Galway singer-songwriter on cusp of stardom

Oranmore-native Jamie Harrison has collaborated with Grammy Award winning producer Ken Nelson – a man who previously worked with music industry heavyweights Coldplay, Paolo Nutini, and Sam Smith – on his new single ‘If I Only Knew Your Name’.

Jamie is now working on his debut EP, which is due for release later this year – but his heady blend of soul, pop/rock and folk have been a familiar sound on the streets of Galway for some time now.

He first came to prominence in 2012 when he raised €6,000 for Lily-Mae Morrison, the young Galway girl with a rare form of children’s cancer, Neuroblastoma.

He held a ‘buskathon’ – busking for four days during the Volvo Ocean Race Festival in July – and then played on the charity single, a cover of Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’, which topped the Irish charts that Christmas.

The son of a musician, it was inevitable music was in Jamie’s blood. He reminisces over his father teaching him guitar chords at eleven years old.

The young musician’s ears were activated and he practiced his chords reverently. By the very next day, a young Jamie had succeeded in composing his first song.

“I knew then – this was what I wanted to do,” he said.

But it was his musician father who also discouraged him from going into music full-time – ‘it’s going to break your heart’ he told him.

So Jamie tried out other career options, after graduating from Calasanctius College, Oranmore, studying architecture for one year and PE teaching for two years.  A keen hurler, he is also the holder of an All-Ireland medal, having played with the Galway minors in 2009.

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Music has always been an integral part of his life; but Jamie only started singing at the age of twenty. In earlier years he harbored ambitions of becoming a blues guitarist, travelling to Chicago to play blues clubs like Buddy Guys Legends and Kingston Mines.

Jamie recorded a guitar cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic ‘Bold as Love’ which has over 300,000 hits on YouTube.

Jamie only discovered his singing voice after having his tonsils removed. “I couldn’t believe it, all of a sudden I could reach these notes,” he said.

It was after this enlightened discovery Jamie decided to follow his passion and pursue a career in music.

Jamie’s mother, Teri Russell, was also to prove instrumental in his success story; connecting her son to Ollie Jennings, long-time manager of the Saw Doctors.

That was almost three years ago – and ever since, according to Ollie, Jamie would come to him every few weeks with a new song, or demo recording.

Ollie encouraged Jamie to make a ‘wish-list’ of producers he would most like to work with. Top of that list was Ken Nelson, producer of Coldplay’s earlier albums – ‘Parachutes’ and ‘Rush Of Blood To The Head’ – which had a profound influence on the budding  musician.

After meeting with Ollie and Jamie, Ken agreed to work with them, loving the idea of producing in the legendary Grouse Lodge Studios, Co. Westmeath, where Michael Jackson and Muse have recorded albums.

LA director Nicholas Lam, who has worked with Nicole Scherzinger, Jason Derulo and Bastille, heard ‘If I Only Knew Your Name’ online and contacted Jamie directly – extending an invitation to fly over to Hollywood and offering to shoot and direct his music video.

He put together a crew of people including cinematographer Alexander Nikishin, who worked on music videos for Mary J Blige and Fall out Boy.

The video is a romantic dreamscape – delving into the mind of a young man, as he imagines a day long adventure with a girl (played by Megan Drust) he doesn’t know.

But, after dreaming about cruising in an open top, vintage car, through sun soaked LA enthralled in each other’s company; his fantasy comes to an abrupt end as he watches her drive away, never to be seen again.