Jamie Hartman has signed with New York-based music house JSM. The 26-year-old London native has written and performed music both with his former band, The Outsiders, and as a solo artist. Hartman has also written material for new recording artists such as Jai and Carly.
At JSM, the self-taught musician has arranged and performed on demos for Dr Pepper through Young & Rubicam, New York, Hersheys and Kool-Aid for Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), New York, and Mazda through Doner, Southfield, Mich.
Hartman’s skills were first brought to the attention of the music production house in a serendipitous fashion, when in ’96 his brother went to South Africa to coach cricket and met JSM producer Mark Morris. Morris heard a tape that Hartman had recorded and played it for Joel Simon, JSM’s president/executive producer, who wanted to sign the musician. Hartman’s lack of jingle experience didn’t worry Simon, who said: "It’s better that he hasn’t done spots before; if he can work with people who’ve written all the hits, he’s going to feed their music, and they’re going to feed his."
But Hartman was pursuing a music career in England at the time. The two finally met in the winter of ’98, when Hartman came to America to promote his independently released single "Didn’t Come Home Last Night." Hartman remembered, "I came to JSM and recorded four tracks in one evening, and that really spawned the idea of an album." It was then that he started to consider relocating. "Just being here (in New York) for a few months, I saw a place for myself here as a songwriter. JSM liked what I did and said, ‘Why don’t you come aboard?’"
Hartman has been performing professionally since ’94, when The Outsiders was named band of the year by London’s Capital Radio. "Records deals were bandied around, and though we didn’t sign a deal, we did go out on tour, playing the big venues around England."
However, The Outsiders split up in January ’95, mostly because Hartman was interested in exploring new musical directions. He explained, "All this great music started happening, like Radiohead and Oasis. There was also a lot of electronic music coming out, like Massive Attack. They took music somewhere else, and I wanted to do something else." He added, "I played the biggest places in England before I was really ready to deal with it. So I went away and started learning about songwriting again."
But he didn’t stay out of the limelight for long. In another fairy tale twist, Hartman was spotted by Roy Edmondson [then Levi’s director of marketing in England; now director of presence and publicity worldwide] while playing guitar in a London pub in ’96. Hartman recounted his 42nd Street-style discovery: "Roy Edmondson happened to hear me playing one night and said, ‘We want you to do an acoustic song for us!’ They gave me a bunch of money, sponsored my tour and dressed me in Levi’s."
He pursued a rock ‘n’ roll career for a while, releasing "Didn’t Come Home Last Night" in the U.S. in ’98. "The song received good airplay and I was getting interest from record companies, but then it started to dawn on me that that wasn’t necessarily the direction I wanted to go in," Hartman said. "These days you can put out your own stuff on the Internet. And JSM allowed me to make a record and gave me the freedom to do what I wanted."
Simon commented: "Jamie’s presence has given a pop not only to the song area of JSM, but also in underscores, in melody development, in bringing in new artists, engineers. … Now the best of the actual talent is coming in as a result of having Jamie here. When Jamie joined I said, ‘You know, I don’t even care if you write a spot right now; just do what you do.’ "
JSM’s composer roster includes Billy Alessi, Bobby Alessi, Andy Bloch, Ray Loewy, Gregg Mangiafico, Nile Rodgers, Morgan Visconti and Gareth Williams. JSM is repped by Victoria Villalobos on the East and West Coasts, and by Alyson Griffith in the South and Midwest.
