmark's Roskilde festival and Glastonbury in the UK. The album ''We Control'' was released in 2006. Davies co-wrote several tracks on the band's next album entitled ''Suicide Tuesday'' and provided vocals for the album's opening track "Centre Attraction". The band's music featured on many trailers for major films. In 2011, HYPER released ''The Panic'' album which also featured Davies on guitar on several tracks.

Production music (2011–present)

From 2011 onwards, Davies began a new path in his music career by becoming a prolific writer of production music for TV and film on a full-time basis, working with

Extreme Music Extreme Music is a production music arm of Sony Music Publishing. The company creates and licenses music for use in television, film, advertising, and online media. Their library includes music from artists and composers such as Quincy Jones, H ...

, for whom he has written around 700 tracks to date. He is also a freelance composer for Hans Zimmer and Extreme Music's Custom Music company Bleeding Fingers, which has led to him composing music for a large variety of well known reality TV shows and documentaries. He won the 2019 Production Music Award for Best Wildcard Track with Nick Kingsley for the track "Unleash the Devil". In 2015, Davies collaborated with electronic artist Tut Tut Child on the track "Talking of Axes" released on

Monstercat Monstercat (formerly known as Monstercat Media) is a Canadian independent electronic music record label based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 2011 by Mike Darlington and Ari Paunonen, the label released music on a tri-weekly basis unt ...

. Davies did not participate in the 2018 Pitchshifter reunion tour. His album ''

Headwars James Donald Davies (born 18 October 1973) is the former live and studio guitarist for English band The Prodigy. He is also a former member of Pitchshifter. Career The Prodigy and Pitchshifter (1995–2002) Davies first played live with The P ...

'' was released in April 2020; it features collaborations with his former Pitchshifter bandmates

Jason Bowld Jason Bowld is a British drummer currently playing with the metal band Bullet for My Valentine, and formerly of Pitchshifter, This Is Menace and AxeWound. Bowld's first show with Bullet for My Valentine was at Wembley Arena in 2010, their origi ...

and Mark Clayden. In 2021, Davies announced the formation of a new project called Shadow Addict, together with Bowld, Nick Kingsley and Bullet for My Valentine bassist Jamie Mathias on vocals. Davies released his 2nd solo album PREY LATER on November 19, 2021. It features guest vocals from Bullet for my valentine Bass player Jamie Mathias. Former Pitchshifter band mate Jason Bowld plays live drums on 3 tracks on the album.

Discography

- ''

'' (1997) *

- '' www.pitchshifter.com'' (1998) * Pitchshifter - '' Deviant'' (2000) * Pitchshifter - ''

'' (2002) *

- ''

'' (2004) *

DJ Hyper DJ Hyper (born 23 February 1977) is a British DJ, producer and remixer, known for his use of live bass, guitars and uncompromising vocals. He has done remixes for artists such as BT and Paul Van Dyk and his music has been featured on TV and i ...

We Control ''We Control'' is the debut studio album produced by English musician DJ Hyper or simply known "Hyper" and was released in 2006. The single "We Control" is featured on the popular 2005 racing game ''Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005 video game), ...

(2006) * Victory Pill - '' Victory Pill'' (2007) * Jim Davies - ''Electronic Guitar'' (2009) * Victory Pill - ''The Digital Divide'' (2011) * Jim Davies - ''

'' (2020) * Shadow Addict - ''Vibrations'' (2021, EP) * Jim Davies - '' Prey Later'' (2021)

References

External links

Jim Davies' discography
@ Discogs.com
Fabryka Industrial Rock webzineVictorypill.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Jim Living people English punk rock guitarists The Prodigy members Alumni of Staffordshire University 1973 births