James Hyman

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James Hyman
James Hyman
James Hyman
Background information
Born April 18, 1970 (1970-04-18) (age 38)
Origin United Kingdom Flag of the United Kingdom
Genre(s) Dance music
Bastard pop
Occupation(s) DJ, music supervisor, video director, radio and TV presenter
Years active 1988–present
Website Official site
For other persons named James Hyman, see James Hyman (disambiguation).

James Hyman (born April 18, 1970) is a DJ, radio and TV presenter & MD of Green Bandana & JLH Music, media/marketing companies with popular culture their key ingredients.

Hyman put aside his place at the University of Manchester (where he was going to study Latin) in order to work in the press office of the, then new, company MTV, despite his parents' misgivings (partly down to his father's glimpse of the music industry through his cousin Brian Epstein). [1]

Contents

[edit] TV work

He worked at MTV from 1988 to 2000, with an MTV focus on Acid House and the subsequent Dance/Club/Rave Culture. His MTV shows featured over 500 interviews with the likes of The Prodigy, Goldie, Moby, David Holmes, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Paul Oakenfold, Aphex Twin, many unknown at time of interview.

Also at MTV he co-presented "Up For It" with Eddy Temple-Morris and also fronted a spin-off of "Bytesize" called "The Net Minute" which provided daily reports on relevant Internet news and web sites. [2]

In 1992 James Hyman and Coldcut produced a 20 minute TV Megamix[3] for L'Oeil Du Cyclone, a weekly pop-culture show on Canal+. This opened the way for the Megamix format and shows that began transmission on MTV Europe in 1998. [4] [5]

In the late 90s and first few years of the new century Hyman presented Frontal for Channel 4 and www.personalservices for Channel 5. He also produced two series for Play UK, Hey DJ and Joy of Decks as well as producing and presenting Headf**k for the Sci-Fi Channel.

As a commentator on pop culture (described as a "pop culturalist" by the BBC) he has appeared on BBC News 24's review of the day's newspapers[6] and, from late 2007 to April 2008, he was a music reviewer on Nuts TV.[7]

[edit] DJing

Hyman used to present The Rinse a 4 hour slot on Saturday evening (changed from 2 hours twice a week), and co-presented/produced The Remix (with Eddy Temple-Morris), both for Xfm. Before Xfm he also presented shows for Atlantic 252 (with Eddy Temple-Morris) and continues to DJ at clubs, both nationally and internationally.

Like his MTV shows, The Rinse features in-depth interviews and music from key players at key moments in their careers, including Ice T, Mark Ronson, Kanye West, Mike Skinner, Dizzee Rascal, Russell Simmons and Nas. [8] The music played on The Rinse still largely focused on Dance music but Hyman monitors emerging music trends and most recently has been a proponent of Bastard pop.

This led to the release of a number of albums:

As of September 2007, Hyman [10] left Xfm to concentrate on his music supervision company JLH Music and other broadcast projects such as his weekly 'Music Expert' slot on Nuts TV.

He DJs for events including film premieres (like The Royal Tenenbaums [11] and Suzie Gold [12]), festivals (including Glastonbury), corporate events (BMW and The Carphone Warehouse) and for celebrity parties (Will Smith, Madonna, Britney Spears and Eminem).

[edit] Voice-overs

He also provides voice-overs for adverts including hit40uk, Toyota, Q TV, BT, Daily Star, The British Army and PlayStation. [13]

[edit] Music supervision

Under his company JLH Music, He has also done music supervision for a range of media.

Adverts include:

Computer games:

Most notably, he has worked on a number of feature films, including:

[edit] Music videos

He has also directed a number of music videos, including:

[edit] Influence

He has been mentioned a number of times by figures in music industry.

  • In 1999 he was voted #22 in Muzik's 50 Most Powerful People in Dance Music poll.
  • Lil Louis claims Hyman tempted him back into making music again: [20]

So what was it that enticed Louis back into the limelight? Was it money? Was it boredom?
"It was James Hyman at MTV, " says Louis, rather bizarrely. "He said to me, 'Louis, make some fucking music'"

  • Mike Skinner, of The Streets, namechecks James Hyman on the song "Give me Back My Lighter" (the 'Non-Album Bonus Track' on the "Don't mug yourself" single, released in July 2003) where he says:

"James Hyman, thanks for the Xbox,
I've been fucking killing that Halo game"

  • His work at MTV Europe is profiled in the book All Crews, which looks at the drum and bass and jungle scenes. [21]
  • Hyman's championing of The Prodigy, while producer of Party Zone, is mentioned in Martin James' book Prodigy because, at the time (before the release of the "One Love" video), no one else was playing The Prodigy's videos on mainstream television. [22]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ UPfront profile, 1996
  2. ^ James Hyman's Net Minute 23rd August-29th August 1999
  3. ^ Coldcut Megamix video
  4. ^ Promo magazine 1999 page 1 and page 2
  5. ^ Interview In-Dublin magazine #3 2003
  6. ^ Video clip of BBC appearance
  7. ^ Nuts.tv - Music Nuts
  8. ^ The Rinse Interviews
  9. ^ 007 Mix - Best CD 0f 2004
  10. ^ Hyman leaves Xfm
  11. ^ Hello! magazine
  12. ^ The Evening Standard magazine
  13. ^ Talking Heads - The Voice Agency
  14. ^ Johnnie Walker - Fernando Alonso - Dogfight
  15. ^ DJ Magazine 12 December 2003
  16. ^ 'Muzik
  17. ^ Daylight Robbery at the Internet Movie Database
  18. ^ In The Hands Of The Gods at the Internet Movie Database
  19. ^ RocknRolla at the Internet Movie Database
  20. ^ Mixmag Update #7 1997
  21. ^ All Crews (by Brian Belle-Fortune, Vision Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-9548897-0-3), pages 165-166 [1]
  22. ^ Prodigy (by Martin James, ISBN 1-86074-356-0) page 99

[edit] References

[edit] External links