Mix great song-writing, incredible guitar playing, a warm soulful voice and irresistible live performance and you’ll get Jaimi Faulkner, a young multi-talented Australian.
With just his guitar, a stomp box and his voice, Faulkner mixes different musical styles and creates one that is uniquely his own.
As a child, brought up on a diet rich in Blues, Country, Soul and Folk music, Faulkner learned to play guitar on his father’s old beaten up nylon string guitar. In his teens, Faulkner started to write his own songs and combined his interest in pop music with influences from his childhood. At the age of 21 he released his first Album ‘Last Light’ which debuted at No. 5 on the Australian Rhythms Magazine Charts where it held its position for four months. Music agents in Australia noticed his talent and invited him to support the late Chris Whitley in 2005.
With the success of ‘Last Light,’ still fresh, Jaimi hit both international and local highways, playing more than 200 shows a year. These included performances at the American Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, playing with the legendary Big Jack Johnson. In 2008, Jaimi won the prestigious Australian Blues/Roots Performer Of The Year Award and was awarded the opportunity to represent Australia at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. Back home his reputation continued to rise with further invitations to support Chris Isaak and Jeff Martin (The Tea Party) on their Australian Tours.
In 2009, after returning from the U.S, Jaimi recorded and released his second studio album, ‘Kiss & Ride’. Folk, Blues and Soul influences feature heavily on this album and early in 2010, Jaimi was awarded Song Of The Year at Australia’s prestigious M.B.A.S. awards night, for his single ‘Highway Life’ from the same album.
With just one suitcase and his trusty Maton acoustic guitar by his side, Jaimi relocated from his hometown of Melbourne to the bursting arts hub of Berlin. Having secured a Dutch and German booking agent, Jaimi left his Australian band behind, he hit the road alone, performing as a solo artist. By the end of 2010, had performed in many German and Dutch venues, begun to appear on Dutch national radio and opened for The Holmes Brothers, Tom Dice, Rory Block, Tina Dico, Guy Forsyth to name a few.
Faulkner continued his rigorous touring schedule in 2011, performing at big festivals, sharing sold out stages along side famous Dutch soul singer Waylon and British singer-songwriter Jon Allen, as well as two big German-Austrian tours opening for Eighties Pop royalty Paul Young, and later that year for U.S Singer Vonda Shepard (Ally McBeal). Faulker’s live performance and growing reputation was recognised by respected music magazine OOR ‘Who ever sees Faulkner on stage is immediately sold. Faulkner is going to be big’.
In 2012, although performing more than 120 shows in Germany and The Netherlands, Faulkner used his time off from touring to record his third and long awaited studio album. This would be his first European release and he wanted to get it just right. The result of a lot of hard work is Turn Me Around.
Released on V2 Records in the Benelux in May 2013, Turn Me Around was very well received in The Netherlands where it peaked on the Dutch Alternative music charts at number 1 and the overall music charts at number 33.
On the back of the albums success, Faulkner was invited to perform on national Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 6 and even national TV, RTL 4’s Koffietijd. The most prestigious of invitations coming from famous 3FM DJ Giel Beelen who invited Faulkner to perform his song In My Fathers Boots during drive time to over 1 Million listeners. Giel declaring on the show ‘Oh man, I love your sound… What fantastic guitar playing, what a magnificent voice.’
Success also followed shortly after in Germany with Faulkner being scouted by successful music manager Andreas Bär Läsker (Fantastische Vier), appearing on prime time National TV (Morgenmagazine) and being invited on a European tour opening for UK Popstar Tom Odell.
At the beginning of 2014, with a list of new songs and gaining the attention of German Pop Producer Ralf Mayer (Clueso, Fantastische Vier, Marc Forster) Faulkner enlisted the help of his fan base and together with crowd funding platform Startnext, raised 20,000€ in just 60 days to fund his new album. At the completion of the campaign, Faulkner and band, together with Mayer, spent the first two weeks of June in Gismo Studios in Motril Spain recording and producing his upcoming album. Currently in the mixing and mastering phase, Faulkner is looking toward a late 2014 release.