Hi there, my name is Jamie aka Sound of Fractures, and I’m a London-based electronic producer and artist. My latest release is a track called “Your Touch” and it is the third single from my forthcoming IRL EP – which is going to be released simultaneously on streaming platforms and in web3 as NFTs.
I started my journey as Sound of Fractures after having my daughter and realizing that I needed to be more in control of my music career and build something that was more stable in the long term. I want to have music as a part of my life for a long time, and the models we have been using encourage disposable careers.
So, I set out on a journey to explore what a music career could be in an ideal world for me, how do I be present for the people I love, grow year on year and have the artistic control I need to be happy and motivated.
We too often get fed this idea that there is only one version of success, and I don’t believe that’s true, we all have a possible path that we can carve out as artists that we can own.
Exploring what a different future for music could be has led me to explore web3 tools and ideas, as if there is anything that we can harness to increase the value of music and the experience for listeners, then I’m all for that.
At the end of my first EP, I took the “Real Friends” song and it became the centre of a community remix competition with Stemsdao. The song stems were made available to their online community to spark new ideas and for me, it was a way to connect with lots of great new producers – it was a perfect match for the concept of the EP and a good example of how the story in your music can be at the heart of new ideas.
Building the story around my music is really important to me, it gives the music a reason to exist, inspires new ideas, and helps people to form a deeper connection with me.
Continuing that ethos as part of my approach to my new IRL EP is allowing me new levels of creative freedom, while creating deeper relationships with fans that I can own. It’s a way for us to break away from releasing music in the same formats and to show that we don’t have to rely on the same platforms for discovery, and in doing so we can have ownership of the connections we make with the listeners.
The concept of the second EP is focused on people; it’s inspired by the idea that even something or someone who is seen as ordinary can be deeply complex and beautiful if you look deeper. The idea came from watching people as I travelled and would find myself wondering what they were really like.
I’ve found that the people who are quiet are often the most interesting, and then this started to feed into the idea of how we all have our online identities too as I explored web3. The artwork and visuals for the project are focused on individual people, and the idea of when you dive deeper, how complex they may be… or perhaps as you get to really know them and they let you in.
It’s early days for artists like me who are open to exploring new technology, but it’s an exciting time and I’ve never felt so free and in control of my future as an artist.
Listen to “Your Touch” below!
Words by Sound Of Fractures // Follow him on Instagram + Twitter
