Ben's Brother

Ben's Brother are a five-piece English band, headed by founder Jamie Hartman. The band was named after Jamie's big brother Ben, whose shadow he lived in as a teenager. Their album Beta Male Fairytales reached number 14 on the UK album charts and their single Let Me Out was nominated for an Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically in 2007 - the other nominee was Love Is Losing Game, by Amy Winehouse.

Ben's Brother
Ben's Brother performing in 2007 Photo: Brian Marks
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Post-Britpop indie pop
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Island Universal
Members	Jamie Hartman Kiris Houston Karl Brazil Malcolm Moore Luke Potashnick

Music career

Their debut album, Beta Male Fairytales, was released on 6 August 2007, and 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] That same year, 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, despite the Ivor Novello nomination and worldwide success of Beta Male Fairytales, the band formed their own label and recorded their second studio album in Autumn 2008. The first single from the album, "Apologise", was released in early 2009 and was co-written with Natalie Imbruglia (who recorded a version for her forthcoming album). The band was then signed to Island Records for the forthcoming singles from the album 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 2010, Hartman announced via his Twitter page that the band would continue to release music without the support of the label Island Records.^[4] In 2016, the band released a single entitled "Honeybee" via YouTube and iTunes.^[5][6]

Band founder Hartman is the co-writer of the European wide hit single "Human" by Rag'n'Bone Man.

Band members

• Jamie Hartman – vocals, guitars, keyboards
• Kiris Houston – keyboards, guitars
• Malcolm Moore – bass
• Karl Brazil – drums
• Luke Potashnick – guitars

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		UK [7]	FRA [8]	ITA [9]	SCO [10]
Beta Male Fairytales	Released: 2 July 2007 Label: Relentless (#REL14) Formats: CD	14	46	61	28
Battling Giants	Released: 11 May 2009 Label: Flat Cap (#2707347) Formats: CD	56	—	—	95
"—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

EPs

• Glow (25 April 2010) (UK )

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions				Album
		UK [7]	FRA [8]	ITA [9]	SCO [11]
2007	"Beauty Queen / I Am Who I Am"	—	—	—	—	Beta Male Fairytales
	"Let Me Out"	38	43	8	36
	"Carry On"	169	—	—	—
2008	"Stuttering (Kiss Me Again)"	41	—	—	14	Beta Male Fairytales (Reissue)
2009	"Apologise"	141	—	—	—	Battling Giants
	"Q & A"	—	—	—	—
	"Stalemate" (featuring Anastacia)	—	—	—	—
	"Shine/Reacender" (featuring Roupa Nova)	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
2010	"What If I?"	153	—	—	—	Battling Giants
2016	"Honeybee"	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
2021	"Better Than This"	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
"—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Other appearances

List of guest appearances, showing year released and album name

Title	Year	Album
"Poker Face"	2010	Dermot O'Leary Presents The Saturday Sessions

References

1. ^{[dead link]} Ben's Brother Dentyne.
2. Erin Chandler, Schedule For The Levi's/FADER Fort In Austin Announced Archived 13 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Tripwire, 10 March 2008.
3. The Ivor Novello Awards – Nominees Archived 11 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
4. Jamie Hartman [@jamiehartman] (13 February 2010). "The labels really let is down so now we are doing it without them" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
5. Honeybee - Single by Ben's Brother, retrieved 21 June 2021
6. Ben's Brother HONEYBEE Official Video, archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 21 June 2021
7. UK chart positions:

   • "Alfie UK chart peaks". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
   • *Chart Log UK "Chart Log UK 1994–2010: B> Ben's Brother". zobbel - Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
8. "French chart peaks". lescharts.com. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
9. "Italian chart peaks". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
10. Scottish studio albums chart peaks:

    • "Beta Male Fairytales". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
    • "Battling Giants". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
11. Scottish singles chart peaks:

    • "Let Me Out". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
    • "Stuttering (Kiss Me Again)". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 September 2020.

External links

• Jamie Hartman interview getcloser.com