| Ben's Brother | |
|---|---|
Ben's Brother performing in 2007 Photo: Brian Marks |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | London, UK |
| Genres | Post-Britpop, Indie pop |
| Years active | 2006-present |
| Labels | Island, Universal |
| Website | www.bensbrother.com |
| Members | |
| Jamie Hartman Kiris Houston Karl Brazil Malcolm Moore Luke Potashnick |
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Ben's Brother is a five-piece band from the UK, headed by founder Jamie Hartman. Their band was named after Jamie's big brother Ben, in whose shadow he lived as a teenager. Jamie always considered himself the beta male of the family, which gave him the idea for the title of their debut album.
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Their debut album, Beta Male Fairytales, was released on 6 August 2007, went to number 3 on iTunes UK and achieved Gold status. Successes followed in Europe and North and South America.
A song from their album, "God By Another Name," became the first iTunes Store free single of the week to be made available in the iTunes Plus format. Beginning in September 2007, their song "Stuttering" was featured in a Dentyne Ice commercial in Canada and the U.S.. This turned into a larger partnership where the band gave away free songs to fans and flew a fan to see them play in Texas, via a specially created website.[1]
The band made their American festival debut at South by Southwest in March 2008.[2]
In 2008 the band were nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the category of Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Let Me Out".[3]
Dropped by EMI group despite the Ivor Novello Nomination and success with BetaMale Fairytales in the UK and around the world, they formed their own label and recorded their second studio album in Autumn 2008, going on to release the first single, Apologise (co-written with Natalie Imbruglia who has recorded a version for her forthcoming album), in early 2009 before being signed to Island Records for the forthcoming singles from album 2, Battling Giants, which contains a duet with Anastacia - Stalemate - and other vocal collaborations including Jason Mraz on the title track and Jack MacManus, Cass Lowe and Pete Gordeno doing group harmonies on the other tracks.
On 15 February Hartman announced via his Twitter page that the band would continue to release music without the support of the record label Island Records
On 23 October Hartman announced via his Facebook page that a third album would be released in late February 2012, under the name of Jamie Hartman as opposed to Ben's Brother, although the band would remain in the same set-up.