Rob Diament
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| Robert Diament | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Born | October 26, 1980 | |
| Origin |  Berkshire, England |
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| Genre(s) | Electronica/Alternative/Pop | |
| Label(s) | Paper & Glue | |
| Website | Temposhark.com | |
Robert Diament (born 26 October 1980) is an English singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer of UK electronic pop band Temposhark, a joint collaboration with producer Luke Busby. Diament also runs his own record label Paper and Glue.
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[edit] Early life
Diament grew up in Berkshire and began to play classical piano (his first instrument) at the age of four. Diament's classical training continued in piano and violin, whilst at the same time he learnt to sing in a local church choir. Songwriting soon followed but Diament only began to record his music at the age of thirteen. At his secondary school in Reading, Diament met Luke Busby for the first time, his later long term collaborator in Temposhark, but interestingly the two never collaborated until leaving school many years later. However, Diament sang in a number of rock bands and became a regular concertgoer in the town, best known for the annual rock festival Reading Festival. In his later teens, Diament's live performances in London and Reading had attracted much interest from both high profile musicians and music industry professionals alike, which led to the recording of his debut EP.
[edit] Early musical career
Diament first arrived on the music scene in 1999 with his debut piano-oriented solo EP 'Seven Years Running' produced by Anthony Amos. Following this release, he further developed his sound on tour in North America and returned to London in 2000 to record a selection of new songs with producer Stuart Epps (Elton John/Robbie Williams) before spending the following two years writing and recording with Killing Joke member and award winning producer, Youth aka Martin Glover. Around this time, Diament began to spend time in Brighton collaborating on a number of art, music and performance projects with old Reading school friend Luke Busby and Busby's fellow art student Natasha Kahn, now known for her project Bat for Lashes. This led Diament and Busby to study music in London at University of Westminster where together they formed Temposhark in 2004. Diament and Busby both graduated in 2005 with First Class Honours. Other key bands/artists that studied alongside them were The Departure, Pure Reason Revolution, Kevin Mark Trail (The Streets) and Emmy The Great.
[edit] Temposhark
In 2004, Diament emerged as lead singer/principal songwriter with Temposhark, the critically acclaimed UK electronic pop band. Diament formed the band with electronic producer/composer Luke Busby developing a distinctive blend of epic filmscore and late 70s/early 80s synth pop. Their first nationwide released UK single "It's Better To Have Loved" came out on December 12th 2005 produced by acclaimed producer Guy Sigsworth (Madonna/Bjork/Frou Frou) on Diament's own record label Paper and Glue.
Temposhark finished recording their debut album The Invisible Line during February 2007 in London with producer Sean McGhee as well as recording a new song with Guy Sigsworth. Temposhark were in New York on a UK music industry trade mission in June and have started performing live in Europe including a sold out headline gig in Paris in July. In November 2006, Temposhark began performing with their live band, Mathis Richet on drums and Mark Ferguson on bass. The four live musicians travelled to the USA to Austin, Texas in March 2007 for two live showcases at the SXSW festival.
As part of Temposhark, Diament has written songs and sung with a diverse array of musicians from Frou Frou's Guy Sigsworth and Imogen Heap, Kate Havnevik, Sophie Solomon, Sean McGhee, Cursor Miner, Avril (FCommunications), Metronomy, Mark Moore(S'Express), M.I.A., Camille Dalmais, Hellogoodbye, Matthew Jay, Akira The Don, Noblesse Oblige, Princess Julia, Richard Norris (The Grid), Melnyk, Kevin Freeman, Border Crossing and Masashi Naka (Escalator Records), Japan).
[edit] Discography
[edit] CD EPs
- Sketches (January 2000 promo 3 track EP · RDM)
- Seven Years Running ( July 1999 5 track EP produced by Anthony Amos · RDM)
[edit] Temposhark
[edit] Trivia
- Robert Diament is an avid art fan and collects original artworks by a wide variety of artists including Tracey Emin, Anne Hardy, Banksy and Fred Tomaselli.[1]
[edit] External links
- Robert Diament's official MySpace page
- Temposhark's official band website
- Temposhark's official MySpace page
- Robert Diament from Temposhark interviewed on Nokia's free Podcast, November 2006
