rhythm & blues/soul/singer-songwriter (solo, trio or band)
Mix great songwriter skills, incredible guitar play, a warm soulful voice and an irresistible live performance and you'll get Jaimi Faulkner, a young Australian multi-talent who won't stay unnoticed for long. With just his guitar, a footstompboard and his voice he throws blues, soul, rock, folk, jazz & roots in a blender and makes it to something completely his own.
As a kid Faulkner was brought up on a diet rich in Blues, Country and Folk music and learned to play the slide guitar from his next door neighbor (a famous slide guitar player) when he was just 10 years old, listening to tapes of Muddy Waters and other blues musicians. In his teens Faulkner started to write his own songs and mixed his interest in pop music with influences from his childhood. At the age of 21 he released his first cd 'last light' which debuted at No. 5 on the Australian Rhythms Magazine Charts where it held its position for 4 months. Music agents in Australia noticed his talent and gave him supports with well known artists, amongst them the late Chris Whitley in 2005.
In the years after Faulkner 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 + band won the prestigious Australian Blues/Roots Performer of the Year award and was awarded with the opportunity to represent Australia at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis,Tennessee. Back home he took up invitations to support Chris Isaak and Jeff Martin (The Tea Party) on their Australian tours.
In 2009 Faulkner released his new studio album, Kiss & Ride. The sounds of folk and blues influences are a feature on Kiss & Ride, but listeners will also hear music inspired from the time Jaimi spent in Memphis, visiting Stax Records and immersing himself in the sounds and flavors of soulmusic. Jaimi was also lucky enough to meet the legendary soul singer, Reverend Al Green.
At the beginning of 2010, Jaimi was awarded 'Song of the Year' at Australia's prestigious M.B.A.S awards night, for his single 'Highway Life' that featured on his album Kiss & Ride but still no-one in Europe had ever heard of Jaimi Faulkner.
Therefore Jaimi relocated from his hometown of Melbourne to the bursting arts hub of Berlin to see if he could launch a European career but this meant he would have to start from scratch. Leaving his Australian band behind Faulkner hit the road just by himself as a solo artist. After finding agents in both Germany and the Netherlands Faulkner started touring these countries intensively, promoting himself wherever he could. By the end of 2010 he had played many German and Dutch venues and festivals, frequently appeared on Dutch national radio and supported artists like The Holmes Brothers, Tom Dice, Rory Block, Tina Diko, Guy Forsyth and many others.
He continued doing this in 2011, never seeing much of his Berlin apartment being constantly on the road, doing some big festivals and sharing stages in sold out club venues with famous Dutch soul singer Waylon and the British singer songwriter Jon Allen. One of the highlights was his debut in the (amongst every artist ) desired big hall of Paradiso-Amsterdam, opening for Raul Malo (the Mavericks) and his big tour as special guest of 80ties star Paul Young in Germany and Austria. Also a raving review of the most respected music Magazine in the Netherlands;OOR helped his reputation as an artist and got him more radio live appearances. "Who ever sees Faulkner on stage is immediately sold. Faulkner is going to be big”, the music magazine exclaimed. Read this article (in Dutch)
Early 2012 Faulkner is going to take some time off to record his new solo cd ans single This cd is the first one to be released in Europe and is going to be slightly different than the ones he released in Australia earlier. Having grown, together with his music, this upcoming cd will be both intimate and more mature, recorded and produced in his own studio. The new cd will be ready in 2012 and Faulkner is ready to explore many more countries with this release. Hoping to also convince Belgium, France and the UK with his talent. We are sure he will!
For the Benelux tour in may 2012 Faulkner will bring part of his Australian band and in the summer a German band will be available. We also welcome French programmers to contact us!
