Blues Element

Music:

Member Since: 1/17/2007
Band Website: blueselement.com
Band Members: LIVE BLUES ELEMENT "Du Jour":

Jamie Browning (lead vocals, author, composer) and Iain Green (drums, back up vocals, arranger, composer, musical director.
WITH (most recently): Jason Farrar (bass, back up vocals) and Adam Rawski (guitar).
WITH (upcoming festival line up): Andrew Stewart (bass) and Dave West (guitar, back up vocals)
WITH (thanks to): Jerome Tucker, Dane Wedderburn, Curtis Robinson, Kenmi Chank, Damon Hines, Victor Cruz, Justin Snikkar, and Frank Horvat.

STUDIO BLUES ELEMENT:

BABY'S GOT THE BLUES (2005)

Jamie & Iain were joined by Rod Phillips R.I.P. (B3 organ), Michael Fonfara (piano & B3 organ), Dave 'Slopie' Powell (piano), Bryan Huntley (bass), Alec Fraser (bass), Michael Keith (guitar), and Kenmi Chank (guitar) for "Baby's Got The Blues", produced by Alec Fraser.

ARE YOU READY (2008)

Jamie & Iain were joined by Jason Wilson (piano, B3 organ, Rhodes), Justin Snikkar (bass), Kenmi Chank (guitar), Garfield Stoddart (guitar), and Rebecca Campbell (back up vocals) for "Are You Ready", produced by Jamie & Iain.
Influences: "Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best." ~Henry Van Dyke~

What do people really mean when they ask who your influences are?

The people that inspire us do not necessarily inspire us to sound LIKE them...

Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, James Brown, Louis Jordan... they are just a few of the folks that Blues Element covers if a cover song suits the moment.

Ruth Brown is the main reason why Jamie started singing and writing jazz & blues.

A surprising number of people have told us that our original tunes remind them of Steely Dan. (see our blog on that subject)

Iain and Jamie both LOVE Prince. Iain wants to produce and arrange like Quincy Jones. Jamie has been to almost as many punk gigs as Iain has played Soca gigs.

Iain's top 5 are:
Duke Ellington,
Miles Davis,
The Police,
Bob Marley, and
James Brown.

Jamie's top 5 are:
David Bowie,
Iggy Pop,
Nick Cave,
Ruth Brown, and
Nina Simone.

Some of the other artists that one or both of us likes or at least liked at some point on the path to here and now, in no particular order: Thelonious Monk, Grace Jones, Billie Holiday, Julian Fauth, P.J. Harvey, AmoebA QuichE, Paul Simon, Bauhaus, Kate Bush, Buddy Guy, Johnny Cash, The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Sonny & Brownie, Hafdis Huld, Ronny Size, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Saturnalia, Ray Charles, The Jam, Dead Can Dance, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Pretenders, B.B. King, Seal, King Tubby, Daphne's Purple Closet, Martha Wainwright, The Supremes, Tabarruk, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Lee Scratch Perry, Tina Turner, DropDeadBeats (of the 3 bands with that name that we know of, we mean the 90's all-girl funk band from Toronto) and all the other musicians and bands that we have added as friends - there are too many to list!

So, does that answer the question?

Oh, and a big thanks also goes to Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature (Kunstformen der Natur) for our background image. As a scientist he was pretty much a fraud, but as an artist he was pretty much amazing. If you like this image and are curious you should Google Ernst Haeckel to see more of his amazing work.
Sounds Like: An element of blues.
Record Label: Your Label - inquire here
Type of Label: None