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 Jamie T released his EP, Betty And The Selfish Sons in March
and things have been on the up ever since, with the likes of Radio 1 giving him
their support. His tales of youthful
misadventures have earned him high praise comparisons to lyricists such as Mike
Skinner and Artic Monkeys’ Alex Turner.
It just goes to show how quickly word can spread nowadays thanks to the
internet, but for the 20 year old from Wimbledon, all this sudden interest
feels a bit strange. So how will he handle the fame that inevitably comes
with it all?
“Not very well,” he replies “I don’t really like the idea of
that. I like the idea of people liking the music, but anything else, feels a
bit weird doesn’t it? It’s just part of the job. It is slightly overwhelming,
but at the same time I’ve never wrote music for anyone else apart from me and
my mates and I don’t think I ever will write for anyone else anyway, so it
makes no difference to me”.
Jamie Treays, to give his full name, started getting into
music at the age of 14 and started making music himself, he says because: “I
was bored and I enjoyed trying to emulate other things that I really liked”.
His Panic Prevention mix tapes, which include tracks from
the likes of the Clash to Beastie Boys, were inspired by the panic attacks
Jamie started having around the age of seventeen. “They were pretty bad, but it was more of a
high anxiety and the factor of always worrying about having panic attacks. The situation you fall into once you have
panic attacks is you kind of always become overly anxious you’re going to have
one. The worst thing I found was not actually having the panic attacks but
everything came with it,” he explains. “Then I just relaxed a little bit,
calmed down about things and started playing live, getting involved in things I
enjoyed. It keeps your mind off everything”.
The press love to create music scenes and the latest one, 'Thamesbeat',
groups Jamie together with other emerging London acts like Larrikin
Love. "I think it’s a bunch of b*llocks. I think all the bands in
it, I love and think they’re fantastic, but I don’t really believe in scenes," says Jamie. "I
think scenes are bullsh*t. Some people
start scenes and bands die in scenes, but I don’t think that’s going to happen
with all these bands that are supposedly part of this scene".
Nowadays it seems that Jamie is in very much in demand. He was asked to do a remix of the Gorillaz track Kids With Gunz the
result of which can be heard on his Myspace. “Obviously I was stunned! They
were nice enough to give all the parts to the song as well which doesn’t always
happen when you do remixes,” he enthuses. “They were nice enough to give me all
the parts I wanted and said 'look you can do whatever you want with it, f*ck around
with it as much as you like'. I realised that I wasn’t going to better the
original track, so I just changed it completely and used bits of it”.
So would Mr T be an advocate of Myspace and the internet as
a tool for musicians?
“I couldn’t give a toss about it either way” is Jamie's frank response. “It is what it
is. I don’t think it’s the best thing ever made, but it’s helped
a lot of musicians out, there’s nothing bad about that”.
As for the album, it’s very near
to completion and should hopefully be out later this year. “I’ve just got to do
one more track then it’s finished. I try to mix it up as much as possible, I’ve
done more tracks than I want to put on the album, so it’s just trying to decide
what I want to put on there”.
Currently on tour, with friends to help with backing band
duties, we wonder if playing live around the country was the best part of the
job for Jamie. “I love a bit of everything. I
definitely love being on tour, but I also love being in my bedroom writing
tunes and being in the studio getting sh*t recorded. It’s all fun for me really”.
Sheila is out on July 3rd.
For more info: www.jamie-t.com
Words: Helen Duong
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