James Blake Artistfacts

September 26, 1988
James Blake's real name is James Blake Litherland. Born in Enfield, London, he grew up tall in every sense of the word: he's 6 foot 5.
Music was in the family. His father, James Litherland, was a guitarist with the early-'70s jazz-rock outfit Colosseum.
Blake took classical piano lessons as a kid before studying Popular Music at Goldsmiths, University of London. While still a student, he began releasing a series of EPs - CMYK, Klavierwerke, and The Bells Sketch - that blended post-dubstep, ambient textures, and chopped-up vocals into something new.
His self-titled debut album arrived in 2011 to major critical acclaim, and two years later his follow-up, Overgrown, earned him the Mercury Prize, cementing his reputation as one of the most inventive voices in UK music.
Blake's falsetto and "light head voice" are trademarks, but equally important are the silences he leaves between sounds, the pitch-shifted experiments, and the genre-bending production that slides between alternative R&B, UK bass, electronic, ambient, and soul.
He's an in-demand collaborator. Blake has written, sung, or produced alongside Kendrick Lamar ("ELEMENT.," "King's Dead"), Beyoncé ("Pray You Catch Me" and "Forward"), Jay-Z ("MaNyfaCedGod"), Travis Scott ("Stop Trying to Be God," "Delresto (Echoes)"), Rosalia ("Barefoot In The Park") and Bon Iver ("iMi").
Blake started dating actress and TV presenter Jameela Jamil around 2015. Their relationship became a source of inspiration for his 2019 album Assume Form, much of which reads like a love letter to her and their life together in Los Angeles. Prior to that, he was romantically linked with Theresa Wayman of Warpaint, who also left her mark on some of his music.
Blake loves cooking. "I find it strangely musical and also not dissimilar from creating music," he told Time Out. "Except that the sense of gratification is a lot quicker. I might make a beat, and it might take two years to come out; whereas I can eat the curry that I've made that day."
He's a keen chess player. "It's a super useful hobby to have on tour because it's not difficult to play, online and off-line," Blake told Consequence. "All you need is a computer or an app to run it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

Eyes Without A FaceBilly Idol

Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" has a gruesome inspiration. It's based on a 1959 French movie about a surgeon who abducts young women and removes their facial features.

TemptedSqueeze

The Squeeze song "Tempted" is one of their few with lead vocals by Paul Carrack, who sang the Ace song "How Long" and was in Mike + The Mechanics.

FancyIggy Azalea

The video for Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" pays homage to the classic 1995 film Clueless with the rapper playing Cher and featured singer Charli XCX portraying Tai. It was filmed at some of the same locations used in the movie.

NameThe Goo Goo Dolls

"Name" by The Goo Goo Dolls was partly inspired by lead singer John Rzeznik's flirtation with the MTV VJ Kennedy, who didn't want him to tell anyone her real name.

RoyalsLorde

Lorde was 16 years and 11 months old when "Royals" topped the Hot 100. In doing so she became the youngest ever solo artist to write and perform a #1 hit.

Red Red WineUB40

UB40's cover of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine" was a minor hit when first released in 1983, but it went to #1 five years later when radio stations in Phoenix started playing it.