Ben's Brother are a five-piece English band, headed by founder

Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, CA, and the former lead singer of the indie-pop band Ben's Brother. Early life Hartman was born and raised in London. Career Ben's Brother Hartman formed and ...

. The band was named after Jamie's big brother Ben, whose shadow he lived in as a teenager. Their album Beta Male Fairytales reached number 14 on the UK album charts and their single Let Me Out was nominated for an Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically in 2007 - the other nominee was Love Is Losing Game, by Amy Winehouse.

Music career

Their debut album, ''Beta Male Fairytales'', was released on 6 August 2007, and went to number 3 on iTunes UK and achieved Gold status. Successes followed in Europe and North and South America. A song from their album, "God by Another Name", became the first iTunes Store free single of the week to be made available in the iTunes Plus format. Beginning in September 2007, their song "Stuttering" was featured in a Dentyne Ice

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

in Canada and the U.S. This turned into a larger partnership where the band gave away free songs to fans and flew a fan to see them play in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, via a specially created website. The band made their American festival debut at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

in March 2008. That same year, the band were nominated for an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

in the category of Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Let Me Out". Dropped by EMI, despite the Ivor Novello nomination and worldwide success of ''Beta Male Fairytales'', the band formed their own label and recorded their second studio album in Autumn 2008. The first single from the album, "Apologise", was released in early 2009 and was co-written with

Natalie Imbruglia Natalie Jane Imbruglia ( , ; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian and British singer and actress. Born and raised in New South Wales, Imbruglia became widely known in the early 1990s playing Beth Brennan in the soap opera ''Neighbours''. A ...

(who recorded a version for her forthcoming album). The band was then signed to Island Records for the forthcoming singles from the album ''Battling Giants'', which contains a duet with

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. Her first two studio albums, '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001), achieved chart success with the singles " I'm Outta Love", " Not That Ki ...

, "Stalemate", and other vocal collaborations including

Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Wo ...

on the title track and Jack MacManus, Cass Lowe and Pete Gordeno doing group harmonies on the other tracks. On 15 February 2010, Hartman announced via his

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

page that the band would continue to release music without the support of the label

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. In 2016, the band released a single entitled "Honeybee" via YouTube and iTunes. Band founder Hartman is the co-writer of the European wide hit single "

Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

" by

Rag'n'Bone Man Rory Charles Graham (born 29 January 1985), known professionally as Rag'n'Bone Man, is an English singer. He is known for his deep baritone voice. His first hit single, "Human", was released in 2016, and his first album ''Human'' was released ...

Band members

* Jamie Hartman – vocals, guitars, keyboards * Kiris Houston – keyboards, guitars * Malcolm Moore – bass * Karl Brazil – drums * Luke Potashnick – guitars

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

* ''Glow'' (25 April 2010) (UK )

Singles

Other appearances

References

External links

Jamie Hartman interview
getcloser.com {{Authority control English pop music groups Pop music groups from London English indie pop groups Musical groups established in 2006